Is there a reason the wiki for public says it applies only to sexual activity in a public area? As quoted from the wiki article:

"Images or Animations in which sexual activity is depicted in a public or otherwise populated area."

I can see how it may have come about - seeing how public_sex and sex_in_public are aliased to it - but I was unsure why this definition is used; wouldn't searching public sex work for finding posts depicting sex in a public area? I've seen many posts with the public tag that didn't have sexual activity involved, but did take place in a public setting. Should the wiki be changed to simply read as: "Images or animations that depict a public or otherwise populated area?"

Sexual activity doesn't necessarily mean sex, so you do need to search public sex for public images containing sex.

The term "public area" is a little vague. A featureless open field in the middle of nowhere can be a public area (or a private property, depending on whether someone owns it). A ballroom could be a private residence (or a public area if it's open access). In both cases, you can't exactly tell from appearance alone.

BlueDingo said:
Sexual activity doesn't necessarily mean sex, so you do need to search public sex for public images containing sex.

My mistake. Wouldn't the search public ~sex ~masturbation find images depicting sexual activity in public?

BlueDingo said:
The term "public area" is a little vague. A featureless open field in the middle of nowhere can be a public area (or a private property, depending on whether someone owns it). A ballroom could be a private residence (or a public area if it's open access). In both cases, you can't exactly tell from appearance alone.

I was basing my wording from the wiki, which is also pretty vague on what constitutes as 'public'. I've seen many examples similar to the first example you gave: a field, forest, jungle-type setting being tagged public, but the vagueness of the wiki allowed for such posts to be tagged public without any clear indication that it is a public setting. The wiki could definitely use some refinement beyond "in a public or otherwise populated area" when referring to what 'public' is, but what would be a better description?

D.D.M. said:
My mistake. Wouldn't the search public ~sex ~masturbation find images depicting sexual activity in public?

If you want to put multiple tags together in one link, use /{{}} instead. Individual wiki links don't work for that.

\public ~sex ~masturbation -> public ~sex ~masturbation

There are several other terms, such as toying_partner. You wouldn't be able to list them all in one search.

BlueDingo said:
If you want to put multiple tags together in one link, use /{{}} instead. Individual wiki links don't work for that.

\public ~sex ~masturbation -> public ~sex ~masturbation

There are several other terms, such as toying_partner. You wouldn't be able to list them all in one search.

Sorry, my mistake again. I guess the point I'm trying to make is why do we have a tag for 'sexual activity in public' but not a tag for just 'in public'?

D.D.M. said:
Sorry, my mistake again. I guess the point I'm trying to make is why do we have a tag for 'sexual activity in public' but not a tag for just 'in public'?

Because it's the only usage worth tagging. For any other outside activity, see group city (or whatever you consider 'public').

Genjar said:
Because it's the only usage worth tagging. For any other outside activity, see group city (or whatever you consider 'public').

I guess I can see that, though it seems weird to tag it only for sexual stuff. Cause even when public is restricted to sexual activity in public, there still seems to be some subjectivity on what qualifies as 'public'.

And couldn't the wiki be clearer on what settings may be considered 'public,' or is greater specificity unnecessary? Or am I thinking too much about all this?

Maybe it should be renamed to public_sex?
It's one of the earliest tags, made back when there wasn't much need for disambiguation.

Edit: Oh, right. Then it wouldn't work for public masturbation.

Genjar said:
Maybe it should be renamed to public_sex?

I agree. For some reason someone decided that aliasing 'public_sex' to 'public' would be a good idea, despite of the latter being clearly vague.
Also, we could separate 'public' and disambiguate it, because of 'public_nudity' (and maybe other tags).

Genjar said:
Maybe it should be renamed to public_sex?
It's one of the earliest tags, made back when there wasn't much need for disambiguation.

Edit: Oh, right. Then it wouldn't work for public masturbation.

Or perhaps public_sexuality? That way it would encompass generalized sexual activity.

D.D.M. said:
Or perhaps public_sexuality? That way it would encompass generalized sexual activity.

There already is a tag more or less for that (exhibitionism).

Also, 'public_sex' would mach with other tags we have, like 'public_nudity' and 'public_masturbation' (notice that both are way more specific than "public_sexuality").

O16 said:
We already have a tag more or less for that, 'exhibitionism'.

Not a good match because exhibitionism doesn't differentiate between public and private places. And it's only tagged if someone's watching. For instance, a character who is sneakily masturbating in a public bus wouldn't be tagged as exhibitionist.

Also, 'public_sex' would mach with other tags we have, like 'public_nudity' and 'public_masturbation'.

Public_masturbation is rather new and not tagged much, but maybe we could make a tag group out of those.

First rename public to public_sex, since that's how it's currently tagged.
Then we could implicate public_sex, public_masturbation and public_nudity to some umbrella tag.. Would just need some minor cleanup for the public masturbation posts, and those can be easily found and tag scripted with 'public masturbation'.

Genjar said:
Not a good match because exhibitionism doesn't differentiate between public and private places. And it's only tagged if someone's watching. For instance, a character who is sneakily masturbating in a public bus wouldn't be tagged as exhibitionist.

That is why I said "more or less", but you are right, this tag really doesn't work well for such purpose.

Genjar said:
Public_masturbation is rather new and not tagged much, but maybe we could make a tag group out of those.

First rename public to public_sex, since that's how it's currently tagged.
Then we could implicate public_sex, public_masturbation and public_nudity to some umbrella tag.. Would just need some minor cleanup for the public masturbation posts, and those can be easily found and tag scripted with 'public masturbation'.

That should work.

Note: when renaming 'public' I believe we should separate it completely from 'public_sex' and disambiguate it, eventually (instead of simply reversing the alias).

O16 said:
That is why I said "more or less", but you are right, this tag really doesn't work well for such purpose.

That should work.

Note: when renaming 'public' I believe we should separate it completely from 'public_sex' and disambiguate it, eventually (instead of simply reversing the alias).

I was going to suggest public_indecency, but there could be an instance where it's obvious it's not considered indecent, like anything with the casual_nudity tag.

Genjar said:
Public_masturbation is rather new and not tagged much, but maybe we could make a tag group out of those.

First rename public to public_sex, since that's how it's currently tagged.
Then we could implicate public_sex, public_masturbation and public_nudity to some umbrella tag.. Would just need some minor cleanup for the public masturbation posts, and those can be easily found and tag scripted with 'public masturbation'.

O16 said:
Note: when renaming 'public' I believe we should separate it completely from 'public_sex' and disambiguate it, eventually (instead of simply reversing the alias).

I'm in favor of cleaning up then disambiguating the current public tag, since it's also tagged to several posts with non-sexual depictions in public (and nature) settings. And if a group of public_* tags is made, aliasing public to public_sex could result in mistagged posts that should instead be tagged with a different public_* tag.