Q: Why do some tags return a lot fewer images than the number listed?
A: Currently, deleted images are not fully removed from the site except in extreme circumstances; rather, they are just hidden. These hidden images are still in the database, so they still get counted in the tag count. This can make a very big difference in old, depreciated tags, where despite the tag being changed to something else on all of the active images, it's still there on the deleted images, which might be quite numerous. It can also make a large difference in large tags in general. The larger a tag is, the more deleted images it is likely to be counting. Some large tags have 1,000+ deleted images that are still being counted.