The bulk update request #7159 is pending approval.

create alias pool (2238) -> pool_(disambiguation) (0)
create alias pool_(swimming) (0) -> swimming_pool (10192)

Reason: Pool was undisambiguated about a year ago to a general outcry: topic #35332. Since disambiguations have started being approved again recently I figured this was a good time to bring this back.

Pool is an ambiguous word that can refer to several different things, from the wiki:

"Pool" may refer to any of the following:

eSix's pools (see also the Help page on this feature)
billiards, also called "pool"
billiard_table, also called a "pool table"
swimming_pool
kiddie_pool
public_pool

The reason for making it valid again was that it was too confusing for the average user:

rainbow_dash said:
Prime example: someone searches for foxes in pools. They type in fox pool and are met with a few mistagged posts. The user is unsure what went wrong and assumes that either this is all our site had, or that they messed up the search and don't know how to fix it. A smart user will click the question mark next to pool and find that it's been disambiguated, then eventually track down swimming_pool and fix their search. Most users never make it that far. They obviously meant swimming pool but didn't think it needed to be that specific, or what exactly to type in. This is an example that someone brought me earlier this week and I had to walk them through how to check for these. This is far from the first time.

Making pool a valid tag again does not solve this, imo it makes it even worse. In fact my first ever post on this forum was trying to alias pool to swimming_pool because I had been confused as to why there were so few 'pool' posts, and then as to why there were two different tags: topic #40316

faucet said:
There's no point in this tag existing which primarily functions as a synonym of swimming_pool, yet only has less than 10% of the usage. It serves nothing but to confuse users trying to find swimming pools and provide a small subset of the images to the people who never figure out it's not actually the correct tag.

The pool_(swimming) alias was something suggested by Darryus, so that "pool_(swimming) -> swimming_pool" pops up in the suggestions when someone types pool in the search box.

In addition, there's a ton of [liquid]_pool which pool might be used for. It's also not in the disambiguation page but that can be rectified.

Do we want to rename [liquid]_pool to something like puddle_of_[liquid] or [liquid]_puddle?

The pool tag is effectively already a disambiguation tag, just without the category or suffix. That only makes it more confusing, I still stand by what was quoted in the OP.

I see three possible solutions:

• Alias pool to swimming_pool as the clear primary topic, leaving occasional mistags that need to be sorted out. (topic #40316, rejected)
• Imply swimming_pool, kiddie_pool and etc. to pool and use it as an umbrella tag (topic #41699, rejected)
• Return it to a disambiguation. That's basically what it already is, but having 900+ posts and being in the general category makes it seem completely legitimate to the point the average user will never look for the swimming_pool tag.

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The pool_(swimming) -> swimming_pool alias is an excellent idea, since it has 9400+ posts it'll appear at the top of the autocomplete compared to the next highest tags: pool_toy (4k), poolside (2k) and pool (989). I'd actually consider splitting that one into a separate request which can be accepted as non-controversial, because I'm sure this request is going to sit around for a long time before anything actually happens with it.

Right now, users that rely on autocomplete will have no idea that there's even a swimming_pool tag. That's an issue whether this is disambiguated or not.