The tag alias #64951 mammal/reptile -> interspecies has been approved.

Reason: This tag from the highly downvoted topic #33039 still exists and needs to be dealt with

EDIT: The tag alias mammal/reptile -> interspecies (forum #382254) has been approved by @slyroon.

I'm kinda thinking if it might be a good idea to have a tag/tags for characters across higher-level taxonomic ranks. mammal/reptile is obviously too specific, but I don't see a problem with something like interclass and interphyla.

sipothac said:
I'm kinda thinking if it might be a good idea to have a tag/tags for characters across higher-level taxonomic ranks. mammal/reptile is obviously too specific, but I don't see a problem with something like interclass and interphyla.

That's a cool idea. I'd support that

Edit: I kinda wonder if the average e6 user knows anything at all about taxonomy though, lol. Might get misused a ton. Tons of grown ass adults think "deer" is a species.

cloudpie said:
Edit: I kinda wonder if the average e6 user knows anything at all about taxonomy though, lol. Might get misused a ton. Tons of grown ass adults think "deer" is a species.

Copy pasting my idea from the "Do we have a tag for that" thread.

I agree, and I think just one tag is all that's practical really, as classification on here is a little divorced from actual taxonomy at points, especially as you go higher up the chain (e.g. birds aren't actually separate from reptiles).

I would propose intertaxa as the the tag name, with it being defined as relations between members of two or more of the following groups:

• mammal
• avian
• reptile / dragon
• amphibian
• fish
• arthropod (possibly split into crustacean, insect, arachnid, and myriapod) (or maybe even crustacean and "bugs" (insect / arachnid / myriapod))
• annelid
• mollusk (possibly split into cephalopod, gastropod, and bivalve)
• echinoderm
• cnidarian
• sea sponge
• flora fauna

pleaseletmein said:
Copy pasting my idea from the "Do we have a tag for that" thread.

I like this. mammal/reptile is always interspecies, but the relationship should be alias mammal/reptile -> intertaxa then intertaxa implies interspecies.

I guess I have some concerns over "hard-coding" the list of groups which qualify for intertaxa (and thus which don't, too). But I don't know what's a better solution when you're looking to avoid confusion and the understanding of which groups of species are "more different" isn't based strictly in taxonomy (because the tags themselves aren't, e.g. birds are reptiles, as you say).

Side note: I guess some wiki pages have a "See other rankings" section? avian, reptile, mammal, scalie - but not any of the other pages which are actually in that list. And none of these lists are all the way consistent with each other... I think a tag like intertaxa could work really well to supplement interspecies - but only if we get the documentation around what actually counts as something for that list cleaned up. If intertaxa is just for "the big categories" then we need to clearly define which those big categories are, and make sure each of those wiki pages is linking to each of the others, and not arbitrary subgroups (of those other "big categories"). Or similar if it's for a level more detailed than just "arthropod", or such. (Acknowledging again that there might not be a particularly clean solution.)

pleaseletmein said:
Copy pasting my idea from the "Do we have a tag for that" thread.

I don't really like calling it intertaxa since every group of every taxonomic rank, from domain down to subspecies, are taxa, so like, everything is a taxon. I think every example you gave were of different taxonomic classes (and/or phyla), so interclass should be a fine name for that definition, and have that imply interspecies, probably.

_{I was also thinking that we might want tags for other higher ranks than that, although I don't think we generally tag an animal character in a relationship with a flora_fauna character as interspecies, I wonder if we might want an interkingdom tag that's seperate from the lower ones. and what about characters that don't even have the same basis of life, like a carbon-based character and a robot, or an elemental_creature, or an animate_inanimate, I'm not sure what we'd even call that, though... interbiologic?}

sipothac said:
I think every example you gave were of different taxonomic classes (and/or phyla), so interclass should be a fine name for that definition, and have that imply interspecies, probably.

Interclass sounds like it could also refer to social or economic class, e.g. a wealthy-looking character with a poor-looking character. Or school class/grade.

watsit said:
Interclass sounds like it could also refer to social or economic class, e.g. a wealthy-looking character with a poor-looking character. Or school class/grade.

maybe? but we also already have some tags with names that sound really odd or slightly misleading if you just read their name, like flesh_tunnel or cooking_with_furs. we could use the name interclass_(taxon) if we think it's necessary, but I'm not sure it is.

sipothac said:
maybe? but we also already have some tags with names that sound really odd or slightly misleading if you just read their name, like flesh_tunnel or cooking_with_furs. we could use the name interclass_(taxon) if we think it's necessary, but I'm not sure it is.

I'm not a fan of the "cooking with furs" tag name either, and would very much like to see it changed to something that indicates what it means. It sounds like a cooking show to me, as the 'with' makes it sound like the furs are the ones doing the cooking rather than being cooked (we don't say "cooking with hamburgers" when you're cooking hamburgers, but you do say "cooking with my friend" when you and your friend are doing the cooking, it's not your friend being cooked). I think that's my biggest issue with "interclass", that it's not obvious what it's referring to by "class" as there's many different types of classes (taxonomic class, social class, wealth class, height class, weight class, school class, skill class, etc), which makes it ambiguous and vague.

And in terms of taxonomy, I'm not sure "class" is very clear itself either. Are people going to know where the class line is for a given creature's taxonomy? As it is, "interspecies" can get vague about whether two creatures are the same or not, particularly with fictional species (is a braixen and zoroark interspecies, as they're different pokemon, or intraspecies, as they're fox-based canines?).

The tag alias mammal/reptile -> interspecies (forum #382254) has been approved by @slyroon.