DO NOT use the tags "sexy", "beautiful", "pretty", etc
These tags have been bothering me for a while. I finally got around to removing them (and some others, but for now we'll focus on these). Normally something like this would go in the stickied Tag Discussion thread HOWEVER I feel like the people who need to see this are the same type of people who would NEVER click on that thread, so that's why I'm posting this out here for once to maybe get some eyeballs on this important topic.
Why should I listen to YOU about this? HUH?
I'm a moderator with over 120,000 tag edits (on this booru at least, over 1 million edits on Rule34).
Subjective Tags and Why They’re Bad
"sexy", "beautiful", "pretty", etc are all bad because they're subjective tags, but what does that mean? A "subjective tag" is one that is based on personal opinion. Because it's based on personal opinion the tag doesn't mean the same thing to every user, thus the search results of that tag will be a jumbled mess that isn't useful to anyone. This is the core reason why "beautiful", "pretty", etc are bad tags.
As an example: A user that enjoys mature woman might tag an image of a granny as "beautiful" because, to that user, that is true. However, another user might look at that same image and be repulsed and think "she's not beautiful!" and remove the tag. Neither user is right or wrong per se, because it's a personal opinion. So the best option is to avoid the use of the tag completely. the tag is a bad tag.
Tagging a post as "beautiful" is almost like saying "this is appealing to me"...which we already have, because you can favorite posts you really like. So the end result of the tag is just kind of everyone's favorites mashed together, which...doesn't make a whole lot of sense because we all like different things.
But the “Sexy” Tag Had THOUSANDS of Entries…How Could It Be Wrong?
Well, the site isn't perfectly curated in the tagging department. The aliasing system doesn't work. So there's nothing that automatically stops bad tagging. If it did work then tags like "sexy" would be automatically discarded and you simply couldn't use them, but that system doesn't exist.
So it's really up to users like you and me to tag correctly, and newer users especially, who may not really fully grasp the concept of tagging (or even care to grasp it), are prone to tagging whatever comes to their mind at the time of uploading. So they just look at the image or video they're uploading and think "uh...hot...uh...sexy...errr...porn...ummm" and so that's why those tags are so prevalent despite being terrible tags.
So no, a tag having hundreds or even thousands of entries doesn't automatically mean it's a good tag (espeically because a single dedicated user can literally create a tag out of whole cloth and drive it to 100+ entries on their own). BIG NUMBER doesn't really mean much of anything.
Is It Just Those 3 Tags?
No...that's just the tip of the iceberg. Any tag you can think of to describe someone's overall looks like "cute","hot","beauty", "gorgeous", "delicious", "attractive", "stunning", etc (I could probably go on and on and on) should be avoided. Even "meme" tags like "dayum" or "baddie" are really just another way of saying "this person is hot" and shouldn't be used.
Before you use a tag you should always think "is this just my opinion, or does this describe something I can actually SEE in the image?" It's always better to TAG LESS (of course hit the 5-tag minimum every time!), but make sure each and every tag is correct and accurate than to spit out a bunch of garbage just to run up the tag count, and if you're unsure if a certain tag is good or not, you can always ask in the Tag Discussion thread here: realbooru.com/index.php?page=forum&s=view&id=6531
I think I will make another one of these down the road about "bitch", "slut", "whore", and why all those tags are stupid and useless, but that's for another day. Hopefully this helped someone out there understand tagging better.
Why should I listen to YOU about this? HUH?
I'm a moderator with over 120,000 tag edits (on this booru at least, over 1 million edits on Rule34).
Subjective Tags and Why They’re Bad
"sexy", "beautiful", "pretty", etc are all bad because they're subjective tags, but what does that mean? A "subjective tag" is one that is based on personal opinion. Because it's based on personal opinion the tag doesn't mean the same thing to every user, thus the search results of that tag will be a jumbled mess that isn't useful to anyone. This is the core reason why "beautiful", "pretty", etc are bad tags.
As an example: A user that enjoys mature woman might tag an image of a granny as "beautiful" because, to that user, that is true. However, another user might look at that same image and be repulsed and think "she's not beautiful!" and remove the tag. Neither user is right or wrong per se, because it's a personal opinion. So the best option is to avoid the use of the tag completely. the tag is a bad tag.
Tagging a post as "beautiful" is almost like saying "this is appealing to me"...which we already have, because you can favorite posts you really like. So the end result of the tag is just kind of everyone's favorites mashed together, which...doesn't make a whole lot of sense because we all like different things.
But the “Sexy” Tag Had THOUSANDS of Entries…How Could It Be Wrong?
Well, the site isn't perfectly curated in the tagging department. The aliasing system doesn't work. So there's nothing that automatically stops bad tagging. If it did work then tags like "sexy" would be automatically discarded and you simply couldn't use them, but that system doesn't exist.
So it's really up to users like you and me to tag correctly, and newer users especially, who may not really fully grasp the concept of tagging (or even care to grasp it), are prone to tagging whatever comes to their mind at the time of uploading. So they just look at the image or video they're uploading and think "uh...hot...uh...sexy...errr...porn...ummm" and so that's why those tags are so prevalent despite being terrible tags.
So no, a tag having hundreds or even thousands of entries doesn't automatically mean it's a good tag (espeically because a single dedicated user can literally create a tag out of whole cloth and drive it to 100+ entries on their own). BIG NUMBER doesn't really mean much of anything.
Is It Just Those 3 Tags?
No...that's just the tip of the iceberg. Any tag you can think of to describe someone's overall looks like "cute","hot","beauty", "gorgeous", "delicious", "attractive", "stunning", etc (I could probably go on and on and on) should be avoided. Even "meme" tags like "dayum" or "baddie" are really just another way of saying "this person is hot" and shouldn't be used.
Before you use a tag you should always think "is this just my opinion, or does this describe something I can actually SEE in the image?" It's always better to TAG LESS (of course hit the 5-tag minimum every time!), but make sure each and every tag is correct and accurate than to spit out a bunch of garbage just to run up the tag count, and if you're unsure if a certain tag is good or not, you can always ask in the Tag Discussion thread here: realbooru.com/index.php?page=forum&s=view&id=6531
I think I will make another one of these down the road about "bitch", "slut", "whore", and why all those tags are stupid and useless, but that's for another day. Hopefully this helped someone out there understand tagging better.