tag what you see (locked)
Regardless of what you know from outside sources, only tag what you can see in the image.
Also, make sure you check out e621:Tag What You See (Explained) for the reasoning behind the TWYS policy.
Unlike many other art sites, e621 has a tagging policy called "Tag What You See", or TWYS for short.
TWYS states that all General category tags on a post must be directly evident from within the post itself. TWYS applies only to visual elements within a post, such as objects, characters, and the actions taken by characters that are visible. Audio content is not tagged, except in the Meta category.
For example, a solo picture of a character who appears male must be tagged male.
That remains true even if the artist or the character owner themselves state that the character is not male, or if text within the image states that the character is not male. These tags refer strictly to a character's outward appearance and nothing more.
This policy exists to make search results more predictable and objective.
Note that you can use Lore tags to describe the stated genders of the characters, rather than the visible ones.
Tags in other categories are not entirely subject to the Tag What You See principle:
- Tags in the Lore category are meant to convey the artist's intentions or other background information that cannot be reliably determined via TWYS, such as gender identity or familial relations.
- Tags in the Character and Species categories are partially dependent upon TWYS: that is, external information can be used to help identify what character or species is supposed to be depicted in the post in cases where it isn't obvious, but it cannot actively conflict with what is seen in the post. For example, you can tag character a if the artist claims that a disembodied hand in the post belongs to character a, unless the hand looks nothing like character a and instead looks exactly like it belongs to character b. In that case, TWYS overrides the artist's word.
- Tags in other categories are valid if the information that they convey is objectively true, such as the artist's name, the image's aspect ratio, or the IP holder of the characters in the post. For WebM and Flash posts, audio-related tags may be included in the Meta category, but only to the extent of describing the presence and type of audio in the post (see the sound article for more information).
There will be times when it's still not clear what tags should be applied to an image. An administrator should be contacted to help resolve such cases.
Leeway may be given to hybrid characters, as the components of the species by which they are comprised are not always obvious.
Note: tag_what_you_see is not a tag to be used. If a post is contains this tag, please remove it.