Bases and artist tags

I’m looking at artists who both make original art, and pony bases. In some cases, the amount of art in their tag (minus edits) surpasses the amount of art they have posted on their offsite galleries. I wish to find their art here, and not other people’s base edits. At the same time, I want to find out people who uses their base. I know “Base:*” tags were removed before, but would it make sense to have them? Does anyone have a better suggestion?

So, base: indicates the artist whose work the base was made from?

@Derpy Whooves  
Yes.

Wouldn’t a search for “artist:whoever, -base used do what you want?

@Background Pony #B4C2  
The artist themselves may also use bases for their own art. Some make bases along with their own art which may use either their own, or other’s base.

@Background Pony #EAA0  
In the case where an artist uses a base they made themselves, isn’t that the same thing as a “your character here” (if done for others) or “alternate version”?

@Background Pony #B4C2  
“Your character here” would work in some cases, but not for the ones where they decide to draw other people’s ocs without the others saying “I want you to use this OC” (in other words, not a “Ych result”).
 
I’m not sure if “alternate version” works as a replacement of “base used”; the tag itself is for minor edits the artist made to their own pictures (clothes/skin/cum/nude/etc) to distinguish it from edits other people made. There are cases where the artist uses same base a lot which the pictures are not related to each other.
 
Treating “base used” images from the same artist as “alternate version” would also mean “every image that uses a template are just alternate versions/edits of each other” which doesn’t seem right.

In practice, the difference between base used and traced (On our site both are treated the same, although they are tagged differently) is entangled in all of this, too.
 
Edits are derivative copyrights. Bases made from someone else’s art is treated as a trace - it is an edit. The original artist retains their rights to the base/trace/edit.
 
Images that are then made from a base are another step of derivation - they are also edits, and the original artist retains their right to the image made from the base.
 
The person who made the base has no rights to the base, except that they may ask to have their base deleted. The original artist whose art was used to make the base may delete the base if they choose for being an edit, and sometimes they ask to have things made from the base deleted, too.
 
So, whomever makes the base isn’t so much an artist on this site as an editor, and they do not have a unique copyright to their base, unless the base is a unique work of art, in which case we tag them as an artist, because they have a uniquely copyrightable work of art - just one that is a base.
 
So, I don’t know that tagging the maker of the base is useful. The people who must be tagged I think are the original artist whose work was used to make the base (or the base maker of the base was an original work of art) and the person who made something with the base. Both of those people on this site are tagged as artists, and the “base used” is treated as a derivative work so it should be tagged as an edit (although this doesn’t always happen - it depends on how the original artist feels about it most of the time).
 
Does that help? This is just how it’s handled from the standpoint of takedowns and DNPs, so I don’t know if it helps.
 
For what it’s worth, “Based Used” is a bad fit for this site in many ways, because of how we handle copyright, DNPs, and takedowns.

@Background Pony #EAA0  
Alternate Version can only be used if the artist themselves made the base and then made the art from the base, which is getting into their process and doesn’t seem useful. If the artist made it, they made it. If it’s an alternate version, then it’s an alternate version. If they use the base to make ten versions of the same character and image, it’s alternate version or part of a series. But if it’s ten different characters or scenes, then at best it’s part of a series and not alternate version.