Named attacks and abilities create an interesting tagging problems. For many of them, the action shown is not very distinct and could also be described with other tags, however attacks like solar_beam, shadow_ball, and diamond_storm in contrast to most of these tags are specific and iconic. It is easy to see why someone, especially someone who is using the site for sfw art, would want to use these tags. I personally would use a tag for the trace ability from pokemon. While the ability has a handful of art, it is near impossible to find art of it by using other tags because of how open ended it is. Named abilities would almost warrant their own category if not for how niche they are.

The biggest questions I have are:
What criteria should a named ability have to pass for it to get it's own tag? (Is teleport_(move) valid when there is no way to separate it from teleportation?)
What criteria should an image have to pass to get tagged with a named ability over the generic tag for that action? (fire_breathing vs flamethrower_(move))
Is there a way to mark these tags as separate from normal tags that works across all settings? blank_(move) is too pokemon specific to make sense for other series. Should we always differentiate these tags?
Should these tags have any implications? (Should bone_rush implicate pokemon and/or bone?)
Should there be a fallback tag for all named abilities?
What information do wikis for these tags need?
What should we do for extremely niche abilities and abilities that are unlikely to ever have more than one image?

EDIT: I want to clarify that this isn't just about pokemon moves. Tags like sonic_rainboom and spin_dash face the same challenges, it's just a lot harder to get examples of those.

I don't think pokemon moves should be tagged. It's very easy to depict moves in wildly different ways ("Flamethrower" will be different for Charizard compared to Magmortar, for instance), and even in official media, they'll call something one move that looks more like another. Some art/comics can also take a very loose approach to "moves", where they don't aim to strictly adhere to lore or in-game depictions, and instead portray it more like magic or martial arts, where there aren't set rules they must adhere to and things can be mixed around and changed up. That some moves are indistinguishable from non-move actions makes this even more difficult to work it.

I think aside from stuff that has a very spesific effect or are signature moves of certain pokémon like (acid_armor or water_shuriken) we probably shouldn't bother tagging stuff as pokemon moves

Use gameplay_mechanics whenever relevant, do not otherwise try to tag specific moves.

watsit said:
I don't think pokemon moves should be tagged. It's very easy to depict moves in wildly different ways ("Flamethrower" will be different for Charizard compared to Magmortar, for instance), and even in official media, they'll call something one move that looks more like another. Some art/comics can also take a very loose approach to "moves", where they don't aim to strictly adhere to lore or in-game depictions, and instead portray it more like magic or martial arts, where there aren't set rules they must adhere to and things can be mixed around and changed up. That some moves are indistinguishable from non-move actions makes this even more difficult to work it.

darryus said:
I think aside from stuff that has a very spesific effect or are signature moves of certain pokémon like (acid_armor or water_shuriken) we probably shouldn't bother tagging stuff as pokemon moves

In general I agree. Most moves do not need tags. In the overwhelming majority of examples the move is not distinct enough, and is open too many different interpretations and applications for the tag to be useful. There are still exceptions though.
Some moves are like solar beam which has enough particular details to remain separate from normal lasers. Some moves have a unique presentation like razor leaf with it's crescent shaped leaves. Some moves like attract and hypnosis_(move) are very popular to reference. Some moves like surf and fly are drawn often to depict the absurdities of how they work in the games.

Because some abilities are useful as tags, and some are not, I believe it is important to create criteria for when a ability should become a tag so that we can limit the amount of these tags while not removing the ones that are useful. A good common sense starting point would be "Would you still be able to recognize this ability as the same thing if it was used by a character from a different series?"

lafcadio said:
Use gameplay_mechanics whenever relevant, do not otherwise try to tag specific moves.

gameplay mechanics wiki says:
Note: This tag does not include attacks, magic, or other actions which are not especially related to gameplay. For example, while a Pokémon battle interface is applicable, a Pokémon using "Hyper Beam" is not itself a gameplay mechanic.

There are images where a character's ability is recognizable without any game play mechanics on display. Ideally there should still be a way to search for those images.
example: post #3429860

oozeenthusiast said:
There are images where a character's ability is recognizable without any game play mechanics on display. Ideally there should still be a way to search for those images.
example: post #3429860

This is effectively petrification. Any Pokemon move that can be visually communicated will necessarily include other things such as sparkles, fire, abstract energies like "darkness", etc.
For certain portrayals of Pokemon moves, which move is represented will also be a matter of opinion. Searing Shot and Flame Burst are both represented as pretty generic fireballs in the anime.

+1 tagging of distinct fictional techniques by name including sonic rainboom, will-o-wisp, rasengan, pheromone breathing, kamehameha, Patronus Charm etc. Would a sufficiently clever combination of other tags work instead? Yes but that wouldn't be as useful to the typical user.

I think Frenzy Plant, Leech Seed and Aura Sphere are examples of tag-worthy Pokemon techniques. They're visually distinct within the more general category of plant manipulation or energy manipulation, they are not covered by existing tags.

oozeenthusiast said:
A good common sense starting point would be "Would you still be able to recognize this ability as the same thing if it was used by a character from a different series?"

I agree with this criteria.

oozeenthusiast said:
blank_(move) is too pokemon specific to make sense for other series.

Maybe that lines up with the proposed criteria. Any tag not sufficiently distinct that it doesn't need a suffix should not be a tag. Surf, Fly, Rock Throw, Flamethrower etc should not be tagged. Use more generic equivalents instead.

oozeenthusiast said:
Should there be a fallback tag for all named abilities?

-1 Pokemon using their abilities or moves or held items is no different from any character using any of their supernatural powers. I don't think there's a compelling reason to tag this overarching concept, especially when many of the specific powers are not worth a specific tag.

oozeenthusiast said:
What information do wikis for these tags need?

Just what it does to a character and what it looks like, I think. That's what you'd need to recognize it and tag it.

leomole said:
+1 tagging of distinct fictional techniques by name including sonic rainboom, will-o-wisp, rasengan, pheromone breathing, kamehameha, Patronus Charm etc. Would a sufficiently clever combination of other tags work instead? Yes but that wouldn't be as useful to the typical user.

I think Frenzy Plant, Leech Seed and Aura Sphere are examples of tag-worthy Pokemon techniques. They're visually distinct within the more general category of plant manipulation or energy manipulation, they are not covered by existing tags.

This hurts me to say since frenzy plant is one of my favorite moves, but I don't actually think it's tag worthy. As cool as the move looks, pokemon didn't invent roots bursting from the ground and smashing things.
Also going to object to aura sphere and adjacently to hadoken. There isn't a tag for it yet, but they don't have much separating them from other kinds of ki manipulation. Kamehameha is borderline.

leomole said:
+1 tagging of distinct fictional techniques by name including sonic rainboom, will-o-wisp, rasengan, pheromone breathing, kamehameha, Patronus Charm etc. Would a sufficiently clever combination of other tags work instead? Yes but that wouldn't be as useful to the typical user.

well, will-o-wispis a real-life thing; not sure what "fictional technique" you're talking about because it's not mentioned on the tag's wikipage.
I feel like kamehameha might not be a great tag name, honestly. the technique is a multi-layered pun that uses the name of the real-life King Kamehameha.
pheromone_breathing isn't even a name of a fictional technique, it's just a plain description of an action, like fire_breathing.