tl;dr: Tag What You See rule has been updated to allow for more leniency when tagging character names. See the updated rule here]For those who are unaware, there has been a lot of discussion and complaints recently regarding the very strict nature of our "Tag What You See" rule, which states (with very few exceptions) that the tags that are added to a post MUST be directly verifiable within the post itself, and that external (off-site) sources of information about the post can NOT be used.While this rule helps keep tagging clean and relevant on e621, it also leaves some room for disagreements over what exactly IS contained within a post. Example: post #318662. Under our current TWYS rule, this post would not receive the character tag "rainbow_dash" because there's nothing differentiating this character from any other human character with rainbow hair. However, the artist clearly intended for it to be a humanized Rainbow Dash, as evidenced by the source of the image and the artist's own claims at that source. This very often leads to heated disagreements between users, and has lead to artists requesting the removal of artwork from the site as well (usually also including posts where there were no tagging disagreements at all). Although we realize that it will be impossible to completely avoid such disagreements and takedowns, we really need to do something to try to minimize them at this point.As a result, effective immediately, we are amending the TWYS rule to try to account for these cases. The change is small but important, and is worded in such a way as to keep as much integrity for "Tag What You See" as we can while also allowing "common sense" when tagging characters.For reference, the old TWYS rule read as follows:

Tags should be directly verifiable from the picture itself wherever possible: that way there will be fewer disagreements. The only outside information that can be used to tag a post is the year the art was made and the artist or obvious character's name.

The updated TWYS rule reads as follows:

Tags should be directly verifiable from the picture itself wherever possible: that way there will be fewer disagreements. The only outside information that can be used to tag a post is the year the art was made and the artist or obvious character's name.

Exception for character names only:
You may use an OFFICIAL external source of information (the artist, commissioner, or character owner's gallery/website) when tagging a character name ONLY under the following conditions:

• 1) The external source of information is the artist, commissioner, or character owner's own words on their own gallery or website.

• 2) The post must have at least SOME evidence of the claimed character and can not have any evidence that CONFLICTS with what the external source is saying (e.g. a post can't be tagged "Character A" just because the external source says so, when the post does not actually contain any evidence of "Character A", or in fact looks more like "Character B" instead.) Again, there must be at least SOME evidence that the character is who it's claimed to be, but it does not have to be definitive proof.

This special exception to TWYS is ONLY for naming characters. YOU CAN NOT USE EXTERNAL INFORMATION to tag gender, species, or virtually anything else.

There will be times when it's still not clear what tags should be applied to an image. A moderator or administrator should be contacted to help resolve such cases.

For those who missed some of the discussions regarding this proposed rule change, please reference the discussion thread here: http://e621.net/forum/show/66521

No, I don't expect everyone to be happy with this decision, but the issue has reached a boiling point on the site, and thus requires administrative attention. For those who have been so adamant about following the site's TWYS rule to the letter, I ask that you please try to exhibit the same determination and resilience with adhering to and enforcing the updated TWYS rule. :)

And no, this obviously is not going to solve all of our tagging problems. It's a change meant to address one very specific tagging issue, but we'll still need to handle things on a case-by-case basis. We're just hoping that the number of those cases is going to decrease (or at least be settled much easier) with this updated rule, while also having character tagging make more sense instead of being "blissfully ignorant" at times.

As always, your feedback is welcome below, as well as questions or concerns.