Aliasing dragoneer -> dragoneer_(character).

Reason: What is this I don't even.

There is a difference between them. Dragoneer is an artist, as well as the character.

We could tag his art with his actual name and alias the character to Dragoneer. Real names are preferred wherever possible, correct?

Uh... I could be wrong, but I think it depends on the artist. Some artists happily say "My name is John Smith!" all over the place, while some you'd have no idea that Jane Doe is them unless you looked up website registration, because she signs SandyHooves on everything. In these cases, John Smith with be, I think, the appropriate tag for one, while the other would be better tagged as SandyHooves, as no one will have a clue who Jane Doe is and her fans will say "no, this is SANDYHOOVES' art, retagging."

I could be wrong, of course.

SnowWolf said:
Uh... I could be wrong, but I think it depends on the artist. Some artists happily say "My name is John Smith!" all over the place, while some you'd have no idea that Jane Doe is them unless you looked up website registration, because she signs SandyHooves on everything. In these cases, John Smith with be, I think, the appropriate tag for one, while the other would be better tagged as SandyHooves, as no one will have a clue who Jane Doe is and her fans will say "no, this is SANDYHOOVES' art, retagging."

I could be wrong, of course.

Dragoneer's real name is Sean Piche.

SnowWolf said:
and her fans will say "no, this is SANDYHOOVES' art, retagging."

That'd be why artist aliases are used -- so that whichever name any given person knows will work.

Yes, but it's not clearly displayed in the tags.. therefore, bobfurry tags and retags and tags again... I dunno. it's not my board anyway... just going off of what I recall. Which could be wrong. :)

No worries Snow, an alias fixes that. one tag is converted into aliased tag

Fair enough :D So then, the real name IS the prefered tag, then? :)

I'd definitely like to get some more opinions regarding using artists' real names. I've had a couple of requests since I came on board for artist tag name changes because they didn't want their real names associated with their artwork.

Is there any reason why using an artist's real name is inherently more beneficial for everyone besides just using the artist's most well-known handle?

SnowWolf said:
So then, the real name IS the prefered tag, then? :)

That was the last administration's policy, yes.

The reasoning was that there is an almost zero chance of an artist legally changing their real name (where by contrast artists frequently go through several online names). By doing it this way, it's only needed to add a new alias to their real name if they change online name, whereas using their online names would require redirecting every previous alias to the most recent one each time they changed.

I don't remember where I got the idea; it might have been in the tag help page or the wiki. My understanding was that it was preferred because artists change their handles, but not their real name, making it easier to compile and track their work instead of switching to the new alias.

I know that I wouldn't feel comfortable throwing my real name out there, but there are allot of artists that do. Maybe we should only use real names when the artists themselves choose to identify themselves with it.

Fair enough. :) Personally, I don't feel comfy with *my* real name out there either... heck, snowwolf isn't even my "usual" screenname... but, the screenname i *do* draw under, I've used for-EVER... and while I do know some artists change screennames like some people change underwear... I know some of us are rather attached to what we are now and have no intention of changing who we've been for the last... 10 years :P ... I'd suggest some sort of 'fuzzy' rule about only aliasing to the real name if the artist has a history of name changing a lot, and otherwise using what they 'present' as. (for example, I'd have no clue who "Malcolm Earle" is, despite being a fan of Max Black Rabbit for nearly a decade... Compare to, say, Doug Winger.) .... but fuzzy rule is fuzzy, and fuzzy rules aren't very rule-like.

I'd prefer the common handle. Honestly.

Same.

tony311 said:
Same.