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e621 Upload Policy (and a brief infodump about tags <3)
a year ago
General
I got very kindly asked whether or not I was okay with having my art uploaded to e621. I am! And in fact, I've even written up a profile on the site now! (https://e621.net/users/2027158) :3
I don't think of e621 as an artist site. I don't think it's a place where I would make a gallery that I can curate and control. Posts need to be approved, so I'd be constantly worried about quality, and the site is generally set up in a way that makes it clear that I wouldn't be building my own community - the site is a separate furry community that I can look at and interact with. So I pawbably am not going to be proactive about uploading my own artwork. But, if you're part of that community on e621, you can upload my art.
..with just a few caveats (sorry X3)
❤❤❤
The first big caveat is that I'd like you to get pawmission from either me or from a commissioner before you upload directly commissioned artwork. Commissioners can of course upload art to e621 (and any other site), and as long as the piece isn't tagged as "Young", they can ignore pretty much any other rule I come up with for my own art. So if they're OK with you uploading a piece, go for it. You don't need to ask my pawmission and you only need to follow their tagging rules (aside from not adding "Young" tags).
Similarly, I also retain rights to upload commissions I do to other websites, so if I directly give you pawmission to upload a commissioned piece, you're welcome to do so.
❤❤❤
For non-commissioned artwork, I don't need you to ask pawmission as long as you follow the below rules.
Most of them revolve around tagging. e621 uses (well, pretends to use) a "Tag What You See" system. If you've followed me on more casual social networks like Mastodon or Bluesky, I make no secret of the fact that I think e621's tagging system kind of.. well.. sucks? Sorry, I don't want to be mean about it, I just don't think it's very good or well-thought-out >w<
The idea behind TWYS is that a picture should be tagged based on the visible elements of the picture, independent of any additional context. Again, it's.. well, I've written about my opinions on how that works multiple times in the past. But the short version is, TWYS is not the system I use when I write tags for Aryion, Inkbunny, or Itaku. I use what I would call a "Tag What is Useful" system.
"Tag What is Useful" means that I tag based on which tags provide the best information about the picture, make it easiest to search for, and make it easiest to filter (on sites that support filtering). If I'm trying to decide whether or not to include a tag, I don't ask whether or not its visibly represented or whether it's subjective, I ask whether the tag provides context or information about the picture and whether the average floof would want the tag to be added. Basically, I don't ask whether a tag technically fits based on an arbitrary criteria, I ask what benefit or drawback there is to adding the tag.
I'm not intending to get into a debate about e621's tagging policies, and for the most part the difference in tagging philosophy is fine, even though I do think TWYS makes e621 harder to use and makes it less useful as an archival site. But there are a few areas where TWYS can be a larger problem:
Artwork by me on e621 should not be tagged as "young"
I'm pretty explicit about the fact that my artwork only features adults even in vore artwork that is SFW and wouldn't be out of place on any children's show. This is not some kind of moral crusade, it's a way for me to avoid unnecessary drama. I don't want to have a debate about what vore counts as SFW or sexual, or what the context is of a character, or any of these issues. And I upload to multiple galleries that have policies against underage characters, and I don't want one of those galleries to think a character is underage because of another site's lax tagging standards. The point is that incorrectly tagging a piece that I draw as "young" risks damaging my reputation as an artist and risks opening me up to harassment or abuse on other platforms. Because of that, I take a really hard stance on this. Regardless of what the reasoning is or what e621 says that the tag implies or doesn't imply, if a piece on e621 that I've drawn is tagged as "Young", I'll first try to remove the tag, and if that fails, I'll issue a takedown request for that piece. This is my policy regardless of whether the piece was uploaded with permission of a commissioner or by me. It's just a way of keeping myself safe as an artist.
Everything else below, commissioners can ignore. You may upload your pieces anywhere with any tags. <3
But for pawsonal artwork that I draw:
Characters I draw should not be misgendered
e621 rather famously requires characters to be tagged as male or female based on subjective criteria and/or the presence of genitalia - regardless of context and even if text and actions visible within the picture state the character's correct gender. After considerable backlash, the site added transgender tags, insultingly labeled as "lore". The lore category is pretty much only used for transgender tags and incest, despite the fact that contextual information is used for many other tags on the site - making it clear that lore tags were only added to ease the controversy and that they're not part of e621's broader tagging policy. e621's stance is that sex/gender tags are not misgendering, they're simply describing what gender a character "appears" to have. My policy is that I'm not calling e621's gender tags transphobic, I'm simply pointing out that they "appear" to be transphobic to the average visitor, and that they "appear" to be misgendering characters, and that the wiki can say whatever it wants about e621's intentions, but the wiki is just lore. I'm just describing what I see X3
You may upload artwork that I draw with transgender characters to e621, BUT those characters may not be misgendered (ie, a trans male character should not be labeled as "female"). If they are misgendered, I'll issue takedown requests for that artwork. In practice, if e621's rules about gender tagging are enforced, that means you won't be able to upload personal artwork that I draw that includes transgender characters because there is no way to avoid having those characters misgendered. Most notably, that would include Sam and Vicky from the Forest and Max the Eevee.
But if e621 ever bends on its tagging rules for gender/sex, or if you find a way around the problem - I want to be clear that my rule here is not that you can't upload transgender characters. You can upload those characters.. as long as they are not misgendered.
Ask me about custom content warnings (if you can't tag a piece with a CW that it needs)
The final consequence of TWYS is that some pieces that need to be tagged with certain content warnings like fatal vore, digestion, scat, or rape can't have those tags applied because those outcomes are only obvious from the character context, description, accompanying story, or in other pages within a comic. There are two outcomes of not being able to tag those pieces correctly - the first is that the piece gets shown to a lot of critters who would like to be able to filter it and can't. This clutters up feeds and annoys potential clients or fans who's first experience with my art is now negative. The second directly follows; those pieces will get mass downvoted because there is nothing else that floofs can do to get it out of their feeds. It's silly for me to be bothered by that, but I am a silly fox.
Basically I'm talking about a situation where users on e621 want a tag applied to the piece, but due to the site rules, that tag can't be applied.
If you think that a piece you are uploading is going to fall into this category, let me know, and I will either upload (or send you to upload) a custom version of the piece at a higher resolution than my normal exports that includes visual content warnings along the bottom of the piece that are compatible with TWYS. That way, you get to upload a higher-resolution picture than normal, users on the site get proper tags applied that allow them to filter, I don't have to watch a piece get excessively downvoted or irrationally worry that a bunch of users hate me as an artist now, and best of all no site rules are broken.
❤❤❤
I realize it would be simpler for me to set up a Conditional DNP flag or handle uploads myself, but I want to try and give as much freedom as pawsible about e621 because I do think the site is a useful outreach tool, and I'm happy for my artwork to show up in multiple places - especially inside communities that I'm not a part of. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to sit down and type up a list of policies, and I am really grateful both that critters reached out to ask me about it, and that they've like some of my art enough to upload it. It really does mean a lot <3
I don't think of e621 as an artist site. I don't think it's a place where I would make a gallery that I can curate and control. Posts need to be approved, so I'd be constantly worried about quality, and the site is generally set up in a way that makes it clear that I wouldn't be building my own community - the site is a separate furry community that I can look at and interact with. So I pawbably am not going to be proactive about uploading my own artwork. But, if you're part of that community on e621, you can upload my art.
..with just a few caveats (sorry X3)
❤❤❤
The first big caveat is that I'd like you to get pawmission from either me or from a commissioner before you upload directly commissioned artwork. Commissioners can of course upload art to e621 (and any other site), and as long as the piece isn't tagged as "Young", they can ignore pretty much any other rule I come up with for my own art. So if they're OK with you uploading a piece, go for it. You don't need to ask my pawmission and you only need to follow their tagging rules (aside from not adding "Young" tags).
Similarly, I also retain rights to upload commissions I do to other websites, so if I directly give you pawmission to upload a commissioned piece, you're welcome to do so.
❤❤❤
For non-commissioned artwork, I don't need you to ask pawmission as long as you follow the below rules.
Most of them revolve around tagging. e621 uses (well, pretends to use) a "Tag What You See" system. If you've followed me on more casual social networks like Mastodon or Bluesky, I make no secret of the fact that I think e621's tagging system kind of.. well.. sucks? Sorry, I don't want to be mean about it, I just don't think it's very good or well-thought-out >w<
The idea behind TWYS is that a picture should be tagged based on the visible elements of the picture, independent of any additional context. Again, it's.. well, I've written about my opinions on how that works multiple times in the past. But the short version is, TWYS is not the system I use when I write tags for Aryion, Inkbunny, or Itaku. I use what I would call a "Tag What is Useful" system.
"Tag What is Useful" means that I tag based on which tags provide the best information about the picture, make it easiest to search for, and make it easiest to filter (on sites that support filtering). If I'm trying to decide whether or not to include a tag, I don't ask whether or not its visibly represented or whether it's subjective, I ask whether the tag provides context or information about the picture and whether the average floof would want the tag to be added. Basically, I don't ask whether a tag technically fits based on an arbitrary criteria, I ask what benefit or drawback there is to adding the tag.
I'm not intending to get into a debate about e621's tagging policies, and for the most part the difference in tagging philosophy is fine, even though I do think TWYS makes e621 harder to use and makes it less useful as an archival site. But there are a few areas where TWYS can be a larger problem:
Artwork by me on e621 should not be tagged as "young"
I'm pretty explicit about the fact that my artwork only features adults even in vore artwork that is SFW and wouldn't be out of place on any children's show. This is not some kind of moral crusade, it's a way for me to avoid unnecessary drama. I don't want to have a debate about what vore counts as SFW or sexual, or what the context is of a character, or any of these issues. And I upload to multiple galleries that have policies against underage characters, and I don't want one of those galleries to think a character is underage because of another site's lax tagging standards. The point is that incorrectly tagging a piece that I draw as "young" risks damaging my reputation as an artist and risks opening me up to harassment or abuse on other platforms. Because of that, I take a really hard stance on this. Regardless of what the reasoning is or what e621 says that the tag implies or doesn't imply, if a piece on e621 that I've drawn is tagged as "Young", I'll first try to remove the tag, and if that fails, I'll issue a takedown request for that piece. This is my policy regardless of whether the piece was uploaded with permission of a commissioner or by me. It's just a way of keeping myself safe as an artist.
Everything else below, commissioners can ignore. You may upload your pieces anywhere with any tags. <3
But for pawsonal artwork that I draw:
Characters I draw should not be misgendered
e621 rather famously requires characters to be tagged as male or female based on subjective criteria and/or the presence of genitalia - regardless of context and even if text and actions visible within the picture state the character's correct gender. After considerable backlash, the site added transgender tags, insultingly labeled as "lore". The lore category is pretty much only used for transgender tags and incest, despite the fact that contextual information is used for many other tags on the site - making it clear that lore tags were only added to ease the controversy and that they're not part of e621's broader tagging policy. e621's stance is that sex/gender tags are not misgendering, they're simply describing what gender a character "appears" to have. My policy is that I'm not calling e621's gender tags transphobic, I'm simply pointing out that they "appear" to be transphobic to the average visitor, and that they "appear" to be misgendering characters, and that the wiki can say whatever it wants about e621's intentions, but the wiki is just lore. I'm just describing what I see X3
You may upload artwork that I draw with transgender characters to e621, BUT those characters may not be misgendered (ie, a trans male character should not be labeled as "female"). If they are misgendered, I'll issue takedown requests for that artwork. In practice, if e621's rules about gender tagging are enforced, that means you won't be able to upload personal artwork that I draw that includes transgender characters because there is no way to avoid having those characters misgendered. Most notably, that would include Sam and Vicky from the Forest and Max the Eevee.
But if e621 ever bends on its tagging rules for gender/sex, or if you find a way around the problem - I want to be clear that my rule here is not that you can't upload transgender characters. You can upload those characters.. as long as they are not misgendered.
Ask me about custom content warnings (if you can't tag a piece with a CW that it needs)
The final consequence of TWYS is that some pieces that need to be tagged with certain content warnings like fatal vore, digestion, scat, or rape can't have those tags applied because those outcomes are only obvious from the character context, description, accompanying story, or in other pages within a comic. There are two outcomes of not being able to tag those pieces correctly - the first is that the piece gets shown to a lot of critters who would like to be able to filter it and can't. This clutters up feeds and annoys potential clients or fans who's first experience with my art is now negative. The second directly follows; those pieces will get mass downvoted because there is nothing else that floofs can do to get it out of their feeds. It's silly for me to be bothered by that, but I am a silly fox.
Basically I'm talking about a situation where users on e621 want a tag applied to the piece, but due to the site rules, that tag can't be applied.
If you think that a piece you are uploading is going to fall into this category, let me know, and I will either upload (or send you to upload) a custom version of the piece at a higher resolution than my normal exports that includes visual content warnings along the bottom of the piece that are compatible with TWYS. That way, you get to upload a higher-resolution picture than normal, users on the site get proper tags applied that allow them to filter, I don't have to watch a piece get excessively downvoted or irrationally worry that a bunch of users hate me as an artist now, and best of all no site rules are broken.
❤❤❤
I realize it would be simpler for me to set up a Conditional DNP flag or handle uploads myself, but I want to try and give as much freedom as pawsible about e621 because I do think the site is a useful outreach tool, and I'm happy for my artwork to show up in multiple places - especially inside communities that I'm not a part of. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to sit down and type up a list of policies, and I am really grateful both that critters reached out to ask me about it, and that they've like some of my art enough to upload it. It really does mean a lot <3
and i'll easily go as far as saying the tagging systems on e621 or rule34 or whatever are 100% transphobic
But it is definitely an option I'll look at if it becomes a problem; thanks for the info! <3