Species supertags

LightningBolt
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This is a hot-button issue apparently, so, let’s discuss them.
 
Scalie and Avian being the big two, and as far as I know, there are no others, and nothing for mammalian creatures, which could be Furry but no one agrees on that.
 
A related issue is how I previously made a statement that no Pokemon/Digimon/Neopets/Whatever fictional species should NOT imply IRL species (or scale or avian) and that being ignored on several tags.
 
So, let’s discuss. Do we want supertags for scaled and featured creatures? What about furred? Should they be implications? Should they only be implications for fictional species? (not mons) Should they just be tagged when taggers want to? Should we nuke them and just let things forge naturally? Are toucans the best kind of birds?
 
Do note that “well X and Y sites use them like THIS an THAT” are not valid arguments. They can be examples and are good to cite, but they are not argument enders. Just because e621 or Wikifur does a thing one way does not mean we need to.
Joey
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I feel like Scalie and Avian definitely have a place - those are two major sub-genres of the furry fandom, and people may want to search for (or filter) Scalie or Avian specific art in one fell swoop.
 
I also feel that fictional-vs-real shouldn’t be a factor. A prime example of this is dragons - dragons are not real creatures (at least not the big, winged, fire-breating kind), but they’re still one of the largest species in the Scalie fandom. It wouldn’t make sense for the Scalie tag to feature stuff like lizards and alligators, but exclude dragons simply because dragons are fictional.
Wingbeat
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I think if something has a specific tag (like pikachu) and an overall category (like pokemon) then further categorization may not be strictly necessary. Certainly I see no reason to tag the closest equivalent real-world species on that any more than I would expect their pokemon type to be tagged as well - since furbooru isn’t specifically tailored to the intricacies of that series, it’s not strictly necessary.
 
That kind of thing also gets a bit hairy (har har) when you start getting into hybrid creatures on top of that, like the various animals found in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
 
As for scalies, furries, avians, etc: being that they are such overarching aspects of the fandom, I would rather see that level of categorization happen outside the tagging system entirely. For instance, rather than making every winged creature tag in the world imply avian, perhaps we could make a wiki to help sort and categorize the various tags that either directly fall under that umbrella, or are related to tags in that category (such as behaving like a bird).
CruFox
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@LightningBolt
 
I think there should be terms with which fictional species should be tagged so that similar things are grouped under one supertag, because if somebody want’s to see images with creatures that don’t have neither skin nor fur or feathers then the easiest way to do that is to search for “scalie” and not exclude or include dozens of tags from the search query.
 
For this reason any species, fictional or real, that appear to have skin covered in scales should imply scalie.
 
Same for creatures that have feathers, like feathered dragons, they should imply avian because this is what they are, creature with feathers.
 
There is no such term for mammals but fictional species with fur also should be searchable with one supertag so I think in this case using mammal for every species with fur should be allowed because we should avoid inventing terms that are not commonly in use in the furry fandom.
 
There are also fish and other things that live underwater and e621 uses supertag “ marine “ for them so maybe this should be considered too. Personally I’ve never used this tag so I don’t have opinion on this, I would just call a fish-like creature a fish unless it looks like a scalie or mammal that just happens to live in water.
 
I don’t see why “Pokemon/Digimon/Neopets/Whatever” should get other treatment. If the species is ambiguous then don’t make it imply a supertag, but if it clearly has fur/feathers/scales then it should imply mammal/avian/scalies so that it can be searched with one common therm with any other species that has those features.
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@CruFox  
Don’t we already have tags like dinosaur, reptile, and dragon? And would you really apply the avian tag to feathered dinosaurs like this?  

 
Perhaps the better question should be, how many supertags does one species need? If it were totally up to me, I’d say one would suffice. mammal and reptile and so on represent classes in the animal kingdom, we need not go up and down the taxonomic tree like e621. Like, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have to search for “chiropteran” just to find pictures of a fruit bat.
 
I also don’t have anything against the idea of just letting users tag extra, relevant species on their own uploads, if they see fit. If it turns out that 99% of users do end up tagging pidgey as “bird” then maybe we’ll have reason to revisit making it an implication, but we won’t know unless we give them a chance. There’s also a possibility that people following the reptile tag might not appreciate it if their watchlist is filled with kobolds. That means it needs to happen naturally, not as a result of some enterprising user taking it upon themselves to tag every single image on the site according to their own personal whims…
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YipYap!
So I have opinions that I’ve shared in other threads, but since things are being specifically discussed here I’ll get it all down in one place.
 
Personally, I’m all in favour of a consistent tagging system, which is the big thing I want to push. If there exist ‘avian’ and ‘scalie’ tags that cover both real and fictional species possessed of feathers and scales respectively, then I’d say there should be ones that apply to furred and other species. Likewise, if fictional furred/mammalian-looking species are to imply and be tagged ‘mammal’, then fictional reptilian and avian species should likewise be tagged ‘reptile’ and ‘bird’.
 
As it stands at the moment, ‘argonian’ does not imply ‘reptile’, but ‘sergal’ implies ‘mammal’. In fact, as far as I can tell, at the moment ‘sergal’ is the only furred original species that implies ‘mammal’. ‘protogen’, ‘ottsel’, and ‘lombax’, examples of fictional furred species both fan-created and from established media, do not imply any kind of super-tag, though they probably should.
 
If there’s a need to separate out fictional species, then in all honesty it might be easier to enforce ‘fictional species’ instead of or in addition to ‘original species’, rather than coming up with supertags for each of the basic body coverings. But again, I’m not pushing that particular agenda; what I’m pushing is simply consistency across the board.
 
I did at one point suggest that, rather than ‘scalie’, there be a ‘reptilian’ supertag, along with ‘mammalian’, the existing ‘avian’, ‘insectoid’, the existing ‘humanoid’, and ‘piscine’ for fish-like creatures.
 
@CruFox  
There are also fish and other things that live underwater and e621 uses supertag “ marine “ for them so maybe this should be considered too. Personally I’ve never used this tag so I don’t have opinion on this, I would just call a fish-like creature a fish unless it looks like a scalie or mammal that just happens to live in water.
 
Then why not tag reptile-like creatures as reptiles? This is the inconsistency thing that’s bugging me so much.
Wingbeat
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@DoesNotExist  
I’ll second the suggestion for a fictional species supertag, if that’s the route we’re taking here. And I think I also prefer the nomenclature reptilian over “scalie” to address actual reptiles.
 
I also think some things aren’t going to fit neatly into a supertag, and that’s fine, too. I would rather let them be tagged as seen fit and embrace the inconsistency than to try and make digimon imply things they only outwardly resemble, which to me is more inconsistent.
CruFox
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I also feel that fictional-vs-real shouldn’t be a factor. A prime example of this is dragons - dragons are not real creatures (at least not the big, winged, fire-breating kind), but they’re still one of the largest species in the Scalie fandom. It wouldn’t make sense for the Scalie tag to feature stuff like lizards and alligators, but exclude dragons simply because dragons are fictional.
IMO “scalie” should be a tag that is above “reptile”, so that fictional reptile-like species are not to be tagged as “reptile”, just as “scalie”. In other words “scalie” would be for any species with scales, “reptile” would be for real species with scales (and their hybrids if they are based on a identifiable real species). Same for avians.
 
 
@Wingbeat  
I think if something has a specific tag (like pikachu) and an overall category (like pokemon) then further categorization may not be strictly necessary. Certainly I see no reason to tag the closest equivalent real-world species on that any more than I would expect their pokemon type to be tagged as well - since furbooru isn’t specifically tailored to the intricacies of that series, it’s not strictly necessary.
Species should not be tagged, as species is something very, very specific, at the lowest level of classification. “Fish” is not a species, “shark” in sot a species, only “great white shark” is a species. Same for other things, “snake” is not a species, “common European viper” is a species. For this reason “sea serpent” right now implies “snake” but it should not imply “reptile” as this is fictional creature.
 
As for scalies, furries, avians, etc: being that they are such overarching aspects of the fandom, I would rather see that level of categorization happen outside the tagging system entirely. For instance, rather than making every winged creature tag in the world imply avian, perhaps we could make a wiki to help sort and categorize the various tags that either directly fall under that umbrella, or are related to tags in that category (such as behaving like a bird).
I strong disagree. We can’t expect people who want to for example see all the porn that inclues avians to search for some long list of species every time. Tags should be USEFUL. I can definitely see the use of one common tag for many different but similar things - it eliminates the need to list all those things to see them.
 
 
@Wingbeat  
@CruFox
Don’t we already have tags like dinosaur, reptile, and dragon? And would you really apply the avian tag to feathered dinosaurs like this?
You are right, maybe just using feathers=avian is not the best way to go. Just as I I wouldn’t tag a pegasus “avian” just because it has feathers on wings. But if the character had feathers AND a beak, then sure. Some dinosaurs had beaks:  
full
 
I think the head is the most important part when determining if a species is scalie/avian or not. Griffons have bird heads and they are avians. Feathered dragons don’t have bird heads and I wouldn’t tag them as avians, also pegasi. That dinosaur from your example has a reptile-like head.
 
Perhaps the better question should be, how many supertags does one species need? If it were totally up to me, I’d say one would suffice.
Currently “gryphon” only implies “avian” and not “mammal”. Because the head is the most important part then the species should maybe get the supertag tag describes mainly the head of that character? So “pegasus” -> “mammal” and not “avian”, because it has clearly a mammalian head.
 
mammal and reptile and so on represent classes in the animal kingdom, we need not go up and down the taxonomic tree like e621. Like, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have to search for “chiropteran” just to find pictures of a fruit bat.
As I wrote above, I think “reptile” should be only for real reptiles because “scalie exist”. “mammal” could be for both real and fictional because there is not good word that would encompass both real and fictional mammals.
 
I also don’t have anything against the idea of just letting users tag extra, relevant species on their own uploads, if they see fit. If it turns out that 99% of users do end up tagging pidgey as “bird” then maybe we’ll have reason to revisit making it an implication, but we won’t know unless we give them a chance.[/bq] I would just make it imply “avian” and not “bird”.  
There’s also a possibility that people following the reptile tag might not appreciate it if their watchlist is filled with kobolds.
This is exactly why “reptile” would be only for real species and “scalie” for both real and fictional species like kobolds.
 
 
@DoesNotExist  
Personally, I’m all in favour of a consistent tagging system, which is the big thing I want to push. If there exist ‘avian’ and ‘scalie’ tags that cover both real and fictional species possessed of feathers and scales respectively, then I’d say there should be ones that apply to furred and other species. Likewise, if fictional furred/mammalian-looking species are to imply and be tagged ‘mammal’, then fictional reptilian and avian species should likewise be tagged ‘reptile’ and ‘bird’.
There is no term that currently functions in the furry fandom for fictional mammals and using just “furry” would be a very bad idea as this is the name of the fandom, which inclues avians and scalies too.
 
As it stands at the moment, ‘argonian’ does not imply ‘reptile’, but ‘sergal’ implies ‘mammal’. In fact, as far as I can tell, at the moment ‘sergal’ is the only furred original species that implies ‘mammal’. ‘protogen’, ‘ottsel’, and ‘lombax’, examples of fictional furred species both fan-created and from established media, do not imply any kind of super-tag, though they probably should.
“Ottsel” and “lombax” probably should imply mammal, “protogen” - i’m not sure, maybe. but they have machine heads and I stated that I fell like head is the important bit.
 
If there’s a need to separate out fictional species, then in all honesty it might be easier to enforce ‘fictional species’ instead of or in addition to ‘original species’, rather than coming up with supertags for each of the basic body coverings. But again, I’m not pushing that particular agenda; what I’m pushing is simply consistency across the board.
This tag would serve little purpose for people who want to see similar tings. “Fictional species” can be anything, a fish-like creature, a goo creature, a bird-like creature, a worm, a living crystal, a sergal. This won’t solve anything.
 
I did at one point suggest that, rather than ‘scalie’, there be a ‘reptilian’ supertag, along with ‘mammalian’, the existing ‘avian’, ‘insectoid’, the existing ‘humanoid’, and ‘piscine’ for fish-like creatures.
Using “reptilian” instead of “scalie” is inventing new names for things that already have a name, others are introducing names that nobody uses on their own.
 
There are also fish and other things that live underwater and e621 uses supertag “ marine “ for them so maybe this should be considered too. Personally I’ve never used this tag so I don’t have opinion on this, I would just call a fish-like creature a fish unless it looks like a scalie or mammal that just happens to live in water.
Then why not tag reptile-like creatures as reptiles? This is the inconsistency thing that’s bugging me so much.
Because they have their own name in the furry fandom - “scalie”, similarly a dolphin that lives underwater is still a mammal.
 
“Marine” could be used for things that are found only in water though - like corals, fish, sponges, jellyfish.
CruFox
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@LightningBolt  
@Joey  
@Wingbeat  
@DoesNotExist
 
This is the species tag classification I come up with for my Extensive tagging guide thread:
 
  1. SPECIES
Usually the species tags are constructed as shown below, but not all levels are always present (especially for fictional species, which are not in the real life classification).
○ highest level group for both fictional and real animals (mammal, avian, scalie)
○○ high level group (bird, reptile, dinosaur)
○○○ medium level group in the rank of order/suborder/family (canine, feline, rodent)
○○○○ genus (marten) or common name for species from different genera (fox, badger)
○○○○○ species (red fox, golden eagle, European badger)
In case of the more popular species you should not be worried about all levels when tagging, the implications adding necessary tags should be already in place.
Examples:
mammal -> canine -> fox -> red fox
scalie -> reptile -> snake -> rattlesnake -> timber rattlesnake
avian -> gryphon -> blue jay gryphon
scalie -> dragon -> night fury
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@CruFox  
Looks good so far, but I don’t think this fully addresses the secondary issue brought up over the bold text in the species listing thread:  
This SHOULD be skipped with original species like Pokemon and Digimon if it’s unclear and should be skipped with fictional species as they do not always fall under IRL families.
 
I think there needs to be at least one pokemon example on your list like  
pokémon → bulbasaur
 
and maybe mention an example of one that straight up doesn’t fall under any of the 3 highest-level groups, like living machine
CruFox
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@CruFox
Looks good so far, but I don’t think this fully addresses the secondary issue brought up over the bold text in the species listing thread:
This SHOULD be skipped with original species like Pokemon and Digimon if it’s unclear and should be skipped with fictional species as they do not always fall under IRL families.
It doesn’t because I wrote that over a week ago, before the discussion we have now.
 
I think there needs to be at least one pokemon example on your list like
pokémon → bulbasaur
“pokémon” is a franchise (yellow) tag and not a species tag.
 
and maybe mention an example of one that straight up doesn’t fall under any of the 3 highest-level groups, like living machine
 
If you check the entire post about species in my guide thread I listed those following tags separately:  
monster
alien
species needed - when the character is of some species, but you just don’t know which one.
ambiguous species - when the species can’t be determined, e.g. because the character is seen at extreme close-up or is drawn with no details.
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At derpibooru only a couple of pokémon species tags implies another species tag and looking at those in hindsight I can see the issue about it.
 
Wingull is implying seagull and while it resembles one I can understand it still isn’t an actual seagull but it’s own thing. What both do share in common is their ‘avian’ nature.
 
So I’m inclined to agree on uses of the sort.
 
I believe someone noted >>6401 the fact it’s tagged ‘bird’ because of ‘fletching’. I don’t necessarily think fletching should imply bird however following the idea of tagging what is seen bird on that instance is still perfectly applicable.
 
This is important, just because we don’t imply something with the tag if the image warrants it we can still add it manually.
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@CruFox  
So the thing that’s really confusing me here is why it’s so important that ‘scalie’ be a tag on Furbooru. As far as I can tell, in reading all of this, the primary reason seems to be simply because it exists as a term within the furry community. Other arguments in favour of ‘scalie’, as far as I can understand them at least, apply equally well to other supertags. Wingbeat mentions that people following ‘reptile’ may not appreciate a watchlist full of kobolds, but by the same token a user following ‘mammal’ may not appreciate a watchlist full of sergals and lombaxes. And the latter won’t be caught by an ‘original species’ filter because, based on how things are at the moment, fictional species created by a media franchise (as opposed to by the fandom) don’t get the ‘original species’ tag.
 
That’s where I was thinking ‘fictional species’ could come in. It allows users who don’t want to see fictional species, either in their watchlist or in a search, to filter them out. Or it allows somebody who wants to see fictional furred species to search ‘mammal, fictional species’.
 
I understand that making these supertags, outside of ‘scalie’ and ‘avian’, is applying names to concepts that have as yet gone unnamed in the furry fandom. But I disagree with the idea that this means it shouldn’t be done.
 
@Fleetfoot  
I believe someone noted >>6401 the fact it’s tagged ‘bird’ because of ‘fletching’. I don’t necessarily think fletching should imply bird however following the idea of tagging what is seen bird on that instance is still perfectly applicable.
This is important, just because we don’t imply something with the tag if the image warrants it we can still add it manually.
 
So here’s my issue with not implying ‘bird’ on ‘fletching’, and with the whole idea of allowing people to add tags manually without implying them. If a picture of a fletching with no other avians in sight warrants the ‘bird’ tag, in which situations would a picture of a fletching not warrant the bird tag? I can only thing of edge cases, where somebody has a humanised fletching OC, or a character is wearing a fletching costume, and those cases can apply to plenty or real-world animals as well.
 
I understand and agree with arguments against implying specific real world species on pokémon species tags. Is Eevee supposed to be a fox, a cat, a rabbit, or something else entirely? No need to get that specific. And yes, there are plenty of pokémon out there that don’t even fall neatly into categories as broad as mammal. But if there’s a pokémon with wings, feathers, and a beak, why not let it imply ‘bird’? If there’s a pokémon with no legs, scales, and a cobra hood, why not have it imply ‘snake’? Especially if ‘bird’ and ‘snake’ are valid tags to apply after the fact?
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Y’know what, I was mulling this over and yeah, I’m not sure we should be using the tags furry, scalie, or avian for this purpose at all. After all, what benefit does furry provide beyond the functionality of the mammal tag, anyhow? It’s painting with such a broad brush you almost might be better off creating a custom filter just to search for scalies with. (Not a bad idea, come to think of it.)
 
So, how would I use these tags instead? Well, there’s another definition besides “anthro animals,” and that’s people who are into anthro animals. In other words, I would only use these tags if what’s being depicted is someone (or some creature) that’s into the idea of playing make-believe at being another species. This could involve irl humans, fursuiters, characters in a comic who are exhibiting some level of activity in the fandom, and so on…  
…but that’s really stupid and absolutely not intuitive.
 
And if you agree with my own self-assessment that such an ad-hoc definition for the tag would only lead to confusion, then you can sympathize with how I felt watching people try to force pokemon to fit into species tags that they most closely resemble. It’s pigeonholing our tagging system and sets the precedent for ultra-specific species tagging that I know furB was trying to avoid.
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@DoesNotExist  
Well…I’ve been converted away from supertags with this post.
 
Being able to use fictional species to seperate fictional mammals from real mammals, and the same for birds, and for reptiles actaully solves a lot of issues. Hell it even solves the problem of fictional species that are based on a real species, such as weird hybrids, or unicorns/pegasi being easily filterable with a simple -fictional species. Thus when they’re close enough to fit, they can mingle, but still easily be pulled out.
 
This has a double bonus in that it improves the legitamacy of birdlike or reptillian fictional species, like argonians, to be on par with those of Sergals, thus eliminating a form of speciesism that currently exists in the booru. It allows pokemon/digimon/neopets to easily mingle when appropriate, but be pulled out when not, without having to manually add 1000 different species.
 
I would additionally propose the following:  
Franchise species - Species which appear in a known franchise, like lombax and the like.  
Original species - Stays the same  
Mythological species - gryphons, dragons, phoenix, and others that are long established especially within the furry community.
 
All three of these should be under the umbrella tag of fictional species  
So, I cast my vote for the elimination of the scalie and avian tags.
 
 
Now onto the pokemon. While I see lightning’s point about not wanting to have arguments over what classifications pokemon fall under, and that’s quite fair considering that many pokemon are hybrids of a couple different species, or lack definable characteristics, and many pokemon have nothing that fits in any category at all, I think its safe to say that we can have some base categories taht we can say many pokemon fit into:
 
Mammals  
reptiles  
-Snakes  
-turtles  
-lizards  
avian  
fish  
living machine  
ghost
 
This may expand some, and there are perhaps a few and far between pokemon that may warrant a more specific species.
 
That said, I have a major problem with ‘tag if you feel like it’ (tiyfli) for such things. EIther it should be policy that pokemon get species tags, or they should not. And it feels really odd to not give them such. But the problem with tiyfli is that tags are supposed to mean something. THe rules specifically state:  
Tags should describe the “facts” of the image, such as the characters inside the image, events happening, the image’s composition, and so on.
 
If we’re stating facts about an image, than a tag is either true or false. Now it can be true that an image can be undertagged, but there’s no state here for Fletchling is a bird if you feel like it. It either is a bird according to site policy, or it is not, and so the tag should be applied, or it should not be. And if it should be applied, then under the rule of implications meaning the vast majority of circumstances, though not neccessarily exactly all, then flechling should imply bird.
 
Additionally, if flechling is not tagged bird, then there is no easy way to search all bird like things on furbooru. You’d have to do bird, flechling, fletchinder, pigdeotto, pidgey, pidgeot, more pokemon birds, hwatever neopet birds exist, whatever digimon birds exist, and then you’d still probably miss. Basically its untennable to include all bird creatures on furbooru, if they arent tagged bird, but are soly tagged digimon, or pokemon, or neopets.
Wingbeat
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@Gyro  
I’m okay with “tag if you feel like it” for species on pokemon because there are more that don’t fit neatly into a species than there are ones that do. On top of that, I have seen a couple instances where a pokemon gets drawn as an anthro and in the process loses a lot of the identifiable traits that made them resemble that species. For example,
 
CruFox
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I like tags
That’s where I was thinking ‘fictional species’ could come in. It allows users who don’t want to see fictional species, either in their watchlist or in a search, to filter them out. Or it allows somebody who wants to see fictional furred species to search ‘mammal, fictional species’.
If we already use “original species” then we can use “fictional species” too and this is an acceptable solution to the problem of e.g. mammals not having their supertag.  
I understand and agree with arguments against implying specific real world species on pokémon species tags. Is Eevee supposed to be a fox, a cat, a rabbit, or something else entirely? No need to get that specific. And yes, there are plenty of pokémon out there that don’t even fall neatly into categories as broad as mammal. But if there’s a pokémon with wings, feathers, and a beak, why not let it imply ‘bird’? If there’s a pokémon with no legs, scales, and a cobra hood, why not have it imply ‘snake’? Especially if ‘bird’ and ‘snake’ are valid tags to apply after the fact?
I also agree with this, if the posts with such creatures can be tagged with more specific species type tags by the users anyway, then why not make them imply the obvious choices. At least supertag ones so that they can be searched.
 
@Wingbeat  
After all, what benefit does furry provide beyond the functionality of the mammal tag, anyhow? It’s painting with such a broad brush you almost might be better off creating a custom filter just to search for scalies with. (Not a bad idea, come to think of it.)
Everyone agreed that “furry” is a bad name for a mammalian supertag, but name aside, the benefit of supertag would be to search for real mammals with “mammal” and for fictional mammals with “mammal supertag, -mammal”. If we use the idea of DoesNotExist it would then be “mammal, -original species, -fictional species” to get real life mammals only and “mammal” to get all the mammals, both fictional and real.
 
And if you agree with my own self-assessment that such an ad-hoc definition for the tag would only lead to confusion, then you can sympathize with how I felt watching people try to force pokemon to fit into species tags that they most closely resemble. It’s pigeonholing our tagging system and sets the precedent for ultra-specific species tagging that I know furB was trying to avoid.
How would you search for all pokemon that look like mammals without tagging them mammal? The only way I can think of is to enforce tagging things like “fur”, “feathers” and “scales” as much as tagging species, but then there are species of mammals that don’t have any fur: dolphins, whales, naked mole-rats, some breeds of domestic cats, etc.
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I like tags
I have seen a couple instances where a pokemon gets drawn as an anthro and in the process loses a lot of the identifiable traits that made them resemble that species. For example,
 
But those should still be “mammals” in that version of the mammal tag that includes both real and fictional species.
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@CruFox  
How likely is it that someone will actually want to search for all pokemon that look like mammals, anyway? It feels like we’re trying to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist. I would favor searching by tags like fur and feathers on fictional and original species, as that’s more descriptive. The anthro tag is a good example of one that can be tagged on pokemon as users see fit, because while there certainly are pokemon that look anthro by default, like lucario or gardevoir, they won’t always be drawn that way, and a lot of other pokemon end up getting drawn as anthros all the time.
DoesNotExist
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YipYap!
@Wingbeat  
I’d say it’s unlikely that somebody will be looking for all mammalian-looking pokémon, but what I think is more likely would be somebody looking for mammals or mammalian-looking species in general, without wanting pokémon to be excluded from that list.
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Or birds. I can 100% say that I want to see pokemon birds when I search for birds, and watch the bird tag, without having to watch every single bird pokemon species.
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Honestly, this is spilling over into feature suggestion, but if we had the option to make (and/or share) saved searches, it might be a way to achieve the same result without having to make an official global call on whether darmanitan should imply mammal or gorilla or whatever.
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@Wingbeat  
Do you think sergal should imply mammal despite not being an irl mammal?
 
Additionally saved searches still wouldnt really cut it, because that’s gonna be an ever growing list of things that should be tagged mammal but arent.
CruFox
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I like tags
Honestly, this is spilling over into feature suggestion, but if we had the option to make (and/or share) saved searches, it might be a way to achieve the same result without having to make an official global call on whether darmanitan should imply mammal or gorilla or whatever.
 
Why make things that can be simple complicated?
 
Anyway, if the final decision is to not tag applicable Pokemon with at least highest level species tags like “mammal”, “reptile  
(if the “scalie” tag is ditched), “bird” (if the “avian” tag is ditched), etc. then at least tagging “fur”, “feathers”, “skin” and “scales” should be on the same level of importance as tagging species. Right now only about 30% of posts tagged “mammal” has the tag “fur”, personally I was not adding this tag to posts I encountered unless the character was visibly fluffy or the other tags like fur color or markings pattern implied it.
Moon Flower
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Moon?
and nothing for mammalian creatures, which could be Furry but no one agrees on that.
 
Not true, I was for this in the Discord discussion.
 
Other than that, in general I think something obvious like Pidgey from Pokémon should also be tagged avian and bird - if actually shown in their original form that is, meaning not ponified or otherwise transformed, of course. Thus bird and avian shouldn’t be implied by, but tagging should be consistent of whatever it is. Pokémon are mistly based on animals after all. Ratata is a “furry, rodent, rat”, Pikachu is a “furry, rodent, pika”, Ekans is a “scalie, snake”, Horsea a “scalie, seahorse” etc.
 
Less prominent would be Pokémon such as Bulbasaur, well, “plant” and then I don’t know what else, so I would just leave it as “plant”.
 
But then you have Pokémon such as Voltorb, Ditto, and Chansey which are… something where none of those tags would apply, imo. So they just don’t get any such tags.
 
And to be honest, would you really not tag a Pidgey as avian and bird?  
Just look at this “realistification”, the original Pokémon art style is not far from what could as well be a real thing.  
full
 
Another argument to tag bird Pokémon with “bird, avian” is that it wouldn’t be uncommon for people to search for “pokemon, bird” or “pokemon, avian”. Of course that will apply to other species and supertags too. Yes, Charizard should be tagged as “dragon” and Alolan Exeggutor should not. Well this Pokémon type mess would warrant creating a “not a dragon” tag for the memes about how Charizard isn’t a dragon type but Alolan Exeggutor is, but that’s not part of this discussion.
 
It also applies to other fandoms. MLPs should be tagged “pony, horse, equine” and “earth pony”, “unicorn”, “pegasus” respectively. Sonic the hedgehog should be tagged “biped, anthro, hedgehog, furry”, while Miles “Tails” Prower would be “biped, anthro, fox, furry”.
 
 
tl;dr: Tag consistently what species and form is depicted but don’t create implications for certain characters.
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