Why are so many Candy, Dixie, and Tiny Kong images tagged with "monkey"? None of them have tails (unless an artist just fucks up and adds a tail, but officially they have no tails). Also, Nintendo defines their species as "kongs"...meaning they are probably the same species as Donkey Kong, and he is a gorilla. So I figure they are all gorillas or chimps or some other type of ape, but not monkeys. The only kong that we know is legit a monkey is Diddy, because he has a tail and Nintendo straight up said he was modeled after a spider monkey, but I figure the rest must be some type of ape and thus should not have the "monkey" tag.

So is there something I'm missing? I actually am working on tags for rule34.xxx, but I figure with a question like this I should come to e621 to ask about it. So what do you guys think?

Short reason is:

most people probably think monkey is synonymous with primate

Cause they obviusly look like monkeys ? "They are ugly anyway. :D

First of all, having a tail is not a defining characteristic of a monkey. There are monkeys without tails, though that's not highly common.

Furthermore, it's worth mentioning that for the term "monkey" to have any true taxonomic significance, it would actually include apes - thus, gorillas would be monkeys (as would humans). As it stands, when the term "monkey" is used to exclude apes, it is a paraphyletic grouping. Though, of course, I understand that's not how e621 tags things, the point here is that these aren't clearly delineated groups, especially for fictional species.

Anyway, with all that in mind, I'm not sure how they should be tagged, but just keep in mind that you cannot simply say "tail = monkey, no tail = ape". The issue is more complex than that.

Clawdragons said:
As it stands, when the term "monkey" is used to exclude apes, it is a paraphyletic grouping. Though, of course, I understand that's not how e621 tags things, the point here is that these aren't clearly delineated groups, especially for fictional species.

Anyway, with all that in mind, I'm not sure how they should be tagged, but just keep in mind that you cannot simply say "tail = monkey, no tail = ape". The issue is more complex than that.

Actually, that is how E621 works. Tag what you see: If it looks like a primate with a tail, it's a monkey. If it looks like a primate without a tail, it's an ape. "Primate" is our grouping tag.

reminds me of a song I heard on boomerang channel on TV

Furrin_Gok said:
Actually, that is how E621 works. Tag what you see: If it looks like a primate with a tail, it's a monkey. If it looks like a primate without a tail, it's an ape. "Primate" is our grouping tag.

That same principle can apply to MLP species tags.

Just because we know that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are winged unicorns, that doesn't mean that every single image depicts them as such. They may not have wings, they may not have horn, or neither. Depends on the artist and the amount of coverage the character has on the image.

I should point out that the ape/monkey distinction is, as far as I know, a weird quirk mostly unique to english. In most languages only one term existed, and another was artificially created later on (e.g. French singes, grand singes, Danish halvabe, abe, German Affen is used for simians and all subgroups have technical names...).

Furrin_Gok said:
Actually, that is how E621 works. Tag what you see: If it looks like a primate with a tail, it's a monkey. If it looks like a primate without a tail, it's an ape. "Primate" is our grouping tag.

For the record, what I was saying was that I know e621 doesn't stick strictly to taxonomy. But I didn't know that the policy was tail = monkey. A sensible policy, for tagging purposes, at least.

We all have a little monkey inside of us!

memeboy said:
reminds me of a song I heard on boomerang channel on TV

The Magilla Gorilla song? Yep that's where I first learned of the distinction LOL.

Qmannn said:
To answer Dyrone's question, I'd label them as chimpanzees

Yeah, to my reckoning I'd say that Dixie and Tiny are chimps, they kind of have to be the same species cause they're sisters. Candy seems a bit bigger and might just be a very curvy gorilla though.

what I don't understand is why the fuss over it
it's just a label on something you enjoy (if you do) so I mean, what's the big deal?

Niceee said:
what I don't understand is why the fuss over it
it's just a label on something you enjoy (if you do) so I mean, what's the big deal?

Blacklists or watchlists are much more difficult if the thing you're (un)interested in isn't tagged when appropriate.