I know that this kinda thing can't be standardized; but as a general reference, what is a good number of times of a character appearing before we create a tag for them? My thought was like 4-6, but iunno.
(Edit):I've realized now that I've accidentally split this initial question into multiple similar but different questions. Here's my attempt to list said sub-questions:

• What defines a 'character' as opposed to a 'generic furry'
• What to tag a unnamed character
• whether that's a artist's character, a background character in media, a 'joke' character, or a non-reoccurring character in a ad
• Identifing ambiguous characters
• Figuring out a character's owner easily, (if they have one)
• Tagging currently unidentified characters

Etc...
(May add more to this list when I think of them)

Friends~End said:
I know that this kinda thing can't be standardized; but as a general reference, what is a good number of times of a character appearing before we create a tag for them? My thought was like 4-6, but iunno.

The first time the character is shown. It is a valid tag, and valid tags are wanted on images...

Siral_Exan said:
The first time the character is shown. It is a valid tag, and valid tags are wanted on images...

While it is a valid tag, it can be hard to tell if they are reoccurring character or some one-off who will soon disappear into the void, never to be heard from again. Tagging insignificant one-offs is a waste of time and data space.
Plus, some reoccurring characters don't have proper/'canon' names, and some one-offs do have a mentioned name.
Plusplus, it can be hard to tell who a recent reoccurring character belongs to if the artist has not given that information in the source. Waiting for them to appear more can give us more information on them and who they belong to.

Friends~End said:
While it is a valid tag, it can be hard to tell if they are reoccurring character or some one-off who will soon disappear into the void, never to be heard from again. Tagging insignificant one-offs is a waste of time and data space.
Plus, some reoccurring characters don't have proper/'canon' names, and some one-offs do have a mentioned name.
Plusplus, it can be hard to tell who a recent reoccurring character belongs to if the artist has not given that information in the source. Waiting for them to appear more can give us more information on them and who they belong to.

Do you have an example of any of this?

With all of those statements, you can easily provide a link so someone can judge...

It doesn't matter if they disappear, and there is absolutely no reason to point out "data space"; if the character doesn't have a name, then take note of their appearance (I use favorite folders because I use mobile) so when it gets released, you can name them; and it shouldn't be hard to source them to a character owner. I even went as far as asking the artist for the commissioner, and they provided it without hesitation because I explained I was making the character tag.

There's no problem with tagging a named character who appears only once.

Like Siral said - the first time. I do wish uploaders would check more often.

It takes a bit of digging around if the character name isn't included in the source somewhere (description field, title, tags, etc.). But if it's a direct source (commissioner/artist gallery), it doesn't take that long to check if it's an established character.

The more organized commissioners' user pages have ref sheets included either on their profile info or as a featured submission. If it isn't there, check their galleries/journals. This is where a bit of effort starts to come into play.

If you still can't find anything, ask the artist/commissioner. Yes - you'll have to communicate with another human being. Ideally, they've already been contacted about having their art uploaded on e621 and would be happy to help tag their characters.

Friends~End said:
Tagging insignificant one-offs is a waste of time and data space.

Data space for tags is not an issue.

Doomguy666 said:
Do you have an example of any of this?

I have the one that made me think of the question
post #1073833 post #1071981 post #1071980 post #1071979 post #1071977
This is Patch, she's appeared in five posts so far, but is not tagged with anything other than fox and fan_character; but from both artists descriptions I don't think she is either of theirs; but she is a character.
Do we leave it as is, or create a tag.

Yes, make the tag.

You'll have to use patch_(owner) or something similar, since there are other characters named Patch.

Knotty_Curls said:
Yes, make the tag.

You'll have to use patch_(owner) or something similar, since there are other characters named Patch.

Yes, I'm planning to, but I don't know who is the owner.

Friends~End said:
This is Patch

post #357384

https://e621.net/comment/show/2963505

Friends~End said:
Yes, I'm planning to, but I don't know who is the owner.

Oh hey, interesting to see my posts in the forum.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the owner is ask-jigsaw, not sure if they go by another alias. For the time being, I guess patch_(ask-jigsaw) could be used.

Here's some more images of the character, in case you're interested in uploading them:
http://ask-jigsaw.tumblr.com/post/153191033179/patch-houston-grey-fox-artist-graffiti-menace
http://ask-jigsaw.tumblr.com/post/153191198219/batch-2-of-the-patch-posting-reaction-image

Friends~End said:
I have the one that made me think of the question
post #1073833 post #1071981 post #1071980 post #1071979 post #1071977
This is Patch, she's appeared in five posts so far, but is not tagged with anything other than fox and fan_character; but from both artists descriptions I don't think she is either of theirs; but she is a character.
Do we leave it as is, or create a tag.

How do you know her name if she doesn't belong to either artist? Just curious.

Knotty_Curls said:
Data space for tags is not an issue.

Maybe a poor choice of words; I'm more referring to "not cluttering the database" with extraneous tags

Knotty_Curls said:
Like Siral said - the first time. I do wish uploaders would check more often.

It takes a bit of digging around if the character name isn't included in the source somewhere (description field, title, tags, etc.). But if it's a direct source (commissioner/artist gallery), it doesn't take that long to check if it's an established character.

The more organized commissioners' user pages have ref sheets included either on their profile info or as a featured submission. If it isn't there, check their galleries/journals. This is where a bit of effort starts to come into play.

If you still can't find anything, ask the artist/commissioner. Yes - you'll have to communicate with another human being. Ideally, they've already been contacted about having their art uploaded on e621 and would be happy to help tag their characters.

All of this. I'm actually bummed a bit that so few bothers tagging the characters unless they are some super popular ones which has thousands of posts already. In my eyes it's almost as important as artist tag and you do tag artist even if it's the first post with that artist tag.

Also bit bummed how there are characters which have been drawn for multiple times, but artist simply have chosen to not name them, making tagging them much harder..

Actually, digging around in general is really good thing. Even if you can't find name to the character, you can usually find secondary sources to put on post and larger resolution/alternative versions. Especially if speaking about FA, many artists let the site handle downscaling of the image, where commissioner might've uploaded it to inkbunny where the site doesn't downscale submission itself and allows multiple images on same post. Or maybe you can even find massive red letters of "DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE OR I'LL KILL YOU" which will save your life from getting dead by murder.

The artist could also be the owner.

JAKXXX3 said:
Oh hey, interesting to see my posts in the forum.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the owner is ask-jigsaw, not sure if they go by another alias. For the time being, I guess patch_(ask-jigsaw) could be used.

Here's some more images of the character, in case you're interested in uploading them:
http://ask-jigsaw.tumblr.com/post/153191033179/patch-houston-grey-fox-artist-graffiti-menace
http://ask-jigsaw.tumblr.com/post/153191198219/batch-2-of-the-patch-posting-reaction-image

Thank you for the information! Actually, the first one of those gives needed information, instead of patch_(ask-jigsaw) we should do her full name: Patch_Houston; and instead of just fox, it should be Grey_Fox.

Doomguy666 said:
How do you know her name if she doesn't belong to either artist? Just curious.

post #1071980 says:

Patch is an interesting OC. Kudos.

And, apparently, they do belong to one of them, ask-jigsaw.

Munkelzahn said:
post #357384

While the similarities are striking, they are, at least as far as I know, different characters.

Friends~End said:
Thank you for the information! Actually, the first one of those gives needed information,instead of patch_(ask-jigsaw) we should do her full name: Patch_Houston; and instead of just fox, it should be Grey_Fox.

OK, I just updated the above five posts to include Patch_Houston and grey_fox. You can upload the other tumblr posts from ask-jigsaw if you want.

Mario69 said:
In my eyes it's almost as important as artist tag and you do tag artist even if it's the first post with that artist tag.

Tagging artists is giving credit, but characters are concepts and can be further changed and fleshed out.
(Edit): there is the unknown_artist tag, maybe there should be a unknown_charater tag as well?

Also bit bummed how there are characters which have been drawn for multiple times, but artist simply have chosen to not name them, making tagging them much harder..

Again, they are a concept, and the creator of said concepts chooses how much and how little information about them there is; such as a name.

Actually, digging around in general is really good thing. Even if you can't find name to the character, you can usually find secondary sources to put on post and larger resolution/alternative versions. Especially if speaking about FA, many artists let the site handle downscaling of the image, where commissioner might've uploaded it to inkbunny where the site doesn't downscale submission itself and allows multiple images on same post. Or maybe you can even find massive red letters of "DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE OR I'LL KILL YOU" which will save your life from getting dead by murder.

True, better resolutions and not being dead is nice.

Mario69 said:
All of this. I'm actually bummed a bit that so few bother tagging the characters unless they are some super popular ones which has thousands of posts already.

I'm not saying we don't tag a character until they have X hundred posts; rather, more into the classification of a 'character' on this site: when they stop being 'generic furry', and start being a 'character'.

Siral_Exan said:
It doesn't matter if they disappear, and there is absolutely no reason to point out "data space";

forum #216527

if the character doesn't have a name, then take note of their appearance (I use favorite folders because I use mobile) so when it gets released, you can name them;

When what gets released?, I don't understand.

and it shouldn't be hard to source them to a character owner.

It can be though, most of the time due to lack of description or confusing tumblr formats.

Lance_Armstrong said:
There's no problem with tagging a named character who appears only once.

Good to know.

JAKXXX3 said:
OK, I just updated the above five posts to include Patch_Houston and grey_fox. You can upload the other tumblr posts from ask-jigsaw if you want.

I think I might, in a bit; I wan't to continue talking about this question for a bit, as it has been bothering me for awhile.
(Edit): I have.

Tagging is meant to facilitate searching. If you have a post you like, you can click on the artist or position or character and find related posts. So if the character shows up more than once, I tag it.

Knotty_Curls said:
Like Siral said - the first time. I do wish uploaders would check more often.

It takes a bit of digging around if the character name isn't included in the source somewhere (description field, title, tags, etc.). But if it's a direct source (commissioner/artist gallery), it doesn't take that long to check if it's an established character.

If it's a sketch or an art lacking color, it can be hard to spot at a distance the same character in a gallery. Plus, galleries can be eons long; and not everyone has the time; so, at what point do we put in the extra digging to tag them?

The more organized commissioners' user pages have ref sheets included either on their profile info or as a featured submission. If it isn't there, check their galleries/journals. This is where a bit of effort starts to come into play.

If you still can't find anything, ask the artist/commissioner. Yes - you'll have to communicate with another human being. Ideally, they've already been contacted about having their art uploaded on e621 and would be happy to help tag their characters.

That works for 'furry created characters'; but not really for 'media created characters'. If there is fanart of a unnamed background character, or a character from a one-off commercial, what do?

Friends~End said:
forum #216527

When what gets released?, I don't understand.

It can be though, most of the time due to lack of description or confusing tumblr formats.

Yes, I saw; it refers to basic details like the name, but is useful to include (obviously) the character owner, ref sheets, details like original gender or preferred intersex term (mind you, TWYS is in full effect still), etc..

That is Tumblr for you. It has always been a shitty site for sources because of how it is organized, the freedom given for making tags there (which is always a double edged feature, you need to know the character to find it, and said character may not be appropriately tagged because, say, someone else uploaded instead or the artist didn't tag the character for some reason), and (my personal hated) people love to take the direct image and ignore sourcing it to the post, which makes reverse searching harder.

*consistent editing because of frozen fingers...*

Knotty_Curls said:
The artist could also be the owner.

In most cases yes, but not all, and telling the difference can be hard sometimes.

leomole said:
Tagging is meant to facilitate searching. If you have a post you like, you can click on the artist or position or character and find related posts. So if the character shows up more than once, I tag it.

But what do you, personally, do when they lack a name?

Friends~End said:
That works for 'furry created characters'; but not really for 'media created characters'. If there is fanart of a unnamed background character, or a character from a one-off commercial, what do?

I'm already using nameless_character for that (e.g. post #1070404), although sometimes I'm more generous with "fan names" (e.g. manmosu marimo's stuff). Also using it for nameless OCs that are drawn in multiple images, but maybe I should split it.

Personally I start putting tags at around 3-4 pictures (because if there's only one use of the tag, it can sometimes be very hard to tell which character is even being tagged to begin with!)

Nearly all user-created characters on FA will have a name. For a media character, I would start with snow_leopard_reporter_(zootopia) for example and see if a name is revealed later.

Here's an an example I found of a named 'throw-away' character: post #924485. The rainbow headed guy's name is "Craig", but after this "Craig" is never seen again.

Yeah, new character tags can be created by anyone without discussion. If they have a name, go ahead and tag it. Even if there's only one post for now, the character might get drawn again.

Just be sure that you actually make it a character tag; there's far too many characters among general tags, I have to fix those all the time.

And if it's a common name, add their surname or some other way to disambiguate it, such as *_(<artist>) or *_(<copyright>).

I didn't go through the trouble of putting my username on my character tags because I wasn't sure about their relevance. Now that I know, I'll go back and add them properly.