Inner tube & swim ring

move innertube -> swim_ring

Swim ring is what this device most often referred to as. It also matches the other swim_* tags. Inner_tube tag should be reserved for the dark color and thick texture variety of tube ring.

reverse alias innertube -> inner_tube

Personally I've always seen it being written as inner tube so... Correct me if that's not true.

remove alias lifesaver -> innertube
create alias lifebuoy -> lifesaver
create implication lifesaver -> swim_ring

A lifesaver/lifebuoy (e.g. post #959984, post #949967) has its own distinctive appearance and I think it should be a subset tag.

Sal.N said:
Swim ring is what this device most often referred to as. It also matches the other swim_* tags.

Yet a google search has 721k results for "swim tube" and yet 1.28m results for '"inner tube" swimming' (side note: '"swim tube" swimming' gives you 423k results). Probably doesn't help that you can use a real inner tube for swimming and likely are not visually distinguishable from a "swim ring" outside that made for swimming swim rings have a lot more color choices.

I think the usage of "inner tube" or "innertube" is better because it is broader and likely accurately refers to inflatable rings that likely got their origin from the original tire inner tube being utilized for different purposes. Notably, this would allow the tag to cover snow tubes should they ever pop up, as these can be visually identical to some of the "swim rings."

Another note is that a recreational variation of water polo using "swim tubes" is officially called "inner tube water polo ."

As you said, real tire inner tube can be used for swimming, which explains that text search result. In cases like these, it's better to use Google Images:

This is what >95% of 'innertube' posts on Danbooru depict. I think swim_ring is the word we should use.

Inner tubes bring to mind of most people a different image. They're visually distinct (dark color, plain design, non-transparent, thick texture). If anything, we should reserve the tag inner_tube for them because they're much, much harder to find. If they're being used as swimming devices, tag the pic with both inner_tube and swim_ring. If they're tires, just inner_tube.

Still because of the overwhelming number of swim rings under 'innertube' tags right now, there should be mass edit to swim_rings and then clean up later. I'll change the alias request in the OP to moving.

Sal.N said:

As you said, real tire inner tube can be used for swimming, which explains that text search result. In cases like these, it's better to use Google Images:

This is what >95% of 'innertube' posts on Danbooru depict. I think swim_ring is the word we should use.

Eh, you've really just chosen to write off all the results that come up for inner tube and swimming, which very clearly shows that plenty of people also call the rings inner tubes. Also I don't really believe in your statement that most people have a different mental image of inner tube from "swim ring," though I'll wait on others to voice their opinion on that.

Sal.N said:

Inner tubes bring to mind of most people a different image. They're visually distinct (dark color, plain design, non-transparent, thick texture). If anything, we should reserve the tag inner_tube for them because they're much, much harder to find. If they're being used as swimming devices, tag the pic with both inner_tube and swim_ring. If they're tires, just inner_tube.

Given that they craft tubes for swimming that can look like a made for vehicle usage inner tube outside of very very minor differences (example) and they can coat/sheath real inner tubes to look a lot like a swim ring (particularly large ones) , I'm not really sure on the whole separation thing. I think a unified "catchall" for these rings/tubes would be better and just use tags that would aid in defining what kind they are in your search with the catchall(you'll get at least 90% of the tubes involving swimming just by including swimsuit in your search). It would leave the tag open to encapsulating future non-swimming tubes, and given the alternative usages would be somewhat mutually exclusive situations, using other tags to aid in the search isn't that bad of a proposal.