Regarding the Octavia Melody tag

Is it really necessary to tag Images featuring Octavia with this in addition to the tag Octavia? Especially we knew her as just “Octavia” before hand it seems rather redundant. Same thing goes for the “Lyra heartstrings” tag

They’re found on official merchandise, so they’re “official” names/variations. Especially since they’re not named in the show.
 
They imply each other, so it’s not like you have to type them both out. Putting the Lyra tag will also put in the “Lyra Heartstrings” tag, and vice versa. No extra work for you.

As mentioned, it’s an implication, which are publicly linked to in the Tags page. In cases where there is no official name from the show, we have the implication system add the fanon and toy/other canon names.
 
For example, Trixie is a canon name, so Trixie Lulamoon will not be added and it is aliased to Trixie. Carrot Top is a fanon name, and Golden Harvest is the name used on official merch; adding either will add the other.
 
Why bother? Because people take background pony names very seriously, and this is the best thing we can do to avoid tag wars without resorting to banning someone over it every other day.

What’s wrong with just aliasing names? Having only the newer X pony pics get the extra tag seems wrong.

@Vree  

 
Because if someone went to type in “Derpy Hooves” and the site changed it to “Ditzy Doo”, or vice versa, there would be riots. Same with DJ Pon-3 and Vinyl Scratch. People become irrationally defensive about the names they choose to call ponies, so fanon and canon names have never been (and will likely never be) aliased. Same thing goes for merchandise names. They’re about as official as your average Nigerian prince email. We only use them if there’s nothing else available.

@Vree  

 
So very much this. You have no idea the amount of times I’ve glanced at the tag edits log and seen someone change the name for a character on hundreds of images, because it wasn’t their favourite fanon name or because toy-canon should always replace fanon or vice-versa or whatever. Or the amount of very angry messages I’ve received complaining about these things.
 
We (the site staff) want to be as little involved as possible in these things, because for a lot of people it is serious fucking business. So if a character has two different popular names and one kind of but not very canon one (toys etc.), just let them all be and everyone is happy. The only times we would set up an alias is if the fanon name hasn’t had time to become remotely popular, like if a show staffer reveals a BG pony name hours after the episode is aired or something, or if a character is so amazingly obscure there isn’t even a fanon name (see Lemony Gem).

@The Frowning Pony  
“or if a character is so amazingly obscure there isn’t even a fanon name (see Lemony Gem.”)  
Actually, she went by Lemon Tart prior to the toy.  
Example A  
Example B  
Example C  
If you look at images of her and check the tag changes, you can see the tag get scrubbed from derpibooru about eleven months ago, but it was there.

@Background Pony  
Well, see, that’s a thing that shouldn’t have happened, but there’s always someone with a splintered stick up their ass and a high and mighty opinion on what should and shouldn’t be.
 
There is absolutely no reason to untag an name like that from an image, unless it’s clearly misapplied (name of a different character) or some sort of slur/inside joke no one gets.
 
Sigh.