[MEGATHREAD] Tags Suggestions

[kouyo]

This thread is for suggesting and discussing new tags to be implemented in MangaDex. To suggest a new tag, please follow the guidelines below.

Guidelines:​

1. Your tag should represent a broad theme or concept that applies to a wide range of content. Providing examples is encouraged to clarify where it would be used.
2. Tags should be clear, easy to understand. Try to avoid suggesting tags that are too abstract or based on niche references that might confuse others.
3. Avoid suggesting tags that could closely overlap with existing ones. If unsure, check our Tags Definition for guidance, ask if you're still unsure.
4. Provide a clear explanation of the tag's purpose and what type of content it is meant to categorize.
5. Tags should primarily focus on describing content itself, such as its themes, genres, or storytelling structure. Tags that focus on external conditions or processes are not in line with this rule. Other types of tags may be accepted, provided they help users identify the reading structure or navigational format of the content.
6. Tags promoting content that violates site rules won't be accepted.

Important:​

Anything falling under the banner of "porn tags" is currently pending a tag rework. We're in need of a system for categorizing these tags that will allow us to flag them appropriately and segregate them from the main list of tags.

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Below is a list of suggested tags that meets the previous requirements. This is not a list of tags that we will add. Only if the tag meets the requirements, it will be added to the list. Porn tags are excluded from this list.

Suggested tags:​

• Age Gap
• Childcare
• Idols
• Economics
• Educative
• Short Comics
• Kingdom
• Enterprise
• Cute Girls Doing Cute Things (CGDCT)
• Maid
• Banishment/Abandoned Protagonist
• Farming/Agriculture
• Child Abuse
• Power Fantasy
• Game Elements
• Romantic Subtext
• Iyashikei
• Journey
• Dungeon Crawl
• Politics
• Robots
• Kemonomimi

 

[Yarnball]

[Manga] Subtext Tag​

Hey! I think Mangadex should have a (romantic) subtext tag. Consider: Mangadex already has a way to tag subtext. It’s just unintuitive and should be made more clear.

The way the BL and GL tags currently function is that either tag as a standalone only means BL or GL subtext. The addition of the romance tag is needed for a series to be interpreted as “there is outright canon BL/GL”. So, the way to tag subtext is to tag either BL or GL but NOT romance.

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I think that’s a little silly, more than a little confusing, and probably unknown to most users (hidden in a 2019 thread). If you saw the BL tag by yourself, your first thought is probably “there’s gay main characters” and not “there’s maaybe implied gay main characters”. (There’s also the issue that most people implicitly read the romance tag as straight romance, so scanlators may not even consider tagging romance for BL or GL series. Official publishers like Seven Seas, Tapas, Bookwalker have a standalone BL or GL tag with no need for tagging romance to mean romantic gay stuff)

To demonstrate how strange this policy for tagging BL and GL is:

Here are some popular overtly romantic series that, by current definitions, are missing the romance tag and should only have "subtext".

• We Don't Need a Prince
• My Food Looks Very Cute
• For Her, I'd Give It My All
• Sora & Haena!
• Devil Wants to Hug
• Downpour
• She Gets Girls Every Day
• Deliverance of the Counterattack
• Lily
• Whose Baby Is It?

There's probably more in the hundred pages of series tagged with BL or GL but not romance. A good chunk of those probably have overt gay romances.

And here are some recently added series that, by current definitions, are missing the romance tag.

• Maison de Maid
• Bump Up Business
• Doushiyou mo nai, Boku no Hatsukoi.
• Put Rings On
• The Overworked Office Lady's Café Crush
• Into The Horizon

Basically, the guideline of "tag romance AND BL/GL" is kind of not being followed in a lot of cases.

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My suggestion is to change the BL and GL tags to mean an explicit romance or romantic relationship on their own, denoting a romance the same way the romance tag works as a standalone, and add a subtext tag to be used in conjunction with BL or GL to mean respective subtext.
With this proposal, here's an idea of what tag combinations could mean:

• BL
  • Main focus of the story is on a gay couple
• GL
  • Main focus of the story is on a lesbian couple
• GL + Subtext
  • Significant theme of an implied romance between major characters
• BL + Romance
  • Main focus of the story is on BOTH a gay couple AND a straight couple
    • Maybe a bisexual love triangle?
    • Four main characters who pair off into a gay and straight pair

By adding a subtext tag, it visibly divides up subtext and text umbrella and leaves people only wanting confirmed romances happier while also having a way to more recognizably tag series.

I think this would help clear out some of the messy data around the BL/GL tags, while also dealing with the thousands of series not tagged romance before yuri/shoujo ai and yaoi/shounen ai were merged into GL/BL.

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Possible subtext tag definition:
Implied but not outright said romantic feelings or relationship between major characters that is an underlying series theme.

Use case:
Not for ongoing series that are probably just building up to a romance, but series that in all likelihood (if we quit inhaling copium )aren’t going in that direction, or for finished series with a consistent will-they-won’t-they to tease the readers. Especially useful for yuribait and fujobait series which have original tags that "overpromise." Probably best for series that end up with no conclusive major romances.

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Tag Applicability:
There are a combined over 2000 GL Subtext and BL Subtext tags on MangaUpdates.

Dynasty has its own subtext tag which sees substantial use.

Off the top of my head, here are some series which could benefit from a subtext tag:

Liar Satsuki
Free!
Lycoris Recoil
Idolish7
Mosspaca
The Antagonist’s Pet
Your Throne
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
New Game!

And here are some users who like having tags for "borderline" gay content.

• https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/merge-shoujo-ai-tag-with-yuri-planned.403791/post-6752859
• https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/merge-shoujo-ai-tag-with-yuri-planned.403791/post-6752799
• https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/merge-shoujo-ai-tag-with-yuri-planned.403791/post-6753474
  • Poster brings up a good point of people going into a "GL + Romance" series expecting GL and getting blasted with only GL subtext, straight romance
• https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/merge-shoujo-ai-tag-with-yuri-planned.403791/post-6753708

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BONUS:

• If this goes through, I also think that the romance tag should be changed to straight romance. This is because that's basically what it's used by, and making its use more narrow allows for more specific tagging of series as having both straight romance and gay romance (eg. My Next Life as a Villainess)
• Making straight romance its seperate tag (and not having it be added to some BL/GL series because they're more overtly romantic) allows it to be filtered out and people to "drown themselves in gay"
  • https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/heterosexual-tags-rejected.942957/
  • https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/give-us-a-straight-tag.925038/
• This would also allow a subtext tag to be used with straight romances too, that only ever have "vibes" or "bullshit flirting that never goes anywhere"

 

[DoubleSnake]

I never considered this idea, but it would help a great deal when filtering though the catalog.

 

[Plykiya]

Basically, the guideline of "tag romance AND BL/GL" is kind of not being followed in a lot of cases.

Sounds like a problem with tagging and just needs to be reported to be fixed. The contributor forum needs a thread for a mass GL/BL fix the romance editing mission. Back when I decided to split gender bender into crossdressing and genderswap, I took on like 80% of the work going through and fixing the tags to fit the intended standard. For GL and BL, there was just way too much content for me to take on.

As for the specific BL Subtext and GL Subtext recommendations, I don't have any input at the moment.

 

[Yarnball]

Sounds like a problem with tagging and just needs to be reported to be fixed. The contributor forum needs a thread for a mass GL/BL fix the romance editing mission. Back when I decided to split gender bender into crossdressing and genderswap, I took on like 80% of the work going through and fixing the tags to fit the intended standard. For GL and BL, there was just way too much content for me to take on.

The thing is, having to tag romance with those two tags is also kind of a Mangadex Moment, I can't think of any other site that wants a romance tag in addition to BL or GL to mean "Actually Really BL/GL tm", I feel like people will just keep adding BL/GL stuff without tagging romance-and who can blame them? Using a lack of a combination of tags to mean another tag gets confusing.

It's an unfamiliar thing and (imo) kind of unecessary when BL and GL tend to be read as gay romance on their own.

You go into a BL or GL series assuming romance, which BL and GL tend to cover in most people's minds. You don't go into a BL or GL series assuming subtext, which I think makes it distinct enough to merit a tag.

The current way of tagging is "GL + Romance" and "GL". I think it makes more sense to have "GL" and "GL + subtext"

 

[solstice258]

I never knew the rules said that gay romance manga have to be tagged gl/bl + romance, and when I saw one tagged that way I thought it was an error or something. Either way I don't read gl/bl often so I can't speak for the actual fans of the genres

 

[Nexxurio]

I don't read bl/gl at all, but when I saw that some bl/gl mangas have romance tag and some do not, I was confused, and I wouldn't be surprised if other people were also confused the first time they saw it. People shouldn't need to think so much to decide if mangas that have a tag with "love" in it also needs romance tag or not.

 

[ADupthetotal]

New category suggestion - Childcare​

Could the searchable category of childcare manga be added? I love the childcare genre but I can't easily search it with Mangadex.

 

[AliceShiro]

sounds fair, considering that all loli and shota tags are related to lewd things most of the time

 

[SpudWumper]

this would be very nice to have!

 

[BraveDude8]

sounds fair, considering that all loli and shota tags are related to lewd things most of the time

That's the intended use of the tag, as a "child" tag is not particularly useful and "childcare" is distinct from both of these.

 

[T10_]

That's the intended use of the tag, as a "child" tag is not particularly useful and "childcare" is distinct from both of these.

loli tag
no "child" tag
that's the intended use

cursed

 

[BraveDude8]

cursed

People want to filter out lolis and shotas or look for them but people generally aren't bothered by the presence of lackthereof of a child.

 

[Yarnball]

I’m the opposite of OP, not a fan of pregnancy/those baby isekai/raising children stories so would be nice to have a tag to filter out

 

[n0hwiuc7mo78z]

People want to filter out lolis and shotas or look for them but people generally aren't bothered by the presence of lackthereof of a child.

This makes me think of a reference/clip, particularly as you bolded the word

• Child
• rapist

- "There's only one thing worse than a rapist - a __"


As for the tag, I think it's a good idea. Maybe not the proposed name, but it is definitely a subgenre with some population and interest. (Though I am unsure where story's like the 's-ranked daughter' and '4 orphans moved out into a city and love their adoptive father romantically' would place in relation to it, as they are very adjacent but not quite there... Well, maybe not the latter once you gotten 2 chapters in, but before then kinda)
As for alternative names, I used to call it rearing or grooming before (the latter because I know it annoys ppl while still being entirely technically correct - the best kind of correct), but then I saw a korean manwha (transmigrators privilege?) that explained it's an already established genre named "romfam" (for "romance family", interestingly enough not referring to incest according to that manwha, despite it's name entirely suggesting such).
Searching for it on google before never netted me any results, so might just be the translator doing a real poor job at translating a korean 'name' (likely directly translated)... But in that case I am just even more hyped to use that name, because it's so incorrect because someone erred So either way I would nominate that name for the genre: "romfam".

edit: went back and checked, apparently it was "rofan" for "romance fantasy". Making rofam even more incorrect (Because I were incorrect when spelling it + not only is rofan not even including family in title despite being about childcare, it's suggesting there is regular romance in the fantasy story despite it not being about romance!), and thus even better of a candidate!
Technically the full name described in the manwha was "rofan childcare", but at times it was abbreviated to rofan, and childcare is a mouthful.

 

[Raebit]

I'm agree with this, we need subtext tag.

Sometimes there is a BL focusing on plot not romance or barely there / subtle, parody , fans service-y, bait type.

Like

• No.6 -> plot focused
• Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko -> a parody of bl world , mc is straight
• Golden Days -> plot focused
• I ♂ Took A Trip to an Otome Game -> only teasing reader while it isn't really BL
• Isekai Tensei, Ore ga Otome ge de Kyuuseishu -> he was summoned as a heroine to romance with guys, he escape it, so bl as humor but not really BL

And many more

 

[slch]

Tldr Against making Romance = Straight Romance. Adding new tags - don't care, as you guys want / decide.

Coming from outside BL/GL context, Romance tag for me means love story(ies) is a significant driven force of main plot line.
Don't really care about gender.
I'd make Romance a parent/set tag for all mixes of X love tags (Read - selecting romance means selecting all sub genres)
Which aligns with current behaviour if properly tagged.

Spoiler

PS Ideal tag system - user created and voted on - at mangaupdates

 

[Remocracy]

What's the difference between romance and romantic subtext?

 

[happypurple]

What's the difference between romance and romantic subtext?

google it

 

[Hicleric]

I was literally just about to post a suggestion for a "parenting" tag when I saw this thread. While "parenting" does create the impression it's meant to be limited to parent-child, I see it as more focused on the [character]-child relationship rather than the practical aspects of "childcare"

Regardless of what term is ultimately used, I strongly advocate for a tag like this since the default slice-o'-life tag is just too broad to help look for it