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What is the author_name in the list of tags on a Flickr photo?

When you call the flickr.photos.getInfo API, each tag is attributed to an author. The author_name is their username, not their realname.

When you look up a photo with the flickr.photos.getInfo API, you get a list of tags on the photo, including the NSID and “authorname” of the Flickr member who added the tag.

Here’s an example (emphasis mine):

<rsp stat="ok">
  <photo id="2179931434"…>
    …
    <tags>
      <
        tag id="8602872-2179931434-6656"
        author="7745644@N04"
        authorname="allenellisdewitt"
        raw="farming" machine_tag="0">farming</tag>
    </tags>
  </photo>
</rsp>

A Flickr member can have two names: a username and a realname. Which is it?

We can confirm that it’s the username with the flickr.people.getInfo API.

<rsp stat="ok">
  <person id="7745644@N04" …>
    <username>allenellisdewitt</username>
    <realname>Allen DeWitt</realname>
    …
  </person>
</rsp>