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I've mentioned a lot of this stuff in previous threads, and I don't know that a lot of people are going to read this thread anyway, but what the heck; here are some suggestions that I'd like to give users who are interested in using image tags to make images on KYM easier to find.

First, use tags. This should be obvious if you're bothering to read this thread, but I'll say it anyway. An image that is not tagged, has no title, and isn't attached to an entry will probably never be found by anyone. While not every image goes with a specific entry, every image can potentially be described, so use tags.

Be thorough. I don't know how many people realize it, but searching for the tag ermahgerd won't give you images from the entry Ermahgerd that don't carry that tag, so I always tag with the name of the entry. If you know the names of the people/characters in the picture, add them as tags, and use their full name if applicable (see below). If there is a notable object, theme, or action in the picture, make a tag for that. If it's fan art, and you know the artist's name, it just seems polite to add it.

Be efficient. Fun fact: If you tag an image with "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" then people will get the image if they search for "My Little Pony", "Friendship is Magic", "Pony", "Magic", and even "friends" or "ITT". This is why tagging a full name is generally better, because if you add the tag "Justin Bieber", the tag "Bieber" becomes redundant, so don't bother. And if you're trying to decide whether an image of Misha should have the tag "Wahaha" or "Wahahaha", remember that the latter will pick up searches for the former. Although of course you should consider that an MLP image could probably also use the tag "MLP:FIM". Closely related:

Don't over-tag. I see a lot of picture taggers doing things like putting the tag "Know Your Meme" on photos. Really, this should only be a tag on an image that is actually about Know Your Meme, like this or this. Also, as I was discussing with RandomMan a while back, I put the tag "meme" on images that are talking about memes, not on images that are memes, because the latter category is 99% of the database. That's general, but in a more specific case, if you're tagging a picture of Zoidberg, then "Zoidberg" and "Futurama" are reasonable tags, but "Fry", "Leela", "Bender", and "Farnsworth" really should only be there if those characters actually appear, or at least are mentioned in the caption. Also, don't tag with your user name (unless it's your personal fan art, I guess, or a picture of you). Searches for "Brucker" turn up images that I uploaded anyway (under that username); it will do the same for you.

Is there anything that I missed?

ETA: See James' post below for advanced image searching tips.

What if putting an image into a category put automatic tags on the image that the article already had?

Be thorough. I don’t know how many people realize it, but searching for the tag ermahgerd won’t give you images from the entry Ermahgerd that don’t carry that tag, so I always tag with the name of the entry. If you know the names of the people/characters in the picture, add them as tags, and use their full name if applicable (see below). If there is a notable object, theme, or action in the picture, make a tag for that. If it’s fan art, and you know the artist’s name, it just seems polite to add it.

I'm questioning to what extent this is correct. If you for example search for "randomman for the plot", you'll find the images I uploaded to the "I Watch It For The Plot" entry.

Now I'll be honest here, but I suck at tagging, and when I want to fill up a new entry with images, I put priority in speed, and will stick to just sourcing which in turn results in damage to the tags. I'm not proud of this, but even the staff sucks at tagging at times, so I can say with certaincy that I'm not alone. Point in case, none of those images have any tag or title, yet they pop up when searching for that.

@Bat Pug:

That would be nice, but that's up to a higher power than me. If the name of the associated meme isn't automatically included, then including a bunch of other tags seems even farther off on the horizon.

@RandomMan:

It's minor, but compare this to this to see what I'm talking about. Or even this.

As for speed, I have an issue with the new tagging system. It used to be that when I was tagging Katawa Shoujo images, I had a text file with common tags, sometimes in groups, because for instance there are dozens of these:

…and I used to just cut-and-paste "Katawa Shoujo, Emi Ibarazaki, CSI 4pane comic" onto each one. For unknown reasons, the way the tagging system works now, you can't cut-and-paste more than one tag at a time, so I pretty much have to type them all out.

But yeah, I understand that when you're uploading a large number of files, (which I'm assuming is more common on a new entry that needs content) it's easier to not mess with tags. I'm not going to say everyone has to tag everything, because obviously it's not going to happen. I'm just suggesting some guidelines that I feel will make tagging more effective for those who are going to take the time to use it. (Even I don't tag everything; I just think I should.)

Images are automatically searchable by their entry name and uploader name so there's no reason to add tags for those. Searches will also look in image titles and notes and you can also add nsfw:true or nsfw:false.

Here are some sample searches:

matches james from anywhere (title, tags, notes, etc) and nsfw

james nsfw:true

matches james specifically from the uploader name and nsfw

uploader:james nsfw:true

Good tips, those are going to be very helpful.

What I'm saying is that searching on tags is different, and in some cases is sort off the default. If you were looking at the page for the above image, and clicked on the tag link for "CSI 4pane comics" on the side, you get this which is clearly far from complete. Sure, it's fixable, but why not just make it easy for people to find stuff?

I'll change tag links to just do plain searches instead of tag specific searches in order to increase the number of results.

Sounds good!