Hey there, e621 people.

So, I am a reasonably new user. I've been browsing this site for quite a while, but didn't really help it out yet (such as tagging images, uploading posts and creating/altering wiki's). I have a few text files with the first 10 pages of the most used tags and I usually edit some images their tags each day, but I also want to move on to more types of contributions to this site's usefulness, functionality and quality, regardless of their sizes. I'm getting more and more used to how this site works, but I'm still not very familiar with some of the more crucial and basic aspects of things.

The reason why I'm writing this forum is to ask you for some tips on posting images in general, like:

• What are some good sites you can get images from (preferably sites without an account required, but I'm open for anything)?
• What do you need to take into account before uploading (besides Avoid Posting)?
• Are there any things you can do to figure out if an image you want to upload isn't already uploaded (quick searches)?
• Are there things you are better off avoiding that are not listed?

Maybe there's a big article on how to do all these and I'm just wasting the forum's space, but then again, I'm new here, please be easy on me, I just need a little help around here. I want to avoid doing things the wrong way.

Responses on any of the listed things are greatly appreciated. Other tips and tricks are very welcome too.

This is my stratagem when I upload images. Feel free to implement it as you best see fit.

1. Make a Deviantart or Furaffinity or Pixiv account, especially if you intend to see and upload mature art.
2. Always upload the largest possible version of an image. If the artist has multiple accounts, look through them to find the largest image. For example, doomthewolf's art is at its largest size in his/her deviantart account.
3. Contact the artist at all times, especially if you intend to upload some or most of their art. Request their permission. For the most part, they'll appreciate the request, but don't be discouraged if they say no.
4. You don't have to save the image onto your hard drive to upload it. You just need the link. What I do is put in the direct link of the image itself, as well as the link to the image as it displays all of its information and commentary feedback.
5. In terms of tags, I go by year, artist, species, characters, gender, numbers, and aesthetics. It helps to know what tags imply to others. For example, all Pokémon species are already implied to Pokémon as copyright, alongside Nintendo and video_games.
6. If you have a shotty internet connection, copy ALL of the tags at all times, in case you find yourself refreshing or going back only to discover your 20+ tags are gone and you have to retype them.
7. The minimum is 4 tags, but it helps to put as many as you are able, and as accurately as you are able to as well.

GameManiac said:
This is my stratagem when I upload images. Feel free to implement it as you best see fit.

Phew, quite a ritual to get it all done, but I guess it's a thing of getting used to. Thanks for the reply.

http://iqdb.harry.lu/ is pretty useful at times.

Peekaboo said:
http://iqdb.harry.lu/ is pretty useful at times.

Ah, another core part of the machine, thank you.

Super handy guide for getting the maximum image size and quality (it's also pinned) https://e621.net/forum/show/169987

My best advice isn't on the details but meant more broadly:

Don't try to do too much at once.

Don't worry about trying to figure out all tags, just figure out a few really well and work on them. Once you don't have to think about them and where they apply, start learning more.

Don't try to find every image you can that's not up here all at once. Look for artists that already have stuff here, but there's still a good bit of their stuff missing and complete the collection. Find one or more artists you like that don't seem to have stuff here and ask if you can put it here.

It ends up being a snowball effect. Little by little you do more and more without ever realizing it.

That was my approach and I honestly never thought I was doing all that much until I got my latest promotion and really looked at my stats.

There's still plenty I don't touch and don't know, but I find that each new tiny bit I learn makes it easier to learn and do more.

Pick one artist or thing and upload only that. It is easier to keep track of it.

Lance_Armstrong said:
Pick one artist or thing and upload only that. It is easier to keep track of it.

This is what I do. I've only uploaded one artist's work, and I've mastered him. I learned all the quirks about what gets posted across a bunch of different accounts, which one has the best quality, and I just check and wait for new posts to upload.

One trick I did to not spill too much spaghetti all over the website is catalog all his stuff locally, save all the copies of the same picture I could find of it along with source info, image size info, and after I uploaded it, or if someone else uploaded it, a link to the e621 post, so I could keep track of what still needed uploading and not upload duplicates. I'd also write the tags in there, though it was better to just delete them after uploading since they'll quickly fall out of sync.

It was really overwhelming trying to go through a dozen pictures at a time to catalog and check them all, zooming in to make sure the bigger files were higher quality (though inkbunny screwed me on that one) etc. It's much less stressful waiting for new posts to arrive.

Hopefully I'll find a few more artists to latch on to in the future.

For tagging I made my own checklist structured in a way that helps me, and that I can add to as I figure out more obscure categories of tags, and also note down the most common tags I'd use for each different category, weird notes and stuff. Quickly checked it against the wiki's tagging checklist to make sure I wasn't missing anything major.

I'll usually just look for stuff that interests me and quickly look at the tags to see if I can add anything, or if I just end up on a page somehow, someone posts a link somewhere or whatever. If I notice a tag is wrong/missing on a post I never just fix that tag, but I'll go through my whole process to make sure my edit adds as much as possible. The real work of searching out badly tagged stuff, and making sweeping changes like adding a bunch of images I'm unsure about to a tag, or adding new tags, all scares me so much I don't even try it, no matter how many old forum posts and wiki pages I have to back me up.