A few years ago, there was a discussion about the different tags being used to describe tail wraps (as pieces of cloth wrapped around tails, lets call it case A) and tails being wrapped around things (lets call it case B) (https://e621.net/forum_topics/13325).
Nowadays, the situation is the following;
- tail_wraps: ~3.8k results, mostly case A with some misuses, for example 4228046
- tail_wrap -> tail_wraps
- tail_wrapping: ~170 results, all case B (I fixed ~3 case A tagged with this tag to tail_wraps)
- tail_wrappings: there were ~5 results using this tag to mean case A, I moved them to tail_wraps
- tail_wrapped: 481 results, mostly case B with some case A
- tail_coil: ~4k results, all supposedly case B
- tail_around_another: 57 results, all corresponding to case B
- tail_around_partner: 482 results, all corresponding to case B
- wrapped_tail: 154 results corresponding to a mishmash of cases A and B
- wrapping_tails: 30 results corresponding to case B, specifically when a tail is wrapping with another tail
The problem with tail_wraps, tail_wrap, tail_wrapping and tail_wrappings is that there will probably always be some misuse due to semantic ambiguity (or at least I perceive an ambiguity as a non-native english speaker). tail_wraps seems to be the de facto tag for case A though.
Regarding case B, I see the following nested subcases in the aforelisted tags;
- tail coiled around something
- - tail coiled around a partner
- - - tail coiled around a partner's tail
I suggest there should be a specific tag to cover each of those situations with as little semantic ambiguity as possible. Toward that end, I suggest that;
- tail_wrapping/tail_wrappings/tail_wrapped/wrapped_tail should be discouraged because of ambiguity
- tail_around_another and tail_around_partner are replaced with a unique tag
- tail_coil could be kept as the de facto tag for case B, but its wiki entry should not state "Using one's tail to grip another participant" since other things besides participants can be gripped. Moreover, implying the necessity of a participant in what should be the most basal tag for case B gets even more complicated when introducing animate_inanimate and plushie to the party as it is ambiguous whether they can count as partners sometimes, for example in 4377622
What do you think?
Updated