Fanon/toyline names tag disparity

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Background Pony #27D8
To start off with the current site rules on the subject:
 
“When a character has a ‘canon’ (official, merchandise/show-given) name that differs from the ‘fanon’ (fan-given) name, the fanon name is typically preferred, but tagging both names is encouraged to allow people to find images relating to a character no matter which name they use.”
 
This isn’t, of course, how it plays out in reality. “Merry May” exists but not “Flora” (except as an OC), “Sea Swirl” but not “Seafoam”, “Twinkleshine” but not “Twinkle”, and so on and on. Fanon tags regularly get removed when they are added to images. Meanwhile “Minuette” and “Colgate” compete for attention, as do (unevenly) “Golden Harvest” and “Carrot Top”. The opposite extreme is reached by “Lily”, the fanon name: “Lily Valley” gets absolutely no results at all, even photos of the toy where the text “Lily Valley” is visible in the photo. A slightly different paradigm exists for “Daisy”, which is used for nearly all screencaps and original art, and “Flower Wishes”, which is used almost exclusively for the toyline… that kinda feels like a good way to go, although “Daisy” is actually a canon name within the show, which is probably why it’s gotten this special treatment. (“Bon Bon” and “Sweetie Drops” are similar.) Arguably the best example of the site’s rules working is “Doctor Whooves” (fanon), having significantly more results than either “Doctor Hooves” or “Time Turner” (merchandise).
 
This is silly. It makes it harder to find the images you’re looking for if you know only one of the two names, and also promotes tagging wars between people who favor one name vs. people who favor another.
 
One character shouldn’t need two distinct tags. “Carrot Top” and “Golden Harvest”, just to pick a common example, should be one tag with two expressions, and tagging an image with one name should mean tagging it with both. How should this be displayed? It could show up in a tag list as “Carrot Top/Golden Harvest”, or “Carrot Top (Golden Harvest)”, or just “Carrot Top” but with “Golden Harvest” as the mouseover title text, or whatever. Or put toyline names first and fanon second, or let users choose in their settings which set they want to give priority to, or have the site pick one option at random every time a new session begins. Any of those options would be a policy, and what we have now is only unhelpful chaos.
Background Pony #AE98
I hate when people see a blindbag pony, look for any background pony that even vaguely resembles him, and insist they’re the same pony and that the blindbag name is “canon”. “Blues is Noteworthy” is just as much fanon as its negation is.
Background Pony #AE98
Also, Bon Bon is the canon name. I have no idea why the wiki insists on “Sweetie Drops”.
Background Pony #6648
This is what tag aliases are for, people. Seriously, this is their exact purpose.
Background Pony #4AC8
@Background Pony  
No, this is not what tag aliases are for. Aliases say that one name is right and all others are wrong, by showing only one name when in the list of tags under the image. That’s fine for something like Alicorn Twilight/Princess Twilight, but there’s no obvious connection between Carrot Top and Golden Harvest to someone who doesn’t already know that they refer to the same pony.
Background Pony #4015
@Background Pony  
You say that like there’s only one acceptable use of aliases ever and that is it no exceptions. I think you’re overestimating the userbase’s lack of basic reasoning. Currently, that’s exactly how it works with artists that go by several different names. To pull a completely random example out of the alias list, nobody gets confused when they search up “artist:all-bandana” and the only artist tag that snows up is “artist:nos-talgia”. If they search up “Golden Harvest”, and the only recurring pony in every single image is Carrot Top, most people have the capacity to put 2+2 together.
Background Pony #9CD7
The problem is that nobody flips their shit over having an artist’s old name alias to whatever they currently go by, but people can and will get into internet fights over whether a pony should be called by the fanon name they were initially given or by whatever godawful name some clueless marketing executive came up with later, and if the booru comes down officially on one side or the other there’ll be people unreasonably angry about it no matter what. So, might as well say “use whichever one you want, don’t take off the ones that other people want to use”.
The Smiling Pony
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Solar Hero - Went above and beyond for the Solar Deity, drawing from the power of the sun itself to bring balance to the fight against the Lunar Insurrection (April Fools 2023).
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
King Sombra - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Crystal Empire!
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab

( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡° )
Not to mention that sometimes a pony has several canon names; see Doctor Whooves, Doctor Hooves and Time Turner.
 
The officialish stance is “tag as many as you’d like that are correct, but always tag the most popular. Do not remove name tags unless they are incorrect”.
Background Pony #4AC8
@The Smiling Pony  
Sure, but is that a good thing? It still ignores the fact that these tags are meant to refer to the same pony. And people do remove correct name tags all the time.
The Smiling Pony
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Solar Hero - Went above and beyond for the Solar Deity, drawing from the power of the sun itself to bring balance to the fight against the Lunar Insurrection (April Fools 2023).
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
King Sombra - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Crystal Empire!
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab

( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡° )
@Background Pony  
For now, it’s what it is. The most popular name is the one everyone knows, so people know to search for that if a lesser used name isn’t tagged. We aren’t going to go ahead and make a “fandom” decision and say “this is the correct name”. With luck we might one day soome get tag classifications so all the names can be added without cluttering up the system, as well as tag implications so adding one name adds them all automatically.
 
 
@shyflutter  
Well, there’s a decent amount for Firecracker Burst and Starswirl, at least. Others, I really don’t know.
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