The tag alias #59492 actual_fur -> fur is pending approval.

Reason: fur is fur. images seem to have no other connecting theme.

Seems like (most) the time it's the same thing as detailed_fur

I can understand why this tag was probably created, just on a practical level. There's a lot of barely-implied-fur/TWYK/expect-to-have-fur that get tagged with fur. Making it "fur" in only the loosest sense of the word. The implications to fur only reinforce that umbrella usage, since a scaled dragon with a fur tuft gets fur equally as much as a chibi poofball. A tiny tuft but otherwise smooth? Smooth all over except for one inch of slightly jagged outline that vaguely implies fur (or maybe just an unsteady sketch line tbh)? Drawn smooth but it's a species that's normally furred? All of the above are under fur in very high amounts. A few could maybe be cleaned out, but most do have a tiny claim to the tag. Just... not by much. So if you actually want to see characters with a lot of that visible furred texture all over them, then you'll end up disappointed more often than not. The fur tag really is only equivalent in theory and very much not equivalent in current usage.

The closest equivalent for the actual fur texture is somewhere between detailed_fur and fluffy which i think attempted to fill the gap from different angles. Both have a lot of 'that actually looks like a lot of fur on the character' results at a higher rate, but for different reasons because each is still not quite the same thing. Fluffy has less of just these results, at least in part because the fluffy tag is extremely broad and not just for fur or even about texture at all. The detailed_fur tag comes the closest to fulfilling this need but it's a little unclear. You can certainly have a prominently shaggy fur texture without it being highly precise detail, and the wiki sounds more like it's intended towards photorealism which is a slightly different focus.

So I still don't blame someone wanting a way to tag just the fur texture being very visible and over all of the character's body... and not necessarily realistic detailed like detailed_fur seems to imply or volume/poofy/anything like fluffy seems to imply. And for that matter, not just a localized patch of fur texture on the tail/neck/chest, etc. Just a normal continuous carpet of furlike texture. It does seem like something that should be easier to search for, on a furry specific website. That frustration is probably why this is far from the first time I've seen a tag made to try and fill that search gap for 'actual fur texture all over' better over the years. But those attempts have often been nuked while it's still a small tag, because apparently fur is supposed to be sufficient. In theory it would be. But functionally fur falls short of being anything except as a vaguely-related-to-fur umbrella. And the implications to it reinforce that umbrella use, leaving anything more specific to be filled with other tags.

So, while this newest attempt might not be the best name for it, I'm really not convinced the fur tag actually fills the same need that this new tag is trying to fill. There is a legitimate gap in searchability if you want actually textured fur, especially if you want it as an all over body texture. So I really don't know about aliasing it away without a better solution for that broader issue. It might be worth clarifying what it should actually be used for instead of just dismissing all fur as being equally just fur.

cheshire3rd said:
The tag alias #59492 actual_fur -> fur is pending approval.

Reason: fur is fur. images seem to have no other connecting theme.

Bump because this should be resolved by now.