Forum - [REJECTED] Tag alias: hairband -> alice_hairband

famguy231

Member

The tag alias #55449 hairband -> alice_hairband has been rejected.

Reason: Essentially, the 'hairband' tag is too ambiguous in what it actually means and as a result is too often mistagged (commonly used interchangeably with the 'headband' or 'hair_tie' tags), and the hope is that using a clearer tag will help reduce the amount of mistags in the future.
Originally I had suggested to use 'alice_band' as the new tag, but it was decided 'alice_hairband' was clearer, thus this new request.

The 'hairband' tag is meant to refer to the type of band worn high on the head, sometimes to keep long hair pulled back from the forehead, and often does not go all the way around the head. It is often described as "horseshoe shaped". (Popular wearers include Krystal and Amy Rose)
Contrarily, 'headband' is meant to be used for the type of band you would wear over your forehead, like a sweatband or martial arts headband, and 'hair_tie' is meant to be used for the small type of band you would use to pull up long hair into a ponytail.
Out of the three tags (hairband, headband, hair_tie) hairband is the most vague as it doesn't have a universally accepted meaning like the other two, so I think that just changing 'hairband' to 'alice_hairband' and leaving the other two as they are should be enough.

The word 'Hairband' itself has two dictionary definitions I could find:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/hairband
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/hairband
Cambridge describes the Amy Rose kind of hairband, while lexico instead describes a hair tie. Searching for 'hairband' on Wikipedia also brings you to a disambiguation page including redirects to both hair tie and headband as potential meanings. Therefore, the term 'hairband' on its own is ambiguous, vague, and kind of useless.

Changing it to alice_hairband (or simply alice_band), though, would remove that ambiguous terminology and replace it with a specific, well understood one, evidenced by the numerous definitions of the word:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_band
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Alice_band
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Alice%20band
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/alice-band
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/alice-band
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/alice-band
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/alice-band
https://www.lexico.com/definition/alice_band

Also, so that everyone is on the same page, I picked out some correctly tagged examples to help differentiate what the tag is supposed to represent for anyone that's unclear on the difference:

hairband/alice_hairband:
post #3040447 post #2928551 post #2994499

headband:
post #2620763 post #2990563 post #2922770

hair_tie:
post #2645085 post #3020984 post #2234955

EDIT: changed the links to thumbnails since I just realized you can do that

EDIT: The tag alias hairband -> alice_hairband (forum #321450) has been rejected by @NotMeNotYou.

Updated by auto moderator 4 months ago

bitWolfy

Former Staff

over 2 years ago

I see a problem with this. One that ClosetPossum pointed out in the last thread.

Aliasing away hairband to alice_hairband is not going to fix anything. People will still add the hairband tag, and due to an alias, this will just result in posts mistagged with an alice_hairband.
And mistags are fairly common. I did a little bit of research, just to get some data.

In the last 100 posts tagged with hairband, 22 were mistagged. Most times used in place of hair_tie.
In the last 100 posts tagged with headband, 19 were mistagged. Most times used in place of hairband.

As much as it pains me, this might need a disambiguation.

I also somewhat dislike the term alice_hairband. I've never even heard that term before. Plus, its meaning is not obvious from the name.
I suggest this: move hairband posts to horseshoe_hairband, then disambiguate hairband.

(Don't mind the BUR, it's just here to create a voting section)

The bulk update request #1700 is pending approval.

mass update hairband -> horseshoe_hairband