Genuine question. I was browsing the dragon tag and I'm wondering what's the official requirements for a character to count as a dragon. I've seen so many characters tagged as one when they lack everything related to dragons. No horns, no wings, no scales, no tail, no fire... Having just a muzzle or being feral or having sharp teeth makes it count as a dragon? I understand that dragon is sort of a loose term and people gets creative with their sonas and hybrids, but at some points it gets ridiculous.

Just some examples:

https://e621.net/posts/5492304
https://e621.net/posts/5513161

What makes these a dragon and not a cat or feline? It feels like anything characters whose species is sort of ambiguous just gets slapped with the dragon tag. There's gotta be a line somewhere, or else everything can be tagged as a dragon.

Species tags are rather lax (a fair amount of leeway is given towards what the artist says), but yeah that is a bit rediculous.

There are no "requirements", species tags are practically entirely TWYK
While the Tag What You See policy says "cannot actively conflict with what is seen in the post", that doesn't really work with species (e.g. hybrids)

croon-tail said:
Genuine question. I was browsing the dragon tag and I'm wondering what's the official requirements for a character to count as a dragon. I've seen so many characters tagged as one when they lack everything related to dragons. No horns, no wings, no scales, no tail, no fire... Having just a muzzle or being feral or having sharp teeth makes it count as a dragon? I understand that dragon is sort of a loose term and people gets creative with their sonas and hybrids, but at some points it gets ridiculous.

Just some examples:

https://e621.net/posts/5492304
https://e621.net/posts/5513161

What makes these a dragon and not a cat or feline? It feels like anything characters whose species is sort of ambiguous just gets slapped with the dragon tag. There's gotta be a line somewhere, or else everything can be tagged as a dragon.

As far as the 2 examples go, both are essentially hybrids were the first has a lizards tail while the second has the kind of blocky snout that is kinda a staple on characters described as dragon. Now the truth of the matter is that Dragon very similar to Demon is a very diverse group owing to the fact that there are 100s of different real world mythological creatures described as dragon all around the world from the jungles of middle America to the islands of japan so it's not actually possible to have a singular form. Now it's certainly valid to question whether just having a fur covered lizards tail is sufficient to be called Dragon but restrictions if not considered properly do have a potential to exclude real
mythological creatures that are defined as dragon.

Il add a large share of common fictional species tags are heavily dependent on the subjectivity of users given the diversity of their forms in different regions of the world.

Unimply scalie from dragon 2k25.

dragon comes off as a loose term to describe a mythological scalie-like character or reminiscent of preexisting dragon types from a specific culture

the example shown by the first one loosely looks like an anthro eastern dragon by the tail, fur placements, and mammalian nose. generic horns could count as it's common for dragon characters. not sure the specified species of either feline or canine is based on by the character owner, though
the second one can be argued to be just an anthro dog but slapped an unidentified reptile face on it, i argue it's a wingless furred dragon + hybrid of a dog

https://x.com/insectivus/status/1265086985099714560
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EY59lDhXsAARvaz?format=jpg&name=orig

thegreatwolfgang said:
https://x.com/insectivus/status/1265086985099714560
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EY59lDhXsAARvaz?format=jpg&name=orig

this does not really address anthros and humanoids or hybrids, also not all mythological dragons have snake bodies and/or snake/lizard like tails..

ryu_deacon said:
this does not really address anthros and humanoids or hybrids, also not all mythological dragons have snake bodies and/or snake/lizard like tails..

Dragons are reptilian creatures, so a dragon should have some reptilian attribute suited for the scalie tag. Doesn't have to be much, especially for hybrids, but it should have something.

watsit said:
Dragons are reptilian creatures, so a dragon should have some reptilian attribute suited for the scalie tag. Doesn't have to be much, especially for hybrids, but it should have something.

are they, though? I feel like a significant portion of eastern-inspired dragons, especially furred_dragons lean more towards the bovid/canid/cervid direction than being all that reptilian at all.