Pixiv¹⁾ is a Japanese website that allows artists to share their illustrations, animation frames,²⁾ manga, and novels. It was co-founded by Takahiro Kamitani and Takanori Katagiri on September 10, 2007, who were simply inspired by the convenience of Flickr's tagging system.³⁾

The platform features a tag registration system, holds basic social features (e.g. comments, direct messages, groups), and allows you to bookmark works, though the 'premium' upselling can get obnoxious after you realize *how many* features are paywalled.⁴⁾ In addition, Pixiv also has an e-commerce platform called 'Booth', a membership platform called 'Pixiv Fanbox', and a request system where you have to be specific.⁵⁾

On the other hand, the platform can be extremely rough to sift through. Following the AI boom in 2022, Pixiv controversially embraced AI⁶⁾ and slapped on a way to filter out AI,⁷⁾ then AI works had to be banned from 'Pixiv Fanbox' as the amount of people churning out AI to make a profit was getting ridiculous.⁸⁾⁹⁾ There's also the 'regional law' stuff,¹⁰⁾ but the solution isn't very complex.

For artists, it's highly suggested that you avoid filling all 10 slots since this will prevent other users from adding useful tags,¹¹⁾ but do the bare minimum and tack on, at least, 3–5 tags (e.g. tag the source material, tag the characters) so other users can actually find your work.¹²⁾ For all users, Pixiv has community guidelines that prohibit misuse of their tagging system, so you might find these specific passages somewhat useful:

「作品内容に無関係なタグを付加する行為」
“Adding tags that are unrelated to the content of a work”

「本サービスでは、制作過程のすべて、もしくはほとんどをAI（人工知能）を用いて生成した作品に関して、AI生成作品のチェックを必須とします。」
“The Service defines "AI-generated" work as work in which all or most of the production process is carried out by AI (artificial intelligence). All AI-generated work posted to the Service must be labeled as such.”

You can toggle off AI-generated works in search filters or user settings, but this won't stop AI users who don't use the AI toggle, believe an 'AI illustration' (AIイラスト) tag is enough, or maliciously fill all 10 slots to lock people out. For those who have a more nuanced stance to AI, there are userscripts like the Pixiv AI Artwork Marker, which simply adds an 'AI' badge onto the results.

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• Pixiv Toolkit
  A convenient downloading extension. You can also generate GIFs, APNGs, WEBMs, EPUBs, etc.
• Translate Pixiv Tags
  Danbooru-adjacent userscript that attempts to pull a more accurate tag translation.

• In 2008, the company claimed 70% of their userbase lurk, while 30% actually upload content.¹³⁾
• The tagging system has a strict 30-minute cooldown to deter vandalism, but it can be a massive pain if you made a typo or end up attaching the wrong tag because the suggested tags updated.
• On February 26, 2020, they made a project page on Crowdin for tag translations.¹⁴⁾ It sucks.

• Niconico Seiga

• Pixiv - The front page of Pixiv.
  • @pixiv on Twitter - The official Twitter account.
• Pixiv Encyclopedia (English) - The front page of Pixiv Encyclopedia.
  • Pixiv on Pixiv Encyclopedia
• Pixiv + Pixiv Controversy on Niconico Encyclopedia