Tags

documentationeditingguidelinestagsvocadb

Introduction

Tags are free-form metadata that can be added to all entry types (Artists, Albums, Songs, …). Tags allow users to link entries together by any sensible properties they can come up with. Tags can be edited more freely than other fields and some of them may even be considered subjective. Therefore tags are based on voting. Tag votes are visible and removable to trusted users and above.

Tags are constructed by a hierarchy system: Tags are displayed as a tree structure, with the “parent” at the top and the children and siblings at the bottom.

Tagging entries

In most cases child tags should describe a subset of the parent tag. Adding Anime tag on an entry already tagged with Sailor Moon is redundant. This doesn’t impact the searchability, as the search can be performed with “Include child tags” -filter.

  • There are cases where the subset relationship isn’t as clear. Genre tags for example utilize the tag hierarchy for historical and stylistic origins.

  • Additionally, fusion tags such as folk metal are neither subsets of metal or folk music. For tags with multiple separate parent tag candidates, pick the one that makes the most sense.

Tags shouldn’t be used blindly - always read the tag description in unclear cases.

Generally, you should avoid tagging information that is already provided by more specialized fields. For example, tagging albums or songs with artist names is redundant because the artists list already handles this better. Likewise, tagging cover songs with “cover” is useless if the song type is already cover.

Adding tag votes to objective tags is redundant, unless there is a need to “highlight” the tag. By default, entry pages display four most voted tags before clicking “Show all”.

Creating and editing tags

Every tag should reflect some well-defined concept. Avoid overly specific tags that only apply to one or two entries.

Generally tags should not be created or used for tracking visual details.

All tags require description and a tag category. Additionally, it’s recommended to locate a fitting tag parent and/or related tags. If tags have the same parent tag, specifying them as related tags is redundant.

Tag description should describe the tag concept in clear English language. For normal tags, skip generic usage instructions such as “tag for albums/artist/songs…“. Use “Valid for” -restrictions instead.

Including external links to objective sources such as wikipedia are recommended.

Naming tags

Use common English language rules for casing. For example, Final Fantasy (proper noun) vs. progressive rock. Abbreviations such as “RPG” should also be written in capital letters.

Many tags are language-neutral, meaning that they’re not tied to any particular language. Examples of such tags are genres (such as rock) and themes (such as summer). For these tags, the non-English name should be translated to Japanese for practical reasons.

It is not required (or recommended) to add romanizations for the tags. Exceptions to this are tags such as sakura, that are simple, well-known, and more searchable with the romanization.

Unlike with other entry types, tag aliases do not need to be “real” aliases of the primary name. Tag that is used for multiple similar purposes can include multiple distinct “aliases”:

T/9493/teeth includes:

  • toothbrush
  • toothpaste
  • tooth fairy

This improves tag searchability and avoids “duplicate” tags that are conceptually very similar.

Tag purposes

All tags should have at least one purpose:

  • Discovery: Tag is used for discovering related entries (all genre tags for example).

  • Search: Tag is used for searching or locating something already familiar (animated PV for example).

  • Statistical: Tag is used for calculating different statistics (western producer for example).

  • Informatory: Tag is used to convey information that doesn’t fit into the entry (entry missing artists for example).

Tag categories

VocaDB has specific tag categories listed and explained below.

They are the highest hierarchy in the tag system and every tag must be attached to one.

  • Ideally tags in the same category share the same tag usage rules.

  • Ideally tags belong to only one category.

Genres

Tags that represent a musical genre.

  • Obscure genre tags should be avoided.
  • Genre tags that are hard to tell apart, and are inconsistently used by artists, should be merged in most cases.

Animation

Tags that describe the song video.

Again, avoid creating tags for tracking purely visual details.

Common exceptions:

Copyrights

Tags related to any sort of intellectual property (IP).

Copyright tags can be created for a few reasons:

  • A) Official: IP utilizes voice synth music within the product (anime/game/etc).
  • B) Official: IP utilizes voice synth music to promote the product.
  • C) Unofficial: (Original) fansongs inspired by the IP (Parody songs, Image songs, etc).
  • D) Unofficial: Derived (remix/cover) songs of official IP music.

Avoid creating tags for C and D if the number of relevant song entries is less than 5.

Distribution

Tags related to the album/song distribution.

Editor notes

(Temporary) tags to convey common meta-information related to the entry.

Event

Tags that better fit as tag entries instead of event entries.

Games

The category is for video games that utilize predominantly “found” soundtracks; that is, pre-existing music that was ported into the game.

Games with new-song soundtracks should be under the Copyrights category instead.

Instruments

Tags that describe the musical instrument.

Jobs

Tags to use as secondary artist types. For example, an artist entry tagged with lyricist conveys that the artist collaborated in another song in the lyricist-role.

Languages

[Deprecated]. Use the relevant language fields instead.

Lyrics

Tags related to lyrics such as changed lyrics, no lyrics, etc.

Media

Album media types such as Blu-ray, vinyl, etc.

Series

Tags are one way of representing song series.

Song lists may also be used.

Sources

Information relating to a song’s origin, for example, that it was produced in FL Studio or that it was an artist’s first work.

Subjective

Subjective theme tags.

Themes

Tags that convey the theme of the song/album.

Vocalists

Tags that convey additional information about (synth) vocalists.

Song lists vs Tags

Trusted users are able to create public songlists called pools. Pools can be used for largely the same purpose as tags, grouping songs together based on some common theme. There are a few differences between tags and songlists.

  • Pools are listed on the featured songlists page.
  • Pools are not voted on, unlike tags. All pools are equal.
  • Only trusted users are able to edit pools. Any user can vote on tags. Thus tags are easier to use, but also more unreliable.
  • Pools may contain only songs. Tags can be applied to albums and artists as well.
  • Songs in a pool can be ordered. Songs with a specified tag are unordered.
  • You can add notes to songs in a pool.
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