Alright, after running this blog for over a year I've decided to make an actual pinned post—complete with a guide to my tagging system.
First off, who am I?
I am the sole moderator of dinosquad-central, obviously. You may call me Dino Mod, and I use any pronouns, including neopronouns that do not begin with x or z.
My Favorite characters are Caruso and Buzz. I don't actually know that much about dinosaurs in general; I just think they're neat. I'm the event coordinator on the Dino Squad discord server. And I love getting asks! (Although sometimes it takes me a day or two to answer them)
I tag posts with #dino mod to indicate that they are either original posts from me, or things I've reblogged wherein I added something to the body of the post, rather than just the tags. So if you want to browse my thoughts on the show, that's the tag to do it.
Now that you know who I am, what's Dino Squad and where can you watch it?
Dino Squad is a 2007 cartoon about five teenagers who can turn into dinosaurs, and you can watch it for free on YouTube. The first episode is called "The Beginning", but the series is episodic, so the order you watch doesn't really matter after that. If you want to watch in in order, there's an episode list on IMDB.
In the immortal words of my original pinned post, reblogged from @/deerlyloved: "Dinosquad is so bad please watch it forever 😌"
If you already know Dino Squad and want to hang out with other fans, we have a discord server! Anyone is welcome to join.
Is there anything else you should know?
Yeah, a couple of things, actually. But this is already getting long, so I'll continue under the readmore.
Firstly, I need to give credit where credit is due, and make sure y'all know that the person who made the banner I use for this blog, which is also the quintessential "there's like five of us" dinosquad fandom meme, is @scoutbot. Everyone say "thank you, scoutbot!"
My profile pic, on the other hand, is lifted from official Dino Squad promotional material, but if anyone wants to draw me a new one, I'd be willing to trade you a fic for it—DM me if interested.
Secondly, there's one type of tag I don’t list in the tag guide, and that's the type I use to fawn all over everybody's Dino Squad posts. In such a small fandom, every time someone makes something new for it, they do so knowing it won't get much engagement, so I want to make sure they get at least one person who with enthusiastically give a kind, thoughtful, personalized comment on their post. Creating for a small fandom can feel thankless, but I want to mitigate that as much as possible by saying thank you thank you thank you for hanging out with us and participating in our fandom.
I'll mention it a few times in this post, but as long as you tag a post with #dino squad (as one word or two) I am basically guaranteed to see it, and I'll reblog almost anything in this fandom. So if you want more of the stuff you like, I strongly encourage you to create it! I love to see new takes and new faces in this fandom, and I will always lift you up.
I think that’s it.
Wait, didn't I say something about a tagging guide?
Buckle in, because my tagging system is extensive and thorough.
Lets start with Basic Tags.
Every post about the show (which is 99% of what I post, since this is a Dino Squad blog) is tagged with both #dino squad (two words) and #dinosquad (one word).
In most other tags that feature the name of the show, I use the one word version, for consistency. More on that later.
Posts that are not about the show, usually either dinosaur/paleontology related posts, or occasionally technical information about this blog itself, are tagged with #not dinosquad. For cool dino fun facts and art, this is the tag to explore.
Every post on this blog contains at least one of these tags.
Next, how about some Character Tags.
Whenever a character is mentioned or very strongly implied in a post, I tag it with their full name, similar to AO3's character tags. You can follow any of these links to read every post featuring that character.
#Victor Veloci—That's his name, don't wear it out!
#Joanne Moynihan—AKA Ms. Moynihan, beloved mentor of the squad
#Rolf Maxwell—AKA Max, the squad's fearless leader
#Fiona Flagstaff—The Girl™
#Rodger Blair—Smartest kid in school
#Neil Buzzmati—AKA Buzz, the one who likes "punk stuff"
#Erwin Caruso—Yeah, his first name is Erwin
#Peter (Veloci's Assistant)—Remember him? Appears once in the first episode and never again?
#Rump (dinosquad)—The squad's pet dino-dog
#Liam (dinosquad)—Fan favorite autistic character
#Terri Flagstaff—Fiona's sister
#Winifred the Snake—Buzz's pet python
Obviously, some of these characters are going to have more posts in their tag than others, simply because people like and post about some characters more than others. If you want more post about your favorite character, Make Them. As long as you tag your posts with the fandom, I can basically guarantee I'll find them and reblog them to this blog.
That's not all, though, because there are also a lot of original fandom characters, and I tag for those, too.
If you want to see all of them, I use the tag #dinosquad oc on every post that features one, but I also tag them with the OC's name, in case you're curious about a specific one.
#Vega Veloci—Teenage transfem lesbian clone of Victor Veloci, created by @prometheus-adam
#Violette Veloci—Another female teenage clone of Vitor Veloci (though which one of them is trans is left to interpretation), created by @ufolvr
#Valentino Veloci—Male teenage clone of Victor Veloci, created by @al-gay-tor
#Iggy and Chloe—A pair of OCs by @musekicker who will be given individual tags when they have full names
#Gyrian Maelstrom—Buzz's dad who works for RaptorDyne and is also a dinosaur, created by @ufolvr
#Moss 'Rat King'—RaptorDyne employee self-insert, created by @hotratking5592
#Thysbe Ginko—RaptorDyne employee favored by Victor Veloci, created by @boysiinberry
#Miss Disma and Mouche—Head of PR at Raptordyne and her assistant, created by @boysiinberry
#Kalyeen—Raptordyne grunt, created by @boysiinberry
A lot of people seem to think that Veloci would be into cloning—can't say I would argue with them lol. On the discord server, people have shared way more OCs than this, but I can only reblog the ones that get posted about on tumblr. I anticipate this list will grow.
Ship Tags are a subset of character tags
Like with characters, if a ship is explicitly mentioned or strongly implied in a post, I will tag it with a ship tag in the format of characterA x characterB where A is the character whose surname comes first alphabetically. Posts about ships are also tagged with #Shipping.
#Rodger x Max—Those who like this ship often cite S1E2 "Growth Potential" as one reason
#Buzz x Caruso—Those who like this ship have cited S1E12 "Not so Great Outdoors" as one reason
#Moynihan x Veloci—A ship that is much more popular on the discord server than on tumblr
#Peter x Veloci—Remember Peter? Appears once in the first episode and then never again?
#Fiona x Vega—Ship between Fiona and @prometheus-adam's OC, Vega Veloci
#Caruso x Max—Those who like this ship have cited S2E10 "Scents and Scents Ability" as one reason
#Ginko x Veloci—Ship between Victor Veloci and @boysiinberry's OC, Thysbe Ginko
Most of the ship tags are pretty lightly populated, some only have one post. Suffice it to say, shippers are a minority in this fandom, but I still dutifully tag ships when they appear. If you want to see more of your fave ships, or have an idea for a ship not on this list, Create for it! I will happily reblog any ship for this fandom.
Now, let me tell you about my Categorical Tags
If you're looking for a specific type of post, for example, if you just want to scroll through all the headcanon posts, or all the fanart, that's what the categorical tags are for. These tags are usually accompanied by the word 'dinosquad' somewhere in there, and many of them are listed as featured tags on this blog as well.
#Ask—Someone sent me an ask to which I decided to post a public reply
#Character Analysis—These posts will always be tagged with the character being analyzed as well
#Crossover—These posts will always be tagged with both the other fandom in the crossover, and the primary character(s) from the other fandom that feature in the crossover
#Dinosquad AU—Posts about the Dino Squad characters or concepts in an alternate universe, whether it's completely different, or just minor canon divergence
#Dinosquad Fanart—Also tagged with #art and #fanart, in addition to the fandom specific tag
#Dinosquad Fic—Fan writing, typically, but not always, in the form of a link to Archive of Our Own
#Dinosquad Headcanons—Posts containing either a single headcanon, or a list of headcanons regarding the characters or world of the show
#Dinosquad Meta—Posts about the technical aspects of the show, like animation or writing, as opposed to the plot/characters/etc.
#Dinosquad Theory—Theories about the show, both in regard to the plot/characters, and the production (but usually the former)
#Episode Review—Posts in which a specific episode of the show is being analyzed, summarized, or otherwise reviewed
#Incorrect Dinosquad—Also tagged with #incorrect quotes, in addition to the fandom specific tag
#Poll—Posts that have at least one poll in them
#Prompt—Idea(s) meant to inspire the creativity of the members of this fandom. General prompts are distinct from the Dinosquad Monthly Prompts in that anyone can post them at any time. (more on the monthly prompts later)
#Rereblog—Posts that have been on this blog before but I'm reblogging again, either because something new has been added to them, or because there was nothing new for me to post, so I picked some old favorites to pad my queue. This tag stands in the place of all the things I originally tagged the post with, so when I use it I'll only add tags that apply to the new reblog
Most of these tags are self explanatory. Many have sub-categorical tags, which I've included either in the descriptions above, or in the Content Tags section.
After that come the Content Tags
Content tags tell you what's in the post, aside from characters, obviously.
#From the Dinosquad Discord Server—Posts containing content which was screen-shot or copy/pasted from the fandom discord server
#Dinosquad Monthly Prompt—The monthly prompts are part of an ongoing, year-round event hosted by the fandom discord server. Posts in this tag include not only the monthly prompts themselves, but also art and fic created to fill the monthly prompt. Members of the fandom server can DM me on discord to suggest prompts.
#Dinosquad Secret Santa 2022—We did a fandom holiday gift exchange in 2022 and posts with this tags are the gifts created for it
#Digital Art and #Traditional Art—Two self-explanatory sub-categorical tags for Dino Squad fanart
#Feathered Dino Forms—Posts wherein the characters' dino forms are described as or drawn having feathers
#Overheard at RaptorDyne—Posts about working at RaptorDyne, mostly incorrect quotes.
#Max Gets No Respect—Posts about the squad disrespecting Max, also mostly incorrect quotes
#Morally Gray Ms. Moynihan—Posts talking about the possibility of Ms. Moynihan keeping the kids dinosaurs on purpose, or similar theories/headcanons/AUs/etc.
#Trans Buzz—Posts regarding the popular headcanon that Buzz is a trans man
#LGBT+—Posts containing queer content, such as sexuality/gender identity headcanons for characters
#Trans—Same as above, but for specifically trans-related content
#Screencaps—Posts containing screen captures from the show
#Memes—Posts containing memes either related to the show or otherwise
There are probably a few more character-specific ones that I have forgotten, but I'll keep updating this tag guide continually as needed.
There is no #Gay Caruso tag because... well... Caruso. That would be every post about him lol. Maybe one day I'll go through his character tag and add it to every post where it's relevant but it'll have to wait until I'm really, really bored.
Lastly, I have Warning Tags
I don't really have warning tags for things that were in the show, like I'm not gonna have a warning tag for sharp teeth or carnivorous eating habits, because... well... it's a show about dinosaurs. If you had a problem with that kind of thing, you probably wouldn't be here. I also won't use the CW tags for passing mentions—my thinking is that if something's not really in the post I don't really need to tag for it.
#Cursing—I know most people don't have a problem with explicit language, but this blog is technically for a kids' show, so there it is
#Blood CW—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of blood
#Injury CW—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of one or more injuries
#Death CW—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of death
#Body Horror—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of body horror (excluding dinosaur tranformations)
#Long Post—For posts that are more than two screen-lengths on mobile. I will not tag something as a long post if it has a readmore, unless the part before the readmore is longer than 2 screen-lengths.
If there is anything not on this list you would like me to have a warning tag for, or if there's a post you think should have one of these warnings, but I forgot to add it, just shoot me a DM, or an ask, and 99% of the time, I will gladly add a warning tag.
Well done making it to the end! GOOooo GO DINO!
