The wiki states the tag "bracers" is only supposed to be used for the distinctive equipment used in archery. But a quick look at the tag says otherwise, being widely used for things like armor made out of metal or leather and decorative pieces of jewelry or clothing. And the term 'bracer' could mean a lot more different things too. So what should we do with it?

dinbyy said:
The wiki states the tag "bracers" is only supposed to be used for the distinctive equipment used in archery. But a quick look at the tag says otherwise, being widely used for things like armor made out of metal or leather and decorative pieces of jewelry or clothing. And the term 'bracer' could mean a lot more different things too. So what should we do with it?

Well, the Wiki is editable, and that seems like too narrow a definition, so not sure it should be just for archery. This is probably why it got tagged for other stuff. A bracer is literally just a type of armband, right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracer I looked it up, and yeah, mostly used for archery, but arm guards between the elbow and hand get called that.
A word I haven't seen in forever: Brassard

BTW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vambrace These on past/include the elbow, apparently.

The vambrace tag is also a mess, for that matter. It looks like they're being pretty much treated as interchangeable, and the wiki doesn't explain the difference at all, even using three pictures of bracers (well, two plus whatever you'd consider the middle one to actually be) as its illustration. Compare that to schynbalds vs greaves where the distinction is explicitly there in the wiki.

Before I got on e621, I would have called the thing that most critters wear in pairs, one on each forearm/wrist, a "bracer". When I started to tag it, I also ran into the current e621 wiki definition (bracers are only for archers), so I started tagging them as "vambrace" instead. Since then, I have added the vambrace tag a few times.

While we're talking about it, there is also ankle_bracers, which is much less common. I added it to this post a day or two ago, for the critter on the right. I'm not sure if it's exactly the right tag, but I feel like there should be something that slots in between an anklet (to me, relatively narrow or not-tall, like a bracelet on a wrist), and greaves or schynbalds (to me, should cover most of the lower leg from the knee on down).

To be fair, we wore this for bicycles and (mostly power) tools, but not bows. I assume the term applies to firearms in general, as well. Some guns are known to spray hot shell casings, BTW. :whoknows:

Either way, this is related to PPE 's.

alphamule said:
Well, the Wiki is editable, and that seems like too narrow a definition, so not sure it should be just for archery. This is probably why it got tagged for other stuff. A bracer is literally just a type of armband, right?

errorist said:
The vambrace tag is also a mess, for that matter. It looks like they're being pretty much treated as interchangeable, and the wiki doesn't explain the difference at all, even using three pictures of bracers (well, two plus whatever you'd consider the middle one to actually be) as its illustration. Compare that to schynbalds vs greaves where the distinction is explicitly there in the wiki.

We could make a new tag for the bracer in archery, something like bracers_(archery), then paste the wiki definition for bracers.
The vambrace definition should be changed to specify the type of armor and remove the example thumbs that show non functional bands of metal. But I'm not sure what the definition would look like.
The bracers tag can be invalidated, which means it can still be used or useful for tagging any broadly fitting feature if theres not a tag for it. It's also being used for materials like bracelet and stuff thats not quite bracelets, like for example some bands that cover more skin, look tightly worn, and are decorative. We can just tag bracelet when necessary, but I feel like there should be a better tag for the other thing.

I feel like adding a note to the wiki that they've become a common addition to costumes/fashion outside of archery should be enough.