The term "pointy_ears" in itself is body-type neutral. It could refer to anthros, ferals, humanoids, taurs, or any other body type.
But "pointy_ears" is currently aliased to "humanoid_pointy_ears".
Which means whenever someone tags "pointy_ears" on an anthro/feral character, it gets replaced with "humanoid_pointy_ears".
This tagging mistake is currently present on at least 1200 images, evidenced via the search: humanoid_pointy_ears -humanoid -human solo ~feral ~anthro
Users are supposed to use "prick_ears" for non-humanoids, but it seems many users are unaware of it and don't expect their "pointy_ears" tag to turn into "humanoid_pointy_ears".
These 1200+ mistagged ears could be fixed via a tagging project, and if a de-alias/implication were implemented could both prevent the mistake from being made by users in the future, and make ear tagging more intuitive to users who aren't aware of the "prick_ears"/"humanoid_pointy_ears" tags. Here's 2 possible ways it could be done:
Conservative suggestion:
Dealias "pointy_ears" from "humanoid_pointy_ears"
Implicate "pointy_ears" to both "humanoid_pointy_ears" and "prick_ears"
Bold Suggestion:
Dealias "pointy_ears" from "humanoid_pointy_ears"
Alias both "humanoid_pointy_ears" and "prick_ears" to "pointy_ears". This reduces 2 tags, merging them into the more intuitive "pointy_ears"
Users who are searching e621 can then use a 2-tag combination such as "pointy_ears humanoid" or "pointy_ears anthro" or "ponty_ears humanoid anthro" instead of needing to know what the different body types' ears are called.
Other suggestions, comments, or arguments for or against are being requested.
Links:
Tags currently aliased to humanoid_pointy_ears
Tags currently aliased to prick_ears