anonymous_artist currently says the tag is used when "For one reason or another... [the artist doesn't] ...wish to be connected with a particular piece of art." but this implies it should be used even when (and indeed the tag currently is used even when) it is trivial to use only publicly available information actively hosted on e621 to find out who the artist is, for instance in the tag history the uploader adding their artist tag and saying in the description they made it before later removing their artist tag and adding anonymous_artist. should this really be the case? i think this tag should be changed to only apply when an artist wishes to remain anonymous and the identity of the artist is not obviously discoverable using information associated with the post on e621/otherwise hosted on e621, because when such information is publicly on e621 this tag does not serve to protect the identity of the artist in any meaningful way and pretty much only serves to muddy the waters when searching for posts/blacklisting/etc

If it is already trivial to find out their identity, the least we could do to respect their wish is prevent that information from being recovered even more easily. If they don't want the post to come up when their tag is searched, that is their right.

This is less an issue with the anonymous_artist tag and more an issue with tag history. I do wonder if there are ways to hide certain tags in tag history or certain entries in it- like entries that exist only to add abusive tags.

but the difference between "even more easily" and how it currently is is a couple seconds to click over to the tag history and scroll down to the bottom

regsmutt said:
This is less an issue with the anonymous_artist tag and more an issue with tag history. I do wonder if there are ways to hide certain tags in tag history or certain entries in it- like entries that exist only to add abusive tags.

as far as i'm aware there is no WP:OS equivalent for e621ng (source: if it did exist i think i probably would've heard of it or seen it in action before) so i guess wyci

notsofemmy said:
but the difference between "even more easily" and how it currently is is a couple seconds to click over to the tag history and scroll down to the bottom

Most users don't look at tag history. Not that it's really a "solution" but changing it to anonymous_artist will drastically lower the people that are made aware in the future.

It makes the post harder to find if you're not already on it, and most people don't know what the heck a Tags/Desc is, with even less inclination to check it out. And in situations where anonymous_artist is applied, it is usually applied from the start.

_{And lets be real here, those who want to use such information maliciously are not the sharpest lightbulbs in the shed}

snpthecat said:
_{And lets be real here, those who want to use such information maliciously are not the sharpest lightbulbs in the shed}

Sun Tzu'd probably have something to say about underestimating your opponent.

but it's really a calculated risk. the artist still wants the art available but dosn't want it attached to their tag, it's kinda the same reason artists have split SFW and NSFW names.

if an artist didn't want any chance of the pictures being associated with them, they could just have anything taken down and then all that would remain visible is the metadata alone.

dba_afish said:
Sun Tzu'd probably have something to say about underestimating your opponent.

but it's really a calculated risk. the artist still wants the art available but dosn't want it attached to their tag, it's kinda the same reason artists have split SFW and NSFW names.

if an artist didn't want any chance of the pictures being associated with them, they could just have anything taken down and then all that would remain visible is the metadata alone.

I don't think that would work. Deleted posts still show up in post versions. Which, while the image itself isn't visible, tags are. So if someone was trying to distance themselves from certain topics, or even just nsfw content entirely, evidence would still be there and easily findable to people who know how the site works.

snpthecat said:
It makes the post harder to find if you're not already on it, and most people don't know what the heck a Tags/Desc is, with even less inclination to check it out. And in situations where anonymous_artist is applied, it is usually applied from the start.

_{And lets be real here, those who want to use such information maliciously are not the sharpest lightbulbs in the shed}

i have no interest in modifying the rules in situations where anonymous_artist is applied from the start (unless, of course, they also applied something like a source with the artist's name in the link or such)

notsofemmy said:
i have no interest in modifying the rules in situations where anonymous_artist is applied from the start (unless, of course, they also applied something like a source with the artist's name in the link or such)

Okay but what is the point of changing the rules to prevent anonymous_artist from being applied if an artist name or source ever was? You can assume it was changed for a reason- including the possibility for the reason being that the wrong arist was tagged.

On top of that, insisting that artists use incorrect/outdated names or attach their names to art they don't want identified as theirs is a great way to piss artists off. Suddenly instead of anonymous_artist you have someone going dnp.

notsofemmy said:
unless, of course, they also applied something like a source with the artist's name in the link or such

Anonymous artist posts are supposed to remain unsourced if the source can be used to determine who the artist is

anonymous_artist:

Note: These posts should not be sourced if it can be used to identify the artist.

There are situations in which the artist just want posts to not be easily searchable and sourcing is fine, but in general they should remain unsourced

I have to say, anonymous_artist artist_name is definitely an interesting search

snpthecat said:
I have to say, anonymous_artist artist_name is definitely an interesting search

keep in mind several of those are third-party_edits