Requested feature overview description.
I remember hearing that the site's design couldn't allow users to follow tags like in some other booru systems. This is a potential solution to that problem.

If you really think about it, a "followed tags" dashboard is just a standard search for an OR-separated list of tags, right? Rather than make a special system for handling followed tags, why not just make lists of tags that users can add to? Just pretend it's a custom dashboard, when in reality it's just a normal search with the list applied on a separate page.

Why would it be useful? There's currently no easy way to check the latest posts on a number of tags at once, short of making a bookmark to the search either in your browser or on your profile. This is a very obtuse workaround, and requires that you update the corresponding link every time you wish to change a search term.

If a link is all that needs to be saved, why make the user do it themselves when it can be handled site-side so much easier?

For me personally, I have so many artists I enjoy, and I want to see when they've posted new things. Currently, there's no way to do that save for compiling the search yourself each and every time, or saving one of each artist's pictures to a set so you have access to their artist tags in one place.

I only use this site on incognito mode, so bookmarks are not an option, and the current workaround of "save the links to your profile bio" I mean really? That's what we're going with as the official solution?

What part(s) of the site page(s) are affected?
My implementation would add a subsection under posts called Dashboard, which links to a search for the default tag set. This would be similar to how Philomena (AKA Derpibooru) handles it.

An optional inclusion would be multiple saved tag sets, similar to public and private image sets.

Regardless, it's just a list of tags that gets separated by OR (or ~) and searched, and presented as its own page.

As for adding tags to the set, I think that could be handled either in the profile or - since it's the closest thing to a "tag" page - in the "?* Wiki link for each tag. Something like "Add to tag set: <dropdown>".

Implementation Details.
Tags would be stored in lists, either of references to that tag's synchronized tag object (if tag names can change) or strings (if they can only get aliased. I'm not familiar.).
When the "dashboard" is selected, the list of tags would be OR-separated (which in current syntax would be prepending the ~ character) and translated to a standard search query.

I'm writing this on mobile right now, but I can provide further clarification and a mockup if desired.
Another thread referencing this: https://e621.net/forum_topics/24373

tsilb said:
If you really think about it, a "followed tags" dashboard is just a standard search for an OR-separated list of tags, right?

For me, a "followed tags" feature should be for showing posts that newly receive the tag, not just new posts with the tag. So if I'm following a tag like kemono, and there's a post that didn't originally have the tag but someone adds it a week or year later when they see it missing, such a system should make me aware of that post since I hadn't seen it. This would be important for many of the more obscure tags that don't often get added when posted, but even some common tags can be missing for days or weeks after an image is posted.

tsilb said:
Rather than make a special system for handling followed tags, why not just make lists of tags that users can add to? Just pretend it's a custom dashboard, when in reality it's just a normal search with the list applied on a separate page.

Users can already do that with putting a search in their profile, or making a bookmark in their web browser, and get the same result. You can even make as many different sets of tags that you want that way, instead of however many a system like this would be limited to.

watsit said:
showing posts that newly receive the tag, not just new posts with the tag

From what I can gather, that is impossible with the current infrastructure of this site. I was attempting to offer an alternative that has been shown by the Philomena booru system to be a highly praised quality-of-life feature.

watsit said:
Users can already do that with putting a search in their profile, or making a bookmark in their web browser, and get the same result. You can even make as many different sets of tags that you want that way, instead of however many a system like this would be limited to.

Why are the only official options "put a link in your profile bio" - in a public-facing place that, while unused by most users, is essential for artists or people who care about that sort of thing - or put a bookmark to a porn site in your web browser? I get that you're used to it, but take a step back and think about how obtuse that is.

If the profile bio is the official stance, then at the very least there needs to be a private notes section specifically for things like that, since repurposing your BIO is one of the oldest and most unnecessarily-difficult workarounds in the book.

tsilb said:
If the profile bio is the official stance, then at the very least there needs to be a private notes section specifically for things like that, since repurposing your BIO is one of the oldest and most unnecessarily-difficult workarounds in the book.

Although it isn't specifically to make notes, you can use private sets descriptions for that.

sieghelm_lockayer said:
Although it isn't specifically to make notes, you can use private sets descriptions for that.

Thanks, I didn't know that. I will say though, that's somehow worse lol

bump

I realize this is a necro, but with people moving to only posting here (and Twitter, which is absolutely horribad for both posting art and following artists period) with the wake of the FurAffinity changes (@insomniacovrlrd in particular comes to mind), something like this is now more important than ever.

I guess it might not hurt to mention re621 has a similar feature that's probably close to or exactly what you're looking for.

Subscriptions
Do you have a lot of pools that you want to keep a track of? Would you like to receive updates on specific forum threads? Or do you just want to get notified of the new images of your favorite artist / tag?

Well, if that's the case, then the Subscriptions Manager module is for you. Now, you can get automatic notifications on all of these without having to keep track of specific pages.

I primarily use it to follow single tags that I can sub to directly from the sidebar. Too lazy to investigate if you can add multi-tag queries. I have mine set to update on a six-hour minimum basis which usually provides me with a good gathering of content I would otherwise search manually for or find in an otherwise more general search.

Actually, as we speak, an update went through and processed 515 tags in about 20 seconds. Normally I'll let this happen automatically in the background as I search through my specific tag groupings first before moving on to my subscribed tags.

If jumping from artist-based tagging that FA is to e6's tag community-sourced tagging was the agricultural revolution, re621 is the industrial revolution.

Comes with other features which I would suggest checking out, but the subscriptions were the biggest draw for me. It has highly optimized my experience.

mrnotsosafeforwork said:
I realize this is a necro, but with people moving to only posting here (and Twitter, which is absolutely horribad for both posting art and following artists period) with the wake of the FurAffinity changes (@insomniacovrlrd in particular comes to mind), something like this is now more important than ever.

I highly suspect that e621 will just be a placeholder for their archived (i.e. soon to be deleted if not already on FA) art, and they will go on to something like Baraag or other not-FA communities for actual daily/routine use. Only reason so many mentioned or recommended InkBunny was because they're staunchly anti-censorship.

It's not really a necro if the topic is relevant again, BTW.

mdf said:
I guess it might not hurt to mention re621 has a similar feature that's probably close to or exactly what you're looking for.

I primarily use it to follow single tags that I can sub to directly from the sidebar. Too lazy to investigate if you can add multi-tag queries. I have mine set to update on a six-hour minimum basis which usually provides me with a good gathering of content I would otherwise search manually for or find in an otherwise more general search.

Actually, as we speak, an update went through and processed 515 tags in about 20 seconds. Normally I'll let this happen automatically in the background as I search through my specific tag groupings first before moving on to my subscribed tags.

If jumping from artist-based tagging that FA is to e6's tag community-sourced tagging was the agricultural revolution, re621 is the industrial revolution.

Comes with other features which I would suggest checking out, but the subscriptions were the biggest draw for me. It has highly optimized my experience.

Yeah, non-browser tools that interact with web sites is the future that started with the whole WebDAV workarounds from back in the day. Too bad Oath is such a pain, and now we have many other aggressive user-hostile technologies making it harder. I guess pushback from the people creating said browser 'experiences' is to be expected, regardless of things like profit. People have their personal projects being ignored - won't someone think of the goalposts?! :P

watsit said:
For me, a "followed tags" feature should be for showing posts that newly receive the tag, not just new posts with the tag.

tsilb said:
From what I can gather, that is impossible with the current infrastructure of this site.

Necroposting a bit here, but this is very much possible. post versions can be searched with search[tags_added], which will do exactly that. Mind you, this isn't as near as versatile as searching for posts in general as you can't use the OR syntax within this to limit your requests. You'd need a request for every tag, as each tag used is always used as an AND.