The search function could use something to search by misc. Metadata

It would also help a LOT to be able to OMIT certain strings in text-based input boxes, though it would be hard to pick a symbol that would be unlikely to be used in a string, like an exclamation mark

I told this about the misc. metadata to anony long ago and nothing happened...anonyyyyy~ :3

I know, right? We already have, what, two text-based search fields?

One will disappear, one day...

Wait, what? Why?

Character tag creation. That's why .... and I'm not waiting for that day *will have to do all the Touhou characters and Type Moon characters* 'cause I promised myself... ;_; shouldn't have promised anything...
Or will Anony do everything? >:D

Character...tags?

and I thought such a thing wouldn't be possible because of having to do EVERY character out there, not just Touhou or Type-Moon

On the bright side, that means you can exclude characters from searches. Too bad I can't do so for Misc. Metadata or anything like that

Misc. Metada isn't so widely used. Thou I don't disapprove adding another search box in the Search part of Shuu.
Just saying...

And it's not possible? If that ain't possible, then how is having thousands of artists possible? (what number was it again?). Last 500 artists added on Shuu ends up with ... 1st of Jan. 2011. From the 1st to ... what day is it today? ... 500 artists were added So we are doing pretty "well" with artists. Characters? After creating them all ... a few characters each season won't be a problem. Missing characters? Users tell us, we check and create.

Misc Metadata barely used? Boy, do I beg to differ

And after having the character list created, there's also the challenge of tagging the HUGE number of images that have them.

Oh, this also means that we'll have to come to a decision on name arrangements if this ever works...or we could let the user choose, but that would take some work to implement

Why are you complaining? I didn't decide it. And I think it's a good idea. And what's wrong with going through all the images? It will take some time, yes, but it can be done (oh but then we need a full list of Source tags because the recently added tags page can go up to only 500 tags).
And as I heard it's coming with the next version of Shuu (Shuu gets an upgrade). Sometime ... don't know when. And everyone (members) will be able to tag images.

Misc. Metada is mainly used (now) as a link provider to artists website. Let's see ... first page (with 50 images/page) ... one link and nothing else using the metadata field... second page ... two links I think and two images having some kanji in the field... do I need to continue? ^_^ No I don't need to. This topic is discussing about adding a misc. metadata search box. That's all.

You know, it's possible to make a script which can tag images according to what is written in the character field. When character tags will be introduced, most of the work will have already been done by the server.

Eh, the misc. metadata section is useful. It is used now; it has been used in the past. Many images still have useful information there. A search box for it would be good. It would allow us to find all those deviantart artists we don't have tags for, for one, hehe.

But this, and character tags, has been discussed before. The tags were supposed to be implemented with the addition of the new shuu, but that is...stalled indefinitely right now, as far as I know, so they've also been delayed.
/shrugs
Arguing about it again now is pointless.

And yeah, that's how the artist and source tags were added too, right, Merun?

Yeah. The only issue is that people have their own format, like "first name/last name", reverse, people separating with a comma, or a "&' or "and". We will just need people to go through duplicates and invalid tags.