Tags are a great way to make content more discoverable. Below are our general rules/guidelines.

1. When submitting tags, we use the comma , as the divider. We do not use the hash tag sign #
2. Tags should be of main features of the content. Small, barely visible parts of the image should not be tagged
3. Tags that are generic should use () to make them more specific.
   1. For example, the tag Isaac would be considered too generic. There are many Issacs.
   2. Isaac (The Orville) would be a better tag.
4. Generally speaking, tags at Alpha Coders are singular, not pluralized
   1. flower not flowers
   2. cat not cats
   3. building not buildings
5. We avoid duplicating the category, subcategory and the tag. So if the content is into the Video Game category, please do not use the Video Game tag as well - it's just a bit overly redundant. The same applies to the sub category. If you put content in a 'Cat' subcategory, please leave out the tag 'cat'.
6. Tagging all of the fictional characters in a collage is not OK. Keep it to a main featured character, or leave blank.
7. Tagging all the parts of the body on a tiger, or every piece of clothing on a character, is not OK.
8. Tags should be in English
9. Please do not use multiple tags that are synonyms of each other. An example of this would be tagging something cute,adorable,lovable,etc.

As a general rule, we aren't looking for more than ~5 tags per image. Combined with category and sub category, this offers quite a few places your image will show up, and will focus on it's strengths!

Example Time!

The tag tree is pretty common. If someone clicks on the tree tag, what are the expecting to find? Wallpapers that feature trees. So lets look at two example images.

Both images above have a tree in them. But the tree is the main focus in only one of these images. The way we do tagging here at Alpha Coders, only one of these images should be tagged with tree.

Another common area is with characters. Consider the following image:

It's common for users to tag an image like this with Mario, Link, Bowser, etc until the 5 tag limit is reached.

However, with an image like this, none of the characters are actually the point of the image. It's not a great Mario Wallpaper. It's not a great Bowser Wallpaper. It is, however, a GREAT Super Smash Bros: Ultimate wallpaper. So tags like Mario, Bowser, etc would be considered to not be the main point of the image.

Update on 3/11/2022:

Main change is a removal of the character collage exception.

As a general rule, we aren't looking for more than ~5 tags per image. Combined with category and sub category, this offers quite a few places your image will show up, and will focus on it's strengths!

Tagging all of the fictional characters in a collage is not OK. Keep it to a main featured character, or leave blank.

Update on 4/11/2022:

We are now implementing a 5 tag maximum per piece of content. It's quite rare for an image to have more than 5 main elements. Changing the character collage exception has improved the quality (specificity) of a lot of our tag pages - this change should also help!

Update on 7/18/2022: Another example with a collage of characters!

ok but what if the tag was not plural and it was relevant to the photo?

cause i just tagged a photo it was a flower and i added the flower's name and it was removed . . . 

Found the tags in question!

For the below wall "Blue Flower" is a perfect tag, however "Blue" would not be a good tag, and I am not seeing a flower called "blue flower bell" anywhere, but "Bluebell" would work as it is the name of the flower!

https://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=23662

But the thing was that if you searched for blue flower bell and bluebell you still get the same flower result, ofc you're right and the name exactly like bluebell is better than just the bell, haha but I was just curious.

https://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=338345

tag removed - but why do I see miroha's name?

https://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=106423

tag removed - but what is cha cha doing here?

Hey jerry,

It seems like you had tagged some other submissions, and tags on those submissions were removed.

I didn't make/apply any of the tags you say I did.

Someone else has tagged the images, using my screen name.

My name isn't Jerry, either.

Please rectify this, or I will simply stop using this site.

crystalwarrior,

I was responding to the account with the name, 'jerry' in it ealier. I don't presume to name people - I just use usernames

At this point I am a bit confused about what exactly the current issue is. Perhaps you can further explain in. Feel free to PM me about it too.

After looking into things a little more, it looks like some tags 4+ years old are mis-attributed to different users. This is coming up since a lot of old Photography Abyss content is being moved, in a newest section, and moderators are fixing some bad tags.

If you know you never added a tag, you can safely just ignore the PM. It won't affect your account standing.

Muchas gracias por esta información, yo aún confundo las etiquetas con la categoría pero con esto me aclaró muchas cosas🙂

Hello everyone!

We have added another rule/principle to tagging!
"Please do not use multiple tags that are synonyms of each other. An example of this would be tagging something cute,adorable,lovable,etc."
 

https://pics.alphacoders.com/pictures/view/374725

This message is informing you that while moderating your submission, our moderator lonewolf6738 made some changes.

You had the category Video Game spot on!
You had the subcategory Warframe spot on!


Deleted Tags: heart of deimos (warframe)
Added Tags: warframe: heart of deimos
Unmodified Tags: warframe

Then one mod delete one tag but add other, ond next come other mod and dlete tags... i lost some points for changes of firts mod ...

Hey RealPitchers, there was minor confusion on the mods end on which tag would be best to use for this. It happens from time to time especially with new tags as we find the right thing to use! 

Sorry about that RealPitcher, as ajak said its not easy to know what tag to keep when its a new tag. I apologize for any inconvenience I have caused.