Why do we use pools for subjective things?

I don't get it. As far as I know, the primary difference between a pool and a tag is that they appear in different places on an image (with pools, generally, being a bit more noticeable / intrusive, though I guess that's subjective), and that pools preserve ordering.

What do those things have to do with subjectivity? Why are subjective pools all right when subjective tags aren't?

I'm just sort of curious; I don't care that much either way (though I can see why we don't have subjective tags), but it seems weird to me to keep seeing "turn it into a pool" as a suggestion for dealing with something subjective, since none of the actual functional changes that implies seem like they'd make a difference.

Because anyone can make pools, and therefore can make any dumb pool they want.

Xabid said: What do those things have to do with subjectivity? Why are subjective pools all right when subjective tags aren't?

It was just a decision that was made at some point that the tag list should always be factual information.

It probably arose from a time before we really used pools much, and wanted to remove tags like cute or sexy. In some cases people still wanted this information conveyed somehow, so since it'd been kicked out of the tag list, pools were the only real place to go.

Pools are also a better place for long titles than tags.

I don't think there's a perfect explanation but for whatever reason I much prefer it the way it is now. The tag list being very factual and to the point is a good thing in my eyes.

There have been proposals to add a 'subjective' tag type to go along with 'artist', 'character', and the like, leaving pools for sequential art alone; I think most users would agree that such proposals make more sense than using pools, but general indifference has kept it from being implemented.

Not so much indifference, but the concious decision that introducing new tag types will cause issues with any of them being very useful.

It's easy to see the three marked tag types we have now, if there were a dozen tag types, it would become difficult to get anything out of the rainbow of tags created.

I've actually been one that spoke out in favor of new tag types in the past, but I understand the argument against them.

Incidentally, I find having the four translation tags coloured black to be very convenient and not at all confusing to they eye. (Using a Greasemonkey script.)

If albert were to add subjective tag types, I wonder if it would be possible to have them sort at the end of the taglist. Maybe that's something to ask about for Danbooru 2?

Suiseiseki said:
If albert were to add subjective tag types, I wonder if it would be possible to have them sort at the end of the taglist.

Or perhaps have the option to hide them completely?

The "meta" tag type I keep campaigning for for things outside the content of the image itself like translated, low_res, jpeg_artifacts would also be useful to be sorted or hidden from the rest.

On the other hand, multiple pool bars clutter the post display, whereas additional tags don't matter much.

If pools could be merged into one bar it'd be much less objectionable to use pools for subjective tags.

For instance in post #270970, it could be something like this in just one pool bar:

Pools: << Chibi Miku-san >> << Disgustingly Adorable >>

Pools have some features that make them more manageable than tags; they have a history that makes it easy to keep track of new additions and removals, they have a listed owner that can be seen as responsible for the pool, and if necessary, they can be set to private so only the owner may add and remove posts.

The use of subjective pools have kind of ballooned lately though. At the first page in the pool listing, a full half of the pools are subjective right now, which is a bit annoying if you want to follow the 'real' pools.

It would be nice if the wishy-washy humbug pools were marked so they could get a separate listing, and so they could be displayed in a way that didn't interfere with navigation through series. Maybe they could be restricted to priv+, too, to stem the "new to the internet" effect a bit. Just saying... (We can't restrict normal pools, obviously, as they're necessary for normal uploading duties.)

glasnost said: There have been proposals to add a 'subjective' tag type to go along with 'artist', 'character', and the like, leaving pools for sequential art alone; I think most users would agree that such proposals make more sense than using pools, but general indifference has kept it from being implemented.

Even if we did "subjective" tags I'd still want them well isolated from the objective tag list. I also think they're less likely to be maintained properly for reasons zatchii cited, but it's hard to know without trying. At any rate, I'm not big on subjective tagging OR subjective pools... I don't like subjectivity in general for danbooru's purposes.

As for a tagtype color of black, I have to oppose that on the purely selfish grounds that I use a black background for danbooru and reading them would be a pain =P

Although looking at it again, I suppose I could just tweak my stylish script to turn the "tag-type-translation" (or whatever) class to another color.

Well anyway that's getting off topic.

Shinjidude said: The "meta" tag type I keep campaigning for for things outside the content of the image itself like translated, low_res, jpeg_artifacts would also be useful to be sorted or hidden from the rest.

I'm for keeping tagtypes very limited but yes this is one I support.

...also off topic though I suppose.

Shinjidude said:
The "meta" tag type I keep campaigning for for things outside the content of the image itself like translated, low_res, jpeg_artifacts would also be useful to be sorted or hidden from the rest.

I like this idea. If any new tag type should be implemented, this is it.

Though I also wouldn't be a opposed to having a tag type for seiyuu and other real people, rather than grouping them with characters.