Here on e621 we already have a tag for better_version_at_source, indicating that the image on e621 is not the best version available, since there is a better version not on e621.

However, there are also some cases where e621 has multiple versions of an image posted. Consider these:

post #3410928 post #3508354 post #3223704 post #3337554 post #4055303 post #4176410 post #2099354 post #2129766

For each of these pairs, the one on the left is arguably a "worse" version than the one on the right. The left image is an incomplete monochrome version of the artwork. I understand why e621 doesn't want to delete these, because some people may want to see the incomplete art, or prefer monochrome art, etc.

I'm wondering if we should have a meta tag for this, perhaps "better_version_on_e621", which marks these images as such. This way, users can blacklist "better_version_on_e621" if they only want to see the highest quality version available of a given artwork. Note that blacklisting monochrome does not fulfill the same purpose, because I do not want to exclude images which are only monochrome and have no color version available, I only want to exclude an image from e621 searches when it's an easy call for being inferior to another image on e621.

That would be...a bit niche? I was opening the thread thinking of a very specific artists uploading only the better version on e621 than in their other profiles lol.

Also there are very few artists that I think their lineart or grayscale version are inferior to their colored one (sorry, there are some who don't know how to color it well welp) so it's pretty subjective what is the "best" version of an art, just because it's colored or finished that doesn't mean it's the most valued one, still me digressing won't help with your problem wanting to filter "grayscale version of an art that has a colored one", maybe a tag that's named "multiple colored version" or something? That's why I like to parent grayscale and sketch versions with their colored ones so you could filter "grayscale art that is a child of a colored art" or something lol.

notknow said:
That would be...a bit niche? I was opening the thread thinking of a very specific artists uploading only the better version on e621 than in their other profiles lol.

Also there are very few artists that I think their lineart or grayscale version are inferior to their colored one (sorry, there are some who don't know how to color it well welp) so it's pretty subjective what is the "best" version of an art, just because it's colored or finished that doesn't mean it's the most valued one, still me digressing won't help with your problem wanting to filter "grayscale version of an art that has a colored one", maybe a tag that's named "multiple colored version" or something? That's why I like to parent grayscale and sketch versions with their colored ones so you could filter "grayscale art that is a child of a colored art" or something lol.

Blacklist does not cover the parent or child metatags
Also we technically have colored the converse of the tag OP wants

aaronfranke said:
Here on e621 we already have a tag for better_version_at_source, indicating that the image on e621 is not the best version available, since there is a better version not on e621.

However, there are also some cases where e621 has multiple versions of an image posted. Consider these:

For each of these pairs, the one on the left is arguably a "worse" version than the one on the right. The left image is an incomplete monochrome version of the artwork. I understand why e621 doesn't want to delete these, because some people may want to see the incomplete art, or prefer monochrome art, etc.

I'm wondering if we should have a meta tag for this, perhaps "better_version_on_e621", which marks these images as such. This way, users can blacklist "better_version_on_e621" if they only want to see the highest quality version available of a given artwork. Note that blacklisting monochrome does not fulfill the same purpose, because I do not want to exclude images which are only monochrome and have no color version available, I only want to exclude an image from e621 searches when it's an easy call for being inferior to another image on e621.

"Better" as used on e621 either refers to having a higher quality, being uncensored, or not being a hard translation. (or atleast being good as a hard translation) What you're describing here is different and far more subjective. You even state in your post that some people prefer these versions.

notknow said:
That would be...a bit niche? I was opening the thread thinking of a very specific artists uploading only the better version on e621 than in their other profiles lol.

We already have smaller_version_at_source for that use case.

anicebee said:
"Better" as used on e621 either refers to having a higher quality, being uncensored, or not being a hard translation. (or atleast being good as a hard translation) What you're describing here is different and far more subjective. You even state in your post that some people prefer these versions.

Yes, which is why e621 doesn't delete the sketches. We can think of alternative tags, though. What about more_finished_version_on_e621 or colored_version_on_e621 or unfinished_art or monochrome_version or similar? The point is that if there are multiple versions of an artwork, I only want to see the "most finished" version. Note that I am trying to make this as objective as possible, which is hard given that the idea is already being called subjective.

aaronfranke said:
We already have smaller_version_at_source for that use case.

Yes, which is why e621 doesn't delete the sketches. We can think of alternative tags, though. What about more_finished_version_on_e621 or colored_version_on_e621 or unfinished_art or monochrome_version or similar? The point is that if there are multiple versions of an artwork, I only want to see the "most finished" version. Note that I am trying to make this as objective as possible, which is hard given that the idea is already being called subjective.

We have unfinished.

anicebee said:
We have unfinished.

That's pretty good, but the problem is that this tag can also apply for images that are unfinished but don't have another more finished version uploaded, so excluding this tag would exclude the artwork entirely, as opposed to what I want which is to exclude only the unfinished version of an artwork when a finished version is available so that I don't have 2 of the same artwork at different stages of completion in the search results.

aaronfranke said:
That's pretty good, but the problem is that this tag can also apply for images that are unfinished but don't have another more finished version uploaded, so excluding this tag would exclude the artwork entirely, as opposed to what I want which is to exclude only the unfinished version of an artwork when a finished version is available so that I don't have 2 of the same artwork at different stages of completion in the search results.

We don't need tags to indicate the state of an image compared to another image elsewhere on the site, IMO. Not only would such tags be flaky, depending on whether some other image is here at the time that has no baring on what's in the image being posted, they can also be easy to miss (sometimes a completed or colored version of a sketch can be done months or years after the fact) and go out of date (if the other version(s) of an image get removed at any time after another is posted).