The bulk update request #4083 has been rejected.
change category halloween (24598) -> general
change category christmas (37474) -> general
change category thanksgiving (705) -> general
change category easter (4595) -> general
change category valentine's_day (5595) -> general
change category new_year (3405) -> general
change category st._patrick's_day (391) -> general
change category mother's_day (533) -> general
change category father's_day (287) -> general
change category hanukkah (26) -> general
change category kwanzaa (10) -> general
change category carnival_(holiday) (199) -> general
Reason: Split off from topic #29801. Figured it was about time someone put this to a formal discussion.
This has been asked for time and time again:
topic #30810
topic #24949
topic #18206
topic #2190
All of these tags imply holidays, which is a general tag, so clearly the concept of "holidays" isn't considered worthy of purple text on its own.
These tags are unlike everything else in the copyright section. Most obviously, they are not copyrights. They are also not memes, the other major use of that category - each one of them encompasses many more than a single idea. In the broadest sense, they describe nothing more than a particular point on the human calendar - this is particularly obvious in the case of new_year. Making christmas a copyright tag makes no more sense than making winter a copyright tag. Plus there are other general tags that describe the overall "theme" of the image - see nightmare_fuel, super_gay, or even what. (Also, I personally believe spooky should be re-validated, but that's a topic for another time.)
For a good counterexample, see the sport tag and its implications. Games like soccer, much like Christmas, have a defined set of objects, costumes, events, and even decorations which can all appear in any combination to make a post eligible for that tag. Nobody has ever argued that it should be anything other than a general tag.
The few admin justifications for the current state of affairs I have been able to find range from the ill-advised to the frankly silly.
furrypickle said:
I thought it was so that they wouldn't get lost in with the general tags. Just like invalid_tag isn't really an artist and invalid_color isn't really a character. But it's useful to make that one exception because it's a little bit more important than just another general tag and would get lost otherwise.Holidays as copyright tags is a little bit on the odd side. Practically speaking, they're almost more like themes and that doesn't completely fit anywhere. But it is handy to have them prominently up and separate from the general tags. I really think they'd be tagged a lot less often if they were just general tags, so I'm not too keen on making them a general tag. I don't know what the ideal solution is.
I'd be fine with making all of them into copyright tags. God knows there's plenty of commercialism of holidays that it more than halfway makes sense. Whatever we decide though, I think all the holiday tags should be the same designation (copyright or general) no longer mixed like it is now.
So they "won't get lost"? Really? You think people are out here not tagging christmas on Christmas art because the name isn't purple? Hell, if you want an example of tags which really do frequently get "lost" and where a non-general category might be useful, try the gender tags. I know for a fact that's been suggested before.
genjar said:
Basically this.
It's currently the best category for visibility: holiday posts rarely have other copyright tags.
Again, what exactly is so special about holidays that they require "visibility" over and above nearly every other tag, including all the compulsory tags except artists?
And of course holiday posts rarely having other copyright tags is part of the problem. We're never going to have a reliable "original character" tag because we all know it'll go untagged in at least 90% of cases where it's applicable, and that's before you consider where to draw the line when an artist gets sufficiently established to have other artists drawing fanart of their characters. But one thing we do have is an extremely robust system for tagging fanart, which is majorly dragged down by a combo of these, mythology (I'll get to that) and borderline-invalid tags like patreon.
NotMeNotYou said:
It's there for easier visibility, a couple other tags also fall into that category where visibility of them is more important than correctness of the category's title.
Again with the "visibility". Who decided that Christmas was being made "invisible", anyway? Who runs this site, the Daily Mail?
forum #317046 (my personal favourite):
bitwolfy said:
Christmas is a copyright tag for the same reason until_it_snaps is a one.
Copyright tags are not literally only for copyrighted properties. It's also used for themes, memes, and holidays.
Read that again: "Themes, memes, and holidays."
In other words, it's a special case because it's a special case. That's literally it.
EDIT: The bulk update request #4083 (forum #356809) has been rejected by @gattonero2001.
Updated by bitWolfy