e621:post relationships (locked)

Posts can have two types of relationships: parent and child. This is used to link together two variations of the same or similar post.

Examples often include

  • A sketch and the finished piece
  • An original and a gender swapped image
  • Different versions of the same flash

To make a child/parent relationship

Giving a post a child/parent can be done in one of two ways.

Parent Box Method

First, find the image that will be the parent. This is usually the bigger, finished version. Copy it's ID number. This can be found in it's statistics and in the URL. Next, find the image that will be the child and click edit. Paste the parent's ID number into the "parent post" box and hit save changes.

Tag Edit Method

Find either the parent or the child post you want to link. In the tag editing box, type out child:12345 (for example) to make the current post a parent of the post you just entered (in this case post #12345) This also works conversely, in that entering parent:2345 will make the current post a child of post #2345.

Flag for Deletion

If you flag a post for deletion on the grounds of it being an outdated or inferior version of another post, please link the two. Make the older or outdated post the child. The reason we do this is that if the post is deleted, the parent post will inherent the child post's favorite list and transfer the new post in it's place.

Parent/Child Organization

Basic Principles

1. Do not parent comic pages together unless the comic has only two posts. Use our pool feature instead.
2. Use the same parent post for every child post.

Daisy-chaining:

A -> B, B -> C, C -> D

Do not chain posts together into a daisy chain. Either parent all child posts to Post A or use a pool.

Branching parent schemes:

A -> B, B -> C, B -> D, C -> E, C -> F , E -> G

Do not make complex, branching parent schemes. Use a pool instead. These schemes are difficult to understand and navigate. Additionally, viewers are likely to miss content that is outside the path they chose first, or they will need to return to posts they've already seen and double-check for missed child posts. We want to simplify content navigation.

Redundant parents within pools

Avoid parenting within the same pool. If a parent scheme was set up first and those posts are later pooled, clear the parents from the pool.

Some pools have multiple groups of posts that would normally be parented. Organizing these collections for the most sensible and pleasant viewing experience can be difficult. The best choice is often to pool everything, parent nothing, and use basic ordering schemes.