The bulk update request #6017 is active.
remove alias teenage (0) -> teenager (9)
remove alias teen (1) -> teenager (9)
remove alias teenagers (0) -> teenager (9)
remove implication teenager (9) -> young (230936)
remove implication teenager_on_teenager (4) -> teenager (9)
create implication adolescent (15320) -> young (230936)
create implication adolescent_on_adolescent (602) -> adolescent (15320)
create alias adult_on_teenager (9) -> adult_on_adolescent (451)
create implication adult_on_adolescent (451) -> adolescent (15320)
create implication adolescent_on_child (327) -> adolescent (15320)
create implication adolescent_on_child (327) -> child (25847)
Reason: followup:
alias teenage -> adolescent
alias teen -> adolescent
alias teenagers -> adolescent
alias teenager -> adolescent
alias teenager_on_teenager -> adolescent_on_adolescent
also
alias teenager_on_child -> adolescent_on_child # duplicate of has blocking transitive relationships, cannot be applied through BUR
Since it seems we're on a roll with cleaning up the young tags which have been in such a chaotic state for ages, I figure now's a good time to finally get rid of this eyesore of a tag.
Here's the reasoning:
Problems with teenager
- Despite what the wiki says, people constantly use this to refer to characters aged 18 and 19, and sometimes get confused or upset by the young tag added via implication (nobody reads wikis)
- "Teenager" in common parlance (and according to the Dictionary) refers to people of ages up to 19. We're trying to impose a unique definition on the word which suits our needs, but conflicts with the literal definition of the word and how everybody actually uses the word. This seldom, if ever actually works out well for us.
- The lower end of "teenager" cuts off at 13, which is a very arbitrary number. Characters around this age are almost certainly going to be tagged according to lore knowledge about the character's age rather than visually identifiable information. As a result, teenager (and the tag on the other end of the arbitrary divide, child) is riddled with Tag-What-You-Know-esque lore knowledge tagging. How can you tell if a drawing of a furry character is 12 or 13?? They'll most likely look the same either way. Some people go through puberty at age 11, some don't begin puberty until like 15. The prepubescent 15 year-old is probably going to look younger than the pubescent 11 year-old. Not to mention the fact that females reach pubescence younger than males. The age distinction is arbitrary and useless, and impossible to enforce by TWYS.
- "Teenager" can't realistically apply to feral characters, since they don't age at the same rate that we humans do. A teenage cat, for example, is actually rather elderly. How is child supposed to work in this dichotomy? If child is everything up to age 13, everything but the most elderly of feral dogs should be tagged as young. It's senseless.
- People will try to pull the "1000 year-old loli" loophole to avoid tagging teenage-looking characters as such. Not that this ever actually works out, but having tags that refer to specific age ranges only invites this kind of behavior. Because, again, people don't read wikis.
- Most porn sites have a "teen" category which refers specifically to people ages 18 and 19 (because anything else would be illegal), so we also have porn terminology working against us. Many people are going to come to this site expecting "teenager" to refer to ages 18 and 19 specifically (likely not even realizing that artwork of characters of younger ages is even allowed here) and likely end up confused or upset or both.
In short, this tag sucks. However, what if I told you that there already exists a word which perfectly matches our definition and requires no redefining whatsoever?! It's true! Behold...
Advantages of adolescent
- According to the Dictionary, adolescence is defined as "the period of life when a child develops into an adult : the period from puberty to maturity terminating legally at the age of majority." According to the local standards of The United States (where e621 is hosted, if that matters), the age of majority is 18. So implicit within this word's definition is the fact that it doesn't apply to anyone over 18. We don't have to worry about 18 and 19 year-olds getting the tag. Anyone (familiar enough with the English language, at least) seeing the name of the tag will automatically understand that it refers to underage characters exclusively. They don't even have to read the wiki to acquire this information. The best tags, least prone to mistagging, provide their exact definition within their own name.
- The lower end of this range cuts off at puberty. This is much easier to enforce via Tag What You See than an arbitrary age number like 13. It's actually quite easy to tell the difference between someone who has gone through puberty and someone who has not. The body undergoes major transformations through the process of puberty, which we can identify in fictional characters for the purpose of tagging. This puts an end to the lore tagging distinction between child and teenager. If the character has signs of sexual maturity, tag adolescent. If not, tag child. Easy. Simple. Clean. No more worrying about whether the character is 12 or 13 regardless of pubescence. No more prepubescent teenagers slipping through people's blacklists.
- This allows us to use child for feral characters. Although the word "child" generally refers to humans, there's no reason it can't also be applied to feral characters, plus this gives us the advantage of being able to distinguish young feral characters from baby ferals, which otherwise are just lumped together under the young tag. Before, child just cut off at age 13, which can't possibly be useful for most feral species. Now, it would cut off at puberty (or equivalent for the species), which is actually taggable.
- Using adolescent will allow child to match its exact definition as well. According to the Dictionary, the first definition of "child" is: "a young person especially between infancy and puberty". Nowhere does the dictionary entry mention the age of 13. That is, yet again, another arbitrary definition imposed by our tagging system which does not coincide with the dictionary definition of the word. Using the definition of "before puberty," however, dovetails perfectly with the definition of adolescent, "after the start of puberty." Likewise, this allows people to actually Tag What They See about a character being prepubescent or not as opposed to Tagging What They Know about whether a character is 12 or 13.
- Generally, people searching for teenager (or blacklisting young -teenager) are actually looking for characters past the age of puberty. Realistically, they don't care if the character is 12 or 13. Porn of prepubescent characters is far more contentious than porn of sexually mature but still legally underage characters. People simply use teenager because it's the best analogue we have for "sexually mature," but it's imprecise and arbitrary. There is a better way! This change would allow searches and blacklists to be much more precise in identifying sexually mature characters. I believe that this, out of all the other reasons, is the most important one.
Ensue 1 morbillion page discussion
EDIT: The bulk update request #6017 (forum #383867) has been approved by @Rainbow_Dash.
Updated by auto moderator