I've seen a few issues with the scalie tag, figured it was time to bring them up.
What exactly ought we do in cases like the fluff_snake? Where the creature in question is clearly a snake, but is not scalie - tagging it with snake implies scalie, which is inaccurate, but tagging it only with fluff_snake would hinder searching.
Even if there was a solution for this, the issue comes in with hybrids.
Take this as an example:
A hybrid between a snake and a bird, and as such has feathers rather than scaly skin.
As we use it, scalie is effectively synonymous with "scaled skin," (seen clearly in that furred and feathered dragons are excluded from the scalie tag). But scaled skin may or may not be present on a creature of any species. It is strange to both treat it as a species categorization, and to imply species to scalie. We don't imply, for instance, wolf -> fur, or horse -> hooves.
We should consider whether or not scalie ought to be repurposed or perhaps even aliased away to scales or something, which functionally ought to have a pretty similar set of results when searching.
Also fluff snakes are adorable.
Updated by regsmutt