About
Danbooru (site domain: danbooru.donmai.us or donmai.us)[1] is an online imageboard and tag-based image archive using a non-hierarchical semantic structure in which users are able to post content and sort this through tags and ratings. There exist numerous different Danbooru-style imageboards, often specialising in a specific subject.
History
According to the WaybackMachine web archive,[2] the first archived instance of Danbooru dates back to February 15th, 2006, with an image count of 23,871 at the time. Although the Facebook page[3] for Danbooru implies they were around as early as May 25th, 2005.
Traffic
Danbooru has an Alexa[4] global rank of 7,777, with a rank of 1,242 in Japan and 6,384 in the US. Danbooru also has a Quantquast[5] rank of 15,893. According to Quantquast’s demographics, the user base is 59% male and 41% female with the majority being below the age of 24.
Danbooru reached its 100,000th upload on January 19th, 2007, and it’s 1,000,000th on September 20th, 2011. As of February 25th, 2012, the site contains over 1,36 million images.
Features
Tagging System
Danbooru and other image boorus often make us of a tagging system in which users sort the images into categories (shown below) while uploading. These main focus of these categories is to divide images by the show they’re from, the characters showing, and the artist, but can go as deep as specific details present in the images such as clothing or facial expressions. Image boorus contain pools where certain images that are related to each other in a way that the tag system doesn’t allow for can be collected for viewing, and is the primary means for works hosted on the boorus to be compiled.
Another notable tagging feature is the dividing of images through rating based on whether they’re safe, questionable or explicit. The rating is commonly decided by the inclusion of erotica or intercourse, but can also be decided through subjects such as gore. Certain image boorus specialize only in a certain rating, in which the rating system is properly adjusted to match the site’s function.
Related Sites
The non-hierarchical semantic structure and tagging & rating system used by Danbooru has be taken over by various websites. These related websites, nicknamed “Image Boorus”,[6] commonly specialize in specific subjects or ratings. Gelbooru[7] posts similar anime-related content as Danbooru, but specializes more in explicit content and hentai. Totalling over 1,66 million images as of February 25th, 2013, it has an archive of around 300,000 images more than Danbooru. Rule34.XXX[15] also got close to Danbooru, totalling over 1,19 million images as of the same date.
Besides Gelbooru focussing more on explicit content, Konachan[13] is another spinoff of Danbooru that specializes in wallpapers. Paheal[14] is an infamous image booru for its specialization in Rule 34. Other notable image boorus are commonly specialized in fandoms, examples of this are Touhou’sTouhou Radio,[8] the Furry Fandom’se926[9], Bronies’Derpibooru,[10]Homestuck’sMSPAbooru,[11] and Katawa Shoujo’sThe Mishimmie.[12]
Search Interest
External References
[1]Danbooru.donmai.us(NSFW: Explicit Content)
[2]Web.archive – danbooru.donmai.us
[3]Facebook – Danbooru – Info
[6]TvTropes – Image Booru
[7]Gelbooru(NSFW: Explicit Content)
[13]Konachan(NSFW: Explicit Content)
[14]Paheal(NSFW: Explicit Content)
[15]Rule34.XXX(NSFW: Explicit Content)