Posted under Tags
BUR #5642 has been rejected.
create alias robot_ears -> mechanical_ears
Redundant tags and the wikis don't make enough of a distinction for having two tags. Aliasing to mechanical_ears for consistency with other mechanical_* tags, though I think the more detailed wiki page from robot_ears should be transferred over.
We should have a way to differentiate between mechanical animal ears (post #4551210, post #4546148) and classic robot ears (post #4555271), but robot vs mechanical is a terrible naming distinction. I guess we could create mechanical animal ears or something and implicate it to the main tag.
Disagree.
Mechanical Ears refer to, well well, mechanical ears in general, while robot ears is used for those android earpiece/headpiece thingies you see very often on android and certain humanoid robot characters (especially on 90's/early 2000's works like Chobits), analogous in aesthetics if not also in function to the human ears. And while robot ears may often technically be mechanical ears, this is not the case for people doing cosplay (or just wearing fancily-styled headphones), as in post #3646495 and post #3644760.
Another issue is that a lot of the robot ears don't visually appear mechanical (this is particularly true for older copyrights which seem to favor less detailing on such "robot ears"). Most of the time they just look like fancy headphones or earpieces, or angular hair accessories. Which is why a lot of robot ears posts don't get tagged with mechanical ears; just take a look at robot_ears -mechanical_ears.
Likewise, I would not use robot ears for, say ears that don't conform to one of the stereotypical "robot ears" patterns, even if they appear on an actual android/humanoid robot. If they appear mechanical then I will tag them mechanical ears. If they also look like animal ears, then they also get the respective animal ear tag and a fake animal ears tag on top.
(Granted, they is some overlap between classic "robot ears" and "cat ears", because some of the usual 'patterns' are basically just oversized cat ears. Though most of the older ones like those found on Chii have them mounted on the sides of the head instead of the top, so not appropriate for the cat ears tag.)
Or, to rephrase things a bit, "robot ears" (as currently used) may be neither "mechanical" nor are "ears", making the alias/implication inappropriate.
So, overall, there is some overlap between the two tags, but they both describe visually distant things, so, no, I am strongly against aliasing one to the other, or even implicating them. In particular, importing the robot ears wiki over to the mechanical ears one would be grossly inappropriate. I do, however, acknowledge that the name for robot ears might be confusing, so perhaps we might need a rename to something less likely to cause confusion.
Updated
Clean these tags up and write good wikis for them, otherwise I'm aliasing them. Glancing at the tags, I don't see an obvious difference between the two. They're both tagged the same thing on Pixiv (mekamimi). I have no patience for these "I'm going to argue this to death on the forum then fuck off and not do anything to fix it" type situations.
Wikis rewritten. Specific examples and descriptions provided, even. Also came up with ad-hoc 'categories' ("types") to better organize the examples. Language may not ideal and have a sufficiently neutral tone for wiki purposes (because I had to work on them on short notice), so someone should go over them.
Anyhow, as previously mentioned, these are two distinct concepts that describe visually different things. And, unlike, say, the leaf fan/uchiwa pair which was frequently 'misused' (IMHO), people who tag one tend not to tag the other, as can be seen in robot_ears -mechanical_ears or mechanical_ears -robot_ears searches. People know what they want to tag, and what they want to search. So, really, unlike most other 'confusing' examples up for aliasing, barely any tag gardening is needed for disambiguation anyway.
To further clarify: the robot_ears is used to describe a common visual design element found on android and humanoid robot characters. Especially on 90s/2000s manga/anime, where it is used as a visual shorthand for "I am a robot", that the audience can tell at a glance even if the character is barely visible. They often do not appear to resemble actual biological ears, but instead take the form of headpieces that look like headphones or headsets. They are only called 'ears' because they are perceived to be the android analogue of human ears, as they are 'mounted' in a similar location and are implied to hold sensors.
Meanwhile the mechanical_* line of tags describe mechanical appendages that imitate their biological counterparts. So mechanical legs should look like legs, mechanical arms should look like arms, mechanical tail should look like tails, and... mechanical ears should look like ears, and not... HEADPHONES.
(And there's a whole subcategory of robot_ears that are basically just "a specific variant of headphones-looking robot ears". Which we should probably consider an implication for, now that I think about it.)
Furthermore, while robot_ears often imply that their 'wearers' are, well, robots (or at least someone trying to cosplay as one or give off a 'robotic' feel), the mechanical_* line does not, as those can often be prostheses or equipment instead.
(This is also why we call the tag robot joints "robot_joints" instead of "mechanical_joints". It's a related tag, one also used as a shorthand for, again, "This character is a robot", though it is far less visible than robot_ears.)
Though again, I do acknowledge that the potential for confusion does exist, so maybe we should rename the robot ears tag to something like robot_earpiece instead.
Edit: One last thing: Unlike the leaf fan/uchiwa pair (which I only care because I am a pedant), more people are likely to care about the robot_ears, mechanical ears distinction. Current vote on the alias is a 50/50 split, with many senior users against (and also for), and personally I think most people would want a tag just for Multi/Chachamaru-style ears. If we force the alias through, someone is going to object to it in the future and try to raise another forum thread to suggest a reversal, or to come up with their own tag to retag this (which I highly suspect will be robot_earpiece or some variant).
Updated
Perhaps instead of simply calling them robot ears perhaps something like robot ear modules, robot ear units or something similar might nudge people away from trying to tag any mechanical ear as a robot ear.
I'd also suggest perhaps having robotic ears be aliased to mechanical ears, to help those about to use the robot ears tag notice there is another similar tag.
NWF_Renim said:
Perhaps instead of simply calling them robot ears perhaps something like robot ear modules, robot ear units or something similar might nudge people away from trying to tag any mechanical ear as a robot ear.
I'd also suggest perhaps having robotic ears be aliased to mechanical ears, to help those about to use the robot ears tag notice there is another similar tag.
Seconded.
Anyhow, got into the right frame of mind and updated & rewrote both wikis with examples and usage notes. Usage notes for mechanical ears is... somewhat complicated though. Basically the issue is that mechanical fake animal ears count as mechanical ears (makes sense, and is how they are consistently tagged). But these same ears are also sometimes tacked onto things that don't normally count as mechanical ears, such as on earphones or on robot ears headpieces, so the overall 'headgear' now counts for mechanical ears by sole virtue of the "mechanical fake animal ears" add-on themselves, even if the rest of the 'headgear' don't count.
The bulk update request #5642 (forum #187060) has been rejected by @evazion.
