Naming Pixiv artists

howto:pixiv suggests naming Pixiv artists by their username in the URL rather than their nickname because latter can be changed and isn't unique to them. However, when reading through user feedback today to learn and become a better person, I found Kikimaru's neutral feedback to YumiKanzaki telling to do the contrary, i.e. use the nickname rather than the user name. Which one should I use assuming both are simple, readable, and memorizable?

Generally you should try to use the nickname whenever possible. The nickname tends to be what the artist considers their name and wants people to call them, while the username tends not to be (though this may not be the case 100% of the time). Making the tag reflect what the artist is actually known as is fairly important.

It's true that the nickname can be changed, but this isn't a good argument that the username should be used over the nickname. If the artist decides to change what they want to be called, then Danbooru should update the tag used for that artist anyway. Furthermore, the username can also be changed - it's common for a Pixiv artist to delete their account and create a new one, which results in the username being changed. When that happens Danbooru's tag will need to be updated whether the username was used in the tag or not.

Note that if both the nickname and username are simple, but the nickname by itself is too ambiguous and needs a qualifier, using both names in the tag can work, like "nickname_(username)". Though using the artist's website/blog name for the qualifier is preferred if the artist has one. Basically, using the Pixiv username should be a last resort.

Thanks for the reply.

Could someone change hiraken_2012 into whatever 柊☆憲 transliterates to (Hiiragi Ken according to Nihongo. Dunno what to do with the star.) now that we're here? I made that tag based on howto:pixiv's suggestion, which should probably get updated, too.

Thanks for the thread budoka azathoth, I was wondering why this naming convention was so prevalent.

howto:pixiv needs an update, I think.