iridescent_slime said:
That's another problem with this tag. It contradicts our years-old definition of "long" as "reaching past the shoulders". Using two completely different definitions of "long" depending on whether or not the hair is braided is absolutely bonkers. We already have a tag for hair that reaches the butt: very_long_hair. There's no reason to make this more complicated than it has to be.
The point of the tag is for braids that are longer than the standard length of a braid. "Standard length" would probably vary depending on who you ask, but I'm sure it would average out. For me, I would expect the average braid to reach anywhere from above the shoulder down to the middle of the back. Anything longer than that would be "long" and I don't think consistency with other tags is the thing that matters most here. I certainly don't think it makes things complicated.
If it matters that much, then we can change the definition to match standard danbooru length definitions, though I really don't agree with doing so. Even if we do that, it still doesn't change the fact that any search that doesn't include long braid will be filled largely with posts that don't match.
Using the current definition:
1.) Braid+long hair is filled with Kirisame Marisa, Hong Meiling, Shirakami Fubuki, and plenty of other characters with long hair and short braids, as well as images of characters with short braids and additional characters with long hair, such as an image of Izayoi Sakuya together with Reisen Udongein Inaba.
2.) Braid+very long hair has the exact same problem.
3.) Replacing Braid with single braid in either search has the same problem, as well excluding any characters with multiple braids.
4.) Replacing braid with braided ponytail mostly works in the very long hair search, but the additional character issue persists, and the long hair search is messier, and it excludes anyone whose braid(s) don't include a ponytail, such as Purple Heart.
Using the danbooru standard for hair length:
1.) The previously listed characters fit in more cases, but are still often false positives, and the problem of multiple characters with different hairstyles still exists.
2.) Same as point 1.
3.) All the same problems as before.
4.) Works now for both searches, but still excludes characters whose braids don't include a ponytail, along with the persistent multiple character issue.
All of this said, even in the cases where Kirisame Marisa's braid reaches past her shoulders, that's not what I would be looking for if I was trying to find "long braids", nor would I be looking for things like post #3850430, and finding what I'm looking for is a lot harder without the tag.
I don't agree even the slightest with altering the tag's definition just to make it "consistent", I don't see how its current definition at all hinders any potential usage of it or creates conflict with other tags, nor is it difficult to understand. But deleting it entirely when no currently existing tags or combination of tags would find exactly what it's intended for without an unacceptable amount of noise is much less preferable.