howto:tag checklist

Tagging Checklist

Table of Contents

This checklist of tagging criteria has been prepared in order to give a comprehensive idea on things to look out for when tagging. The tagging criteria has been categorized by priority to bring attention to the more important tags.

For your easy reference, common tags, along with links to relevant tag groups have been provided.

As the checklist is quite long, please take it easy when familiarizing yourself with this list. Begin with the more important tags at Level 0 (and all sub-levels), and then work your way upwards.

About Tagging Priorities

Lower level tags are essential tags. Images lacking lower level tags are considered insufficient for efficient cataloging and searching.

Higher level tags are extra tags which describe the more intricate details of an image, but are more difficult to apply correctly, usually due to potential for debate, or a higher requirement of knowledge of otherwise obscure topics such as memes.

Note to taggers: Some parts of this checklist may be incomplete. Feel free to help out with expanding the checklist, however, if any part of this list grows too large, please inform the forums about creating a tag group. Remember to reference this tagging checklist!

Ignore, Do NOT Tag

Subjective tags that express opinions or subjective critique on images. Common examples are badass, cute, good, evil, moe, sexy and most other adjectives. A full list of known subjective tags may be found at Tag group:Subjective.

Subjective themes, such as misleading thumbnails or whether something is funny or sad, are also not to be tagged.

These are better done with Pools, or even multiple tags.
For a categorized, but by no means complete, list of pools, see pool groups.
The Infamous "Misleading Thumbnails" Pool is at pool #1229.

Examples

Subjective tags and themes best left as pools.

Very generic themes best left as multiple tags.

Note that these searches are possible from a basic Member account, with a two-tag search limit, even if a little browsing may be required.

Level 0: Basic Identification

All posts MUST have these tags, if possible. These tags are responsible for making Danbooru minimally searchable, and allow content filtering for viewers who do not like sexual content, or images with commonly blacklisted tags.

Identification
  • Artist (prefix with artist: when creating a new tag)
    • If the artist does not currently have a tag on Danbooru, consider creating a new one. If you don't know how to read their name to create a tag, consider asking in the forum topic Artist tagging help, where someone is likely to help you come up with a name for the tag.
  • Copyright (prefix with copyright: when creating a new tag)
  • Character (prefix with character: when creating a new tag)
    • Character lists from popular copyrights are available at tag groups, in the Characters section.
  • Source
  • original
    • Use this tag for illustrations that feature characters that are not related to any kind of copyright.
    • Frequently, these characters appear only in the one illustration, and will not have a name. In these cases, it isn't necessary to include character tags for them; the original tag is enough.
    • Sometimes, such a character may become recurring, limited to a single artist, or multiple artists on a very small scale. (In this case, they may have names. Most such named original characters can be found listed on the wiki page of the artist that created them.)
Classification

Let's keep Danbooru a spoiler-free community.

Basic Image Content

Level 0-i: Explicit

These are basic tags specific to explicit or graphic images.
Important Note: If any of these tags are applied to an image, consider setting the Rating to Questionable or Explicit, as it will often (but not always) be appropriate, and Danbooru does not automatically do it for you. See howto:rate for precise guidelines regarding ratings.

  • Graphic Content
    • guro (Important: commonly blacklisted tag)

Level 0-ii: Information and Requests

These tags indicate if additional information about an image, such as translations or artist commentaries are available.

Information Present
Requests

Level 0-iii: Technical Image Information and Source

These tags are to used to identify specifications of an image such as pixel size (dimensions), file sizes and types of sources.

Level 1: Composition and Foreground Graphic Details

These tags are used to identify things happening in the foreground. Adding these tags brings Danbooru to an acceptable level of searchability.

Level 2: Background Graphic Details and Artistic Errors

These tags identify things happening in the background. Adding these tags greatly enhance Danbooru's searchability, possibly to the level of professional image databases such as GettyImages.

Level 3: Additional Artistic Details, Canons and Memes

These tags are for those with an intimate knowledge of the images they are searching for, such as artistic techniques, celebrities and family relationships.

Level 4: Microscopic Details

These tags identify extremely minute details in the background, often missed by a glance. The importance of tagging these details may be under debate, as they can either make or break the searchability of our images depending on the situation.

  • Characters that appear far in the background
  • Characters which are only partially visible
  • Characters whose point of view is the subject of the image
Pitfalls

Please check if tags have been accidentally created, usually due to a spelling error or simply things like cultural differences between taggers. Such tags can be identified on the left side of a post's full view. If you see any tags with a count of exactly 1, those tags may have been accidentally created.

Different taggers may have different words to describe the same actions, objects and events. Familiarizing yourself with the tag groups is particularly important to find out which tags Danbooru uses. If you have any issues, it will be best to consult the forums.

See Also

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