Tags
| Very important | This page is outdated and does not fully reflect the current state of AniDB; the entire article needs to be re-written, except for sections otherwise noted This comment was last edited by CDB-Man on 09.08.2016. |
Currently Active Policy
| Very important | This section contains ACTIVE policy, ie policy that is NOT out of date. This comment was last edited by CDB-Man on 09.08.2016. |
Tag Images
In general, tag images should prioritise functionality; they should clearly and unequivocally portray the concept being tagged, without also being overcrowded with other taggable concepts.
Images that excessively portray memes are highly discouraged for any tag relating to basic concepts being tagged (i.e., a large portion of the tags in the database). That being said, there are some tags that lend themselves to being memes; in such cases, a meme image is acceptable as long as it is not excessive.
In terms of technical aspects, tag images should follow these guidelines:
- Do not submit images with transparency.
- Images of .jpg format are preferred over .png, .gif, and .jpeg formats.
Guidance on Anime Categories
- Main article: Category:Anime Categories
Pages marked with [[Category:Anime Categories]] detail how tag weights should be applied for anime-level tags formerly known as Categories under the pre-2014 tag system.
"Generic" Entity Types
This was last updated by CDB-Man on 09.08.2016.
- All "generic" entity types should also be tagged their "specific" type. To provide an illustrative example:
- Kirito's SAO avatar would be tagged avatar (generic type entity) + human (specific type entity), as his avatar is a human type entity.
- Kitito's ALO Spriggan avatar would be tagged avatar (generic type entity) + fairy (specific type entity), as all ALO avatars are fairies in game. He could also further be tagged with Spriggan, if we were to create a franchise specific Spriggan tag that is a child tag of fairy (and we should).
- If the "secondary" type is unknown, then don't tag one; only tag the "generic" entity type. Example:
- If we have an NPC that is not a human, and we also don't know what it actually is (demon? god? ghost?), then only tag the generic entity type NPC.
A Guide for Colours and Colour Tags
Please see the following article for a guide on colours: Tags:Colours
Nationality Tags
In general, when a person is from a fictional nationality, the fictional nationality should be tagged, and only the fictional nationality. When a person is from a real world nationality, the real world nationality should be tagged, and only the real world nationality.
Anime can be set in the real world and therefore contain real world nationalities. It can be set in a fictional world and therefore contain fictional nationalities. It can also be set in a fictional world, but contain fictional nationalities based on real world ones. This policy provides guidance as to the possible scenarios and how characters should be tagged. This policy was discussed and confirmed here.
Case 1: Obvious Fictional Nationalities
Where possible, create tags for fictional nationalities. They should also be marked franchise specific.
Case 2: Obvious Real World Nationalties
Where the anime is set in the real world: tag the real world nationality. A large segment of anime would fall here, as many are just set in modern-day Japan.
Case 3: Fictional World Containing Obvious Real World Nationalities
Where the anime is:
- set in a fictional world,
- and contains real world nationalities (that which can be identified on a cursory look),
- and the nationality generally shares the characteristics of, and/or are generally indistinguishable from the real world nationalities (bar research on a "more than cursory" level),
Tag the real world nationality. A good example is Code Geass. It contains several real world nationalities, such as China, Japan (now Area 11), India, etc, along with fictional nationalities such as Britannia. China, Japan, and India are easily identified with a cursory look. The location is unmistakably the planet Earth, even though national borders have been redrawn
Case 4: Fictional World Containing Non-obvious Real World Nationalities
Where the anime is:
- set in a fictional world,
- and contains real world nationalities (that which can be identified on a cursory look),
- but the nationalities cannot be readily traced to real world nationalities (bar research on a "more than cursory" level),
The real world nationality should NOT be tagged. This is a theoretical possibility, but is the rarest case.
Case 5: Fictional World Containing Fictional Nationalites with the Hallmarks of Real World Nationalites
Where the anime is:
- set in a fictional world,
- and does NOT contain real world nationalities,
- but has the "hallmarks" of real-world nationalities,
The real world country should NOT be tagged. A good example of this is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (FMAB). The country of Xing has all the hallmarks of real world China. However, FMAB as a whole is clearly set in a fictional world. Xing, while having Chinese hallmarks, is clearly not a mirror of China; for example, its geography and political history are in no way similar to real world China.
| Very important | Everything below this section is potentially out of date. |
Adding your own Tags
In summary, you should consider the following:
- You need to define a parent tag, where does this new tag fall in the tag tree? For example, Tokyo is a location tag, that would have a parent tag of Japan .
- You need to block it from other categories where appropriate. For example, the Tokyo location tag should be blocked from Character, Creator, an Episode.
- You need to mark the tag verified in the category where it is staying; ie, check off the "verified" box in the anime column for the Tokyo tag.
- For anime tags, you need to consider if the tag should be a weighted tag, or a binary yes/no weightless tag. For example, location tags such as Tokyo have weights, as the weight reflects how much time the anime spends in that location.
Restricted Image Flag
The general guidance for setting the restricted flag on tag images is as follows:
- All NSFW images should be flagged restricted.
- All tags relating to 18+ material (i.e. "porn" and "hentai" tags) should be flagged restricted when an image is applied, regardless of whether that specific image is NSFW or not.
- For questionable/borderline NSFW pictures, err on the side of caution; apply a conservative position and lean towards assessing the image as NSFW.
- Notwithstanding the above, all tags without an image currently assigned should have the restricted flag not applied.
Tagname Rules
To ensure tag-naming consistency, please abide by these rules:
- Tag names are basically all lower case, just like they would be used in sentences with British English spelling, e.g.
- anything can be awesome, creepy Gothic architecture.
- Reminder: Countries / languages start with a capital 1st letter, i.e.
- Spain, French, Japanese.
- Abbreviations are kept all upper case, e.g.
- SMS, CG, OP, ED, 3D.
- Full sentences begin in upper case, just like any sentence would.
- Names as in movies or book titles use Book Title Capitalization, e.g.
- Blade Runner, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
- Japanese words are spelled all lower case, e.g.
- sakura, henshin, onii-chan.
Avoid:
- character names, voice actors, directors, fannames, etc.
- all upper-case tag names, e.g.
- FOOBAR -> foobar
- avoid excessive use of ! or ?, e.g.
- foobar!!! -> foobar!
Note Please try to be objective when creating tag names, e.g. "this show is crap" will certainly not help and be deleted.
Examples: great OP song, Japanese mythology, tsundere, engaged to an alien, Weekly Shounen Jump
Description
When adding a new tag name, please add a description text as well. This helps all the users out there understand why you defined the tag, and will make your tags all the more valuable and useful:
- Use British English (no fancy casing)!
- Try to describe the intent / meaning of your tag as clearly as possible.
- Use complete sentences, e.g. "Japanese for transformation (metamorphosis or disguise)."
- Please do not simply copy the tag name into the description field. This is redundant spam.
If you happen to see a tag without a description, feel free to add your own. Help make the anime tags more descriptive!
Note Tag maintainers are much more likely to delete an obscure tag that does not have a description.
Global Spoiler? / Local Spoiler?
A tag can very well be a huge spoiler. To avoid giving away information you can either check mark it as a global spoiler (tag name is always considered to be a spoiler) or as a local spoiler (tag name is only a giveaway for the current anime).
Data was verified
Not verified tags won't be shown anywhere except for the edit pages! Please mark tags verified as you update them.
Comment for Mod
When suggesting a tag name change, add a descriptive comment in the text box explaining your reasons.
Star-rating - the Weight system
The rating is used to show how relevant the used tag is for this anime. There are six levels starting with + (little) right up to *** (lots). As a rule of thumb, to be included at all, a tag must be relevant to more than one episode of a series.
A slightly sarcastic example based on Themes:Military:
Category Weight + There are some people in uniform in a few of the episodes. They're probably in the army or something. Oh, wait, maybe they're just police. Ah, no, it's cosplay. * Several characters are often addressed by rank rather than name. They have medals. Someone might even salute one of them, if you're lucky. *+ The anime concerns an organised armed force, and its members. Said body should have both the equipment and hierarchy found in military groups, and should ideally be actively utilising their power against an opponent. Characters are either employed as professional soldiers or enlisted on a volunteer basis, for ideological reasons. ** Main character joins an armed force, and gets the rank of private at least. They have to salute their superiors at least once per episode. If special, they might get some hardware to play with, but on the downside killing people may be involved. **+ Main character at least a sergeant. They go on missions, and probably blow shit up. One or more characters is introduced, only to be summarily dispatched, to show that war costs lives. Three salutes per episode, minimum. *** Main character no less than a colonel. The salutes flow thick and fast, too many to count, and medals shine from every chest. Most of the dialogue is the discussion of battle tactics - in fact, there's so much war, you just don't know where to look. One of the characters was in Nam. They still have nightmares.
How to interpret the weight of tags?
With the above example, if seems quite straight forward, i.e. just check the amount ("how often") of occurrences and derive a weight based on that. Alas things are not as simple as they seem. For some categories it makes more sense to be interpret them by the worst case, e.g. Violence is weighted by the most violent act in the anime, not by the amount of violence. A few other categories are pretty much an on/off switch, either they are applicable (vote: ***) or not at all, e.g.: Was the anime based on a Novel or wasn't it?
To better help distinguish between these three tag weight interpretations, colour-coded tag Weight info boxes have been placed at the top of each tag page / sub-page. Should a specific tag need to be interpreted differently another info box will point that out.
Tag Weight: "amount"
Categories should be interpreted by the amount of their occurrence:
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Tag Weight: "worst case"
Categories should be interpreted by the worst case seen in the anime:
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Tag Weight: "on/off"
Categories should either be set or not set at all:
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