In addition to the sidebar on the right, the links below will take you to the broad categories within the Scenes page. Additional links to more specific sections will also be listed after the jump. The Getting Started section covers all subjects relating to scenes, but is limited to advice and explanations. Firm guidelines that you are expected to follow are instead found in the links directly below it. These cover more specific situations within each subject than the Getting Started sections. Breaking them may risk rejected submissions. If you still have any questions, feel free to ask in the #stashbox-general or #ministry-of-truth channel on Discord.
- Getting Started: Scenes
- Adding Scenes
- Scene Performers
- Scene Dates
- Scene Titles
- Scene Descriptions
- Movies / DVDs
Getting Started: Scenes
The following sections are general advice and explanations for potentially confusing aspects in our database for scenes. Because they don't represent explicit decisions concerning database management or curation, they do not require formal approval.
- Check Duplicate Scenes
Search using keywords, filters, and PHashes.
- Check Scene Performers
Find missing performers and avoid ambiguous entries.
- Scene Edit Comments
Say what you're doing, why you're doing it, and what your sources are.
Check Duplicate Scenes
Search using keywords, filters, and PHashes.
Before submitting a scene to StashDB, always check for duplicates first. Duplicates will likely be rejected or removed. If you couldn't find a match through Stash's Scene Tagger, the easiest way to check is to rely on PHash detection when submitting a draft to StashDB. Your draft edit will have a warning sign (⚠) at the top if your PHash matches existing scenes in the database. These are not always duplicate scenes and may be due to someone submitting incorrect fingerprints. Duplicates may also be found by searching for the title on StashDB or by filtering by studio on a performer's page. Also be aware that even if your scene isn't on StashDB yet, someone could have a pending edit to create the same scene. Best way to check for this is to click the favorite star (⭐) on the relevant studio or performer in your submission and filter for favorites in pending scene creations on the Edits page.
Check Scene Performers
Find missing performers and avoid ambiguous entries.
When submitting a new scene, make sure that you are not missing any performers. If they are listed on the studio page, in the title, or in the description, you will be expected to include them in your submission. Also make sure that none of your included performers link to ambiguous performer entries. These are most often single-name performers with nothing in their disambiguation field. Both of these may put your scene creation at risk of being rejected.
Scene Edit Comments
Say what you're doing, why you're doing it, and what your sources are.
Regardless of what kind of edit you're submitting, always include in the comment field what you are doing and why. Bigger or more drastic changes will likely require longer comments, but simple changes likely won't need much. Also please remember to note what you are using as the source of your edit when appropriate. These notes will be helpful when considering further edits in addition to justifying your actions now to those who will be voting on it.
Adding Scenes
The following sections have been formally approved unless stated otherwise. Contributors are still expected to follow any unconfirmed guidelines, but should know that they are subject to change in the near future. Failure to follow any of these guidelines may result in rejected submissions.
- Duplicate Scenes
No exact duplicates, prefer to keep entries with more fingerprints.
- Remasters, Redistributions, and Re-Releases
Distinct remasters/redistributions/re-releases are allowed for studio releases, but cross-posted amateur releases only need one entry.
- PornHub Scenes
Must be original scenes made and uploaded by verified creators.
Duplicate Scenes
No exact duplicates, prefer to keep entries with more fingerprints.
Exact duplicates should always be rejected or removed. Exceptions may be made for remasters, rereleases, and redistributions in some cases. When deleting duplicate scenes, our preference is to keep the entry with the higher number of unique fingerprints and/or fingerprint submissions.
Unconfirmed guideline, subject to change pending formal approval.
Remasters, Redistributions, and Re-Releases
Distinct remasters/redistributions/re-releases are allowed with unique studio links, but cross-posted amateur releases only need one entry.
Remasters (higher quality release of an old scene by the same network/studio), redistributions (cross-network releases), and re-releases (same network releases again) are allowed when they have a unique scene entry and URL on a studio website. The preferred scene date is the release date of that particular release, not the original's release date. Production dates should not be used for this field either. If a studio changes the release date displayed on their website to make an old scene appear newer, this is not considered a re-release requiring a separate scene entry. All relevant fields including title, description, thumbnail, and scene alias should be sourced from that particular release and not from other releases. Also, please attach a Remastered or Redistributions tag when appropriate.
Note that the above only applies to a "studio website." Self-produced content is often released on multiple amateur platforms but each release does not require a separate entry on StashDB. Amateur scenes are organized by creator not by platform and scenes are the same way. Use the oldest known release date and whatever the "best" source appears to be for other fields like title, description, thumbnail, etc. There is no specific guidance on what is considered the "best" at this time, so just rely on your own judgment.
PornHub Scenes
Must be original scenes made and uploaded by verified creators.
Scenes from PornHub must be original content uploaded by verified creators. Scenes uploaded by a third party are not allowed. Trailers and abridged scenes from major studios are not allowed. Fan-created content like compilations or PMVs are not allowed. Adding scenes with simply "PornHub" as the studio is not allowed. Scenes must use a sub-studio for the content creator instead.
Unconfirmed guideline, subject to change pending formal approval.
Scene Performers
The following sections have been formally approved unless stated otherwise. Contributors are still expected to follow any unconfirmed guidelines, but should know that they are subject to change in the near future. Failure to follow any of these guidelines may result in rejected submissions.
- Missing Scene Performers
Must include performers listed anywhere on linked webpages, including descriptions.
- Ambiguous Scene Performers
Must avoid ambiguous performer entries, creating new disambiguated entries when necessary.
- Preferred Scene Aliases
Should be the name officially credited to the performer at the time of release.
Missing Scene Performers
Must include performers listed anywhere on linked webpages, including descriptions.
All active performers listed in the details, title, URL, or a linked webpage should be included when adding or editing a scene. This includes male performers in straight scenes. Please note in your edit comment why any performers are not included in your submission. Finding names for missing performers on recommended databases (IAFD, Data18, etc.) is greatly encouraged, but often not required.
Unconfirmed guideline, subject to change pending formal approval.
Ambiguous Scene Performers
Must avoid ambiguous performer entries, creating new disambiguated entries when necessary.
Ambiguous performers should not be added to a scene entry. You should always try to find a properly disambiguated performer entry for your scene. If no entry exists yet for your performer, you will need to create one.
Unconfirmed guideline, subject to change pending formal approval.
Preferred Scene Aliases
Should be the name officially credited to the performer at the time of release.
The scene alias can be entered into the field immediately to the right of the performer in the scene edit form. This should be used for whatever name was used as the performer's official credit at the time of release from the original source. It should not be used for character names unless it also serves as the performer's official credit. To be clear, contributors aren't expected to consult the Wayback Machine to verify every single scene alias in their submissions. Whatever the studio link currently lists is usually a reliable default, but editors should try to use the correct name for this field when there's a discrepancy in the description, on the scene cover, in IAFD credits, etc.
Scene Dates
The following sections have been formally approved unless stated otherwise. Contributors are still expected to follow any unconfirmed guidelines, but should know that they are subject to change in the near future. Failure to follow any of these guidelines may result in rejected submissions.
- Preferred Scene Dates
Earliest known release date, or closest approximate date.
Preferred Scene Dates
Earliest known release date, or closest approximate date.
The earliest known release date for a scene is always the preferred scene date. Production dates should not be used for this field. For remasters/redistributions/re-releases, the earliest release date refers to that particular release and not the original scene. Approximate dates may be accepted if no exact release date can be sourced or verified. Stash-Box will allow you to omit the day or month in these situations.
Unconfirmed guideline, subject to change pending formal approval.
Scene Titles
The following sections have been formally approved unless stated otherwise. Contributors are still expected to follow any unconfirmed guidelines, but should know that they are subject to change in the near future. Failure to follow any of these guidelines may result in rejected submissions.
- Preferred Scene Titles
Original official scene titles are preferred.
- Preferred Title Language
English titles are preferred when provided by official website.
Preferred Scene Titles
Original official scene titles are preferred.
Original scene titles provided by the official studio website are always the preferred scene title. Scene titles that have been modified by the studio after its original release should not be used as the scene title on StashDB.
Unconfirmed guideline, subject to change pending formal approval.
Preferred Title Language
English titles are preferred when provided by official website.
Some studios offer multiple language options on their official website. In these situations, the English versions of scene titles and descriptions are preferred for StashDB. If there is no official English translation available, the next best option is the original language.
Scene Descriptions
The following sections have been formally approved unless stated otherwise. Contributors are still expected to follow any unconfirmed guidelines, but should know that they are subject to change in the near future. Failure to follow any of these guidelines may result in rejected submissions.
- Preferred Scene Descriptions
Original official descriptions are preferred.
- Correcting Scene Descriptions
Descriptions should be unaltered from the original studio source in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
- Preferred Description Language
English description are preferred when provided by official website.
Preferred Scene Descriptions
Original official descriptions are preferred.
Original descriptions provided by the official studio website are always the preferred scene description. Descriptions that have been modified by the studio after its original release should not be used in the details field on StashDB. If the studio does not have a unique description for the scene, the details field should be left blank. Auto-generated placeholder descriptions provided by the studio (sometimes referred to as "boilerplate" descriptions) are not considered unique and should not be included. Descriptions provided by a source other than the official studio should also not be included.
Unconfirmed guideline, subject to change pending formal approval.
Correcting Scene Descriptions
Descriptions should be unaltered from the original studio source in spelling, capitalization, grammar, and punctuation.
Even when the studio description has obvious grammatical or typographical errors, it should be preserved as it originally appeared. This includes misspellings, incorrect punctuation, odd capitalization, etc. However, exceptions can be made for obvious technical errors introduced by a bad scrape or website update. This includes encoding errors on special characters, obvious glitches with whitespace, visible HTML tags instead of line breaks, etc.
Unconfirmed guideline, subject to change pending formal approval.
Preferred Description Language
English description are preferred when provided by official website.
Some studios offer multiple language options on their official website. In these situations, the English versions of scene titles and descriptions are preferred for StashDB. If there is no official English translation available, the next best option is the original language.
Movies / DVDs
The following sections have been formally approved unless stated otherwise. Contributors are still expected to follow any unconfirmed guidelines, but should know that they are subject to change in the near future. Failure to follow any of these guidelines may result in rejected submissions.
- Full DVD Entries
Full movies only allowed for JAV releases or western releases available directly from official studio websites.
Full DVD Entries
Full movies only allowed for JAV releases or western releases available directly from official studio websites.
Scene entries that represent full movies are only accepted in limited circumstances. Full movies that only have retailers (Adult DVD Empire, Hot Movies, etc.) or databases (IAFD, Data18, etc.) as their source will not be accepted. JAV movies have been granted an exception for now since they come almost exclusively as full movie downloads instead of split scenes. Exceptions may be granted for full movies that have an official studio website as its source that provides downloads of the full movie as a single file, but this is not guaranteed. We still ask that you hold off until further software developments can be made to better support movies in StashDB.
Unconfirmed guideline, subject to change pending formal approval.