Topic: brand tags

If an image contains a product made specifically by one brand, should the brand be included in the tags? For example: if an image contains a shirt with a Nike logo, Nike would be tagged because their logo is on the shirt. However, if a shirt with a specific design was made exclusively by Nike but didn't have their logo, should Nike be tagged? My question stems from tagging specific names of firearms on images, and I was wondering if I should also request aliases for gun to manufacturer.

protox3alt said:
If an image contains a product made specifically by one brand, should the brand be included in the tags? For example: if an image contains a shirt with a Nike logo, Nike would be tagged because their logo is on the shirt. However, if a shirt with a specific design was made exclusively by Nike but didn't have their logo, should Nike be tagged?

It really depends whether or not it could be easily identified.

• If the design is too obscure for the average user to identify, then you should probably not tag it with the brand name.
• If the design is merely unlabelled but distinctly identifiable, then you can probably tag it with the brand name (e.g., three stripes on a pair of sneakers).
• If the design went through greeking/product displacement, then you can probably tag it with the brand name (e.g., an unlabelled red-and-white striped can of soda, a bottle of Koka-Kola).

My question stems from tagging specific names of firearms on images, and I was wondering if I should also request aliases for gun to manufacturer.

It's a special case for firearms since they can be made by multiple different manufacturers or straight up copied and rebranded (e.g., the large variants of AR and AK rifles), so it would be a bad idea to guess or assume the brand when it's unlabelled.

If you want to tag the specific names of the guns, just tag the base model (e.g., desert_eagle) and not the specific model (e.g., desert_eagle_mark_xix).
There currently seems to be a concern with overspecific tagging when it comes to firearms, see the votes on topic #54971, topic #54972, & topic #54973.

As for aliasing it to be manufacturer, that's a terrible idea since we would be removing easily-identifiable gun tags (e.g., m2_browning) in favour of a generic manufacturer tag (e.g., Fabrique_Nationale_Herstal? General_Dynamics?).
Not to mention, there could be multiple manufacturers as I have mentioned before. The same issue goes for implying it to manufacturers (which I assume is what you actually meant).

thegreatwolfgang said:
It really depends whether or not it could be easily identified.

• If the design is too obscure for the average user to identify, then you should probably not tag it with the brand name.
• If the design is merely unlabelled but distinctly identifiable, then you can probably tag it with the brand name (e.g., three stripes on a pair of sneakers).
• If the design went through greeking/product displacement, then you can probably tag it with the brand name (e.g., an unlabelled red-and-white striped can of soda, a bottle of Koka-Kola).

Thank you very much! I was definitely confused with how I would tag things that aren't labeled directly with the brand name, but this helped a lot.

It's a special case for firearms since they can be made by multiple different manufacturers or straight up copied and rebranded (e.g., the large variants of AR and AK rifles), so it would be a bad idea to guess or assume the brand when it's unlabelled.

If you want to tag the specific names of the guns, just tag the base model (e.g., desert_eagle) and not the specific model (e.g., desert_eagle_mark_xix).
There currently seems to be a concern with overspecific tagging when it comes to firearms, see the votes on topic #54971, topic #54972, & topic #54973.

Just to clarify, when tagging future images with gun tags, I should only tag the base and not be super specific, even if the image explicitly states it is more specific? Like tagging MP5 instead of MP5a3? (Edit: Yeah, I see what you mean with over specific tagging on the firearms. Tagging / implying brands can definitely become too much too fast, unless the logo is there or something. But base models are fine right? Like there would be different tags for something like the AKM and AK103, or would they both just go to AK47?)

As for aliasing it to be manufacturer, that's a terrible idea since we would be removing easily-identifiable gun tags (e.g., m2_browning) in favour of a generic manufacturer tag (e.g., Fabrique_Nationale_Herstal? General_Dynamics?).
Not to mention, there could be multiple manufacturers as I have mentioned before. The same issue goes for implying it to manufacturers (which I assume is what you actually meant).

Yeah sorry, I did mean imply. Like you said, with different manufacturers tagging the designer might not work, but I was thinking like "tag what you see" and assumed anyone searching for any images with guns designed by HK would want to see every HK416, MP5, etc.

protox3alt said:
Just to clarify, when tagging future images with gun tags, I should only tag the base and not be super specific, even if the image explicitly states it is more specific? Like tagging MP5 instead of MP5a3? (Edit: Yeah, I see what you mean with over specific tagging on the firearms. Tagging / implying brands can definitely become too much too fast, unless the logo is there or something. But base models are fine right? Like there would be different tags for something like the AKM and AK103, or would they both just go to AK47?)

The truth is we don't know how fast overtagging can be an issue and we are trying to err on the side of caution when handling these tags.

You can tag the base models (e.g., m16, mp5) as well as any variants that are distinctly different from the base model (e.g., m4, mp5k).
However, I would be wary when it comes to tagging the specific variant that is not too different from their base model (e.g., m16a1, m4a1, mp5a3, etc.) and for any copies/clones with very obscure differences (e.g., ak-47 vs. type_56) that most people would have trouble distinguishing between.

This is not to say you can't try to tag this in-depth since it is not specially against the rules.
However, just know that things may change in the future that could see these obscure variants be aliased to the base model for simplicity sake.

Yeah sorry, I did mean imply. Like you said, with different manufacturers tagging the designer might not work, but I was thinking like "tag what you see" and assumed anyone searching for any images with guns designed by HK would want to see every HK416, MP5, etc.

Tag What You See only strictly applies to general tags (i.e., the gun tags) while the copyright tags (i.e., the manufacturers) are not completely restricted by TWYS.
The latter can be used more liberally outside the bounds of TWYS, but within reasonable expectations.

You can probably tag Heckler_&_Koch on guns that they exclusively produce (e.g., mp5), but not for every post since some may feature an unofficial/fictional clone or lookalike of the gun.
On the other hand, it would be hard to attach a manufacturer tag on something so massively produced by other brands (e.g., m1911), so I would avoid those for now.