Danbooru

Tag alias: On_roof -> On_rooftop

Posted under Tags

BUR #40206 has been rejected.

create alias on_roof -> on_rooftop

I have found a pair of messy tags, on roof and on rooftop.
These tags imply that roof and rooftop are two different concepts yet roof is aliased to rooftop, which is inconsistent. So I propose an alias similar to roof and rooftop.

According to the on_rooftop wiki:

However, this definition was probably made under the assumption that forum #237866 would be approved (but it didn't).

Yeah I don't know about the previous discussion, but I wouldn't want them aliased together. With on roof I'd expect the subject to be on a roof not made for walking, while with on rooftop I'd expect something like the traditional walkable school rooftop area you see so often in anime etc.

The problem with these tags is that in common speech, they are practically identical. Our working definitions were created based on the results of topic #23639 and have precedent in the real world (see this article), but in the most basic denotative sense, a rooftop is a structural component of a roof. One could look out the window in their downtown and comment on the "rows of rooftops" they see, being every bit as correct as if they mentioned "rows of roofs," because the connotative meaning of the former only really shines through in specific situations on single buildings such as an anime school rooftop.

There is a real searchability case to be made for keeping these tags separate because of the difference we maintain, but if the lack of distinction to the average user reflected in their current usage is any indication, it might be a better idea to alias them together. I can't find a forum topic giving reason to the original roof to rooftop alias, but as the latter is technically only a part of the former, it would be more logical to unalias and imply rooftop to roof or even simply alias it in that direction if we don't want to bother with the difference moving forward.

John_Fantasy_XIV said:

I can't find a forum topic giving reason to the original roof to rooftop alias

Someone in Discord said that long ago aliases were made manually by moderators and admins. So the current alias might be an arbitrary decision / temporary solution back then.

There is a difference that makes these tags worth keeping as they are, but having them named as on_roof and on_rooftop is confusing and is asking for mistagging, same if roof and rooftop get unaliased. If we aim to keep them separate then I would prefer on_rooftop to be renamed into a more intuitive name like on flat roof or on_roof + flat roof or something along those lines.

For now I will go ahead and fix mistags that I can find.

Edit: should any walkable roof be considered a rooftop? Some roofs can be walked on but have no safety walls/fences, like post #8978308, post #8095501

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