Tags
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.
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There are cases where the subset relationship isn’t as clear. Genre tags for example utilize the tag hierarchy for historical and stylistic origins.
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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.
Entries shouldn’t be tagged blindly - always verify 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”.
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.
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.
Copyrights
Tags related to any sort of intellectual property (IP).
Copyright tags tend to be made for a few reasons:
- A, because an IP utilizes Vocaloid music within its soundtrack;
- B, because an IP has commissioned related non-soundtrack Vocaloid songs;
- C, because others have created original Vocaloid fansongs for IPs; and
- D, because fans have covered official soundtrack or otherwise IP-related songs with Vocaloids. While the former three options should receive tags, the latter should only receive tags after a requisite number of songs (~5-10) have been archived on the database.
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.
Media
Album media types.
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.
- Animation “cat” tag: Song video (PV) features a cat.
- Theme “cat” tag: Song is about cats.
Vocalists
Tags that convey additional information about (synth) vocalists.