Ecchi and the semi-useless tag

[infernotez]

I read a bunch of the so called "isekai trash" where one of the most prevalent tags is Ecchi, I get what the tag means but it's a far too broad term that does not help to tell if something would be worth reading. If it's hentai then it's more than likely porn than anything with a story but Ecchi can be anything from a character being a pervert(konosuba) to full on sex with anything that has a vagina(re:monster).

The point of tags is so you can easily find what you are looking for and avoid the things you don't. My suggestion is separating Ecchi into multiple tags in the vein Light, Moderate and Heavy. The usage of each would be based on how much of the story and the drawings revolve around Ecchi with how far it goes. If it goes often full on nude with the MC trying to fuck something it's going to be Heavily influenced by Ecchi vs say a guy walking in on a girl in the bath which is light at best.

 

[Oeconomist]

I very much sympathize with the motivation, but it seems to me that any attempt to draw lines is going to result in considerable angst, controversy, and churning.

 

[BzzBzz]

Your problem is you're trying to find something specific using single or maybe couple of tags. Tag system isn't supposed to work this way. You have to use as much tags as possible to narrow search to what you want. Too bad MD system is very bad not good for this. Personally I think MD should adapt mangaupdates system where every nuance is tagged.

Compare tags Here and Here for example.

11 tags vs 195 tags. It's like night and day :/

 

[infernotez]

@BzzBzz it's not even that I'm trying to search by tags, I'm trying to know if something is actually in my range of interest when I see it. I find smut to be rather shitty as it tries to be porn but without being porn and often sacrifices story. Move down and the further you go into Ecchi it's them trying to be hentai again while bringing forth nothing and sacrificing the story. The thing is some Ecchi stuff like panty shots is whatever, I can live with it if the story is fun or interesting. Sex if used sparingly can be fine like the sex scene is an actual climax point of the story.

So I poke through the recent updates and see something that looks interesting enough by the art, I check the series page and the description is not talking about how every piece of MC's body can be used as an aphrodisiac or anything like that but still has that pesky Ecchi tag on it, is it good or is it shit. I'm then stuck reading to find out if it's exactly what I'm not interested in or not.

Also @AbyssalMonkey Ya I don't think Re:Monster really shows much but the whole story is based around being smut adjacent.

 

[Oeconomist]

@infernotez—

the sex scene is an actual climax point of the story

Perhaps not the best choice of words.

 

[Assasinart]

that is the sad reality of the tagging system in general. if there is a series with say 100 chapters and only 10 of them are ecchi it will likely have the ecchi tag. There is far too much subjectivity to allow for things to be narrowed down to EXACTLY what you want. Like with the Freezing example earlier where it has 195 tags on it, how much of the series revolves around any specific tag? 5, 10, 50, 100 chapters??? your now left with the same problem. It will have the tag you want but there is no telling how much of the tag is involved with the series.

When they implement the new tagging system there might be some improvements (Hentai especially needs this). Hentai has soooo many different things that would need to be tagged so likely the new system will have a closer implementation to what your looking for. (Though still limited by the fundamental limitations inherent in a tagging system)

 

[WhitestWhites]

Look at the tag combination like @AbyssalMonkey or even just read the description, half the time you can tell whether or not something is using ecchi all the time from these. And if you want to get into something with 100+ chapters then you should just read some comments or look at a review.
Personally I try just avoid anything with the ecchi tag because they usually indicate masses of chapters dedicated to filler arcs or constant wastage of scenes to add eroticism. That is unless it's a series that I know to be narrative driven and only add these portions for realism.

 

[Teasday]

Don't take my words as the law here, but from what I understand our usage of Ecchi is essentially a "content warning" tag (which is why it's yellow) meant to signify "somewhat sexual" content, in contrast to clean content and outright smut (typically non-explicit sex). It's not really meant as a clear descriptor of the type of sexual content. The name of the tag is weeby more as a stylistic choice and due to tradition than anything else.

Part of the problem here is that even the current four-tiered system that we have - Clean, Ecchi, Smut, H - has lots of manga at each borderline and everyone has their opinions about which side of the border each should land. The biggest issue here is of course the border between Smut and H, since that defines whether the manga should be hidden by default. We could conceivably, say, split the Ecchi tier in half and come up with a new term, but it seems to me that at best that's going to cause some new headaches for everyone to define where the new borderline lies, and the tags still won't be actual descriptors of the specific type of content - it'll simply be a new warning label for a new "level" of lewdness to watch out for. Whatever that means.

About the gallery-type tagging system that Holo seems interested in, I'll just say I'm far from confident it's a good idea, both in terms of dealing with submissions and designing the UI.