Deformed and Super Deformed

BUR #48134 has been rejected.

create alias deformed -> deformed_(style)

I have seen confusion over the usage of Deformed our tag for art with simplified proportions, but not quite what we would normally tag as Chibi, aka "Super Deformed." Most of the confusion is over that fact that SD is not commonly used in Western anime fandom and as such I've seen people mistakenly assume the tag is for disfigured or warped people which is reflected in the post change history for post #6300617, post #6290247, and post #3812850 to give a few examples of misuse.

I would like to propose a qualifier to prevent confusion and further reinforce that this about the style of the piece not the state of the subject in it. There have been a few attempts at name changes before in forum #241218 (Semi-Chibi) and forum #265616 (simplified_proportions), but since the name deformed has stuck I think it should be qualified to solidify it's usage.

BUR #48136 has been rejected.

create implication deformed -> chibi

Part 2.

There have been a few failed attempts over the years to alias away deformed into the chibi tag. I would instead like to request they be implied. There is certainly overlap, and the past threads above lament the inability to form clear lines of distinction even though they agree they exist. I think Chibi should instead be a parent tag for both "deformed" and broader "chibi" art as a whole.

BUR #48138 has been rejected.

create alias deformed -> chibi

I agree with forum #245640, I don't think it's feasible to distinguish degrees of chibi-ness. I recognize they're not quite the same exactly, and this does lose some granularity, but I just don't see it working.

The implication isn't intuitive. deformed is a wide net, and chibi is one type. If all deformed goes into chibi then deformed's existence will be even more forgotten as chibi mistags aren't mistags anymore.

I think danbooru can afford to have two tags for exaggeration given how wide ranging it is. Most taggers who know there's two distinct tags are probably tagging posts correctly. It can't be perfect, but the three heads rule goes a long way.

Presumably, either of the BURs after the opening one will be updated so that they're implying/aliasing deformed_(style), so that deformed can be deprecated due to its long-standing ambiguity.

This bulk update request is pending automatic rejection in 5 days.

This bulk update request has been rejected because it was not approved within 45 days.

The bulk update request #48134 (forum #388823) has been rejected by @DanbooruBot.

This bulk update request has been rejected because it was not approved within 45 days.

The bulk update request #48136 (forum #388825) has been rejected by @DanbooruBot.

This bulk update request has been rejected because it was not approved within 45 days.

The bulk update request #48138 (forum #388830) has been rejected by @DanbooruBot.

Spatula22 said:

The implication isn't intuitive. deformed is a wide net, and chibi is one type. If all deformed goes into chibi then deformed's existence will be even more forgotten as chibi mistags aren't mistags anymore.

chibi already means deformed. Any "deformed" squished down character is chibi.

I agree that we need to be able to distinguish between degrees of chibinness, from superdeformed squishy round characters to just child-looking characters with wide heads (post #136389 vs post #10480360), but "deformed" ain't it.

nonamethanks said:

"deformed" ain't it.

Can you then approve the implication to chibi and the alias to a qualifier, so that we can then make a new topic debating a new name for deformed?

BUR #52621 has been rejected.

create implication deformed -> chibi
create alias deformed -> deformed_(style)
remove alias deformed -> deformed_(style)

Resubmitting this. Per NNT's comments above, our default in English for what the Japanese would call 'deformed' and 'super deformed' all fall under the chibi label, but we should distinguish the different types of chibi, so there should be no issue implying deformed to chibi. The only issue stems from the name, something which has been an issue for several years.

When the original BURs were being theorycrafted back on the official Discord, we had already discussed the issue of deformed's name, and came to the conclusion that for now the best we can do is adding the (style) qualifier because English has no equivalent term to what the Japanese call 'deformed'. We've looked into it, there is no unified term that exists for it, and part of the reason why there is no such term is because what is actually considered the default for chibi varies from person to person. This image is a perfect example, because what we'd normally consider chibi is between what they consider to be 'chubby' and 'average' and deformed between 'average' and 'semi-chibi'. Additionally, chibi's wiki has had 'デフォルメ' as an Other Name since 2014, which deformed didn't have until this year!

Updating the tag to include a qualifier is one step towards finally renaming it to something that makes sense in English, but that will require its own discussion to figure out which of the many, many names that exist in English makes sense the most for us.

How would someone search for "SD" specifically? Would one need to search "chibi -deformed_(style)"?

tamuraakemi said:

How would someone search for "SD" specifically? Would one need to search "chibi -deformed_(style)"?

That would likely bee the case, though again, as I pointed out, 'deformed in Japanese' has been in chibi's Other Names since 2014, so it's very likely already the case that the chibi tag isn't wholly SD.

We could expand the incoming deformed renaming discussion to be a chibi revitalization discussion, including a tagging effort for 'deformed' and making tags for everything further, like SD. As NNT pointed out, we need to be able to distinguish between degrees of chibiness, and regardless of whether deformed implies chibi or not, the chibi tag currently has no subtags to distinguish them.

This bulk update request has been rejected because it was not approved within 45 days.

The bulk update request #52621 (forum #410530) has been rejected by @DanbooruBot.

BUR #54748 has been rejected.

create alias deformed -> deformed_(style)
remove alias deformed -> deformed_(style)

If the problem was the implication, and the would-be approver still thinks lumping deformed under chibi is too controversial a choice, then at least let's do the bloody rename! Nothing is going to ever be done about deformed, whether in relation to chibi or not, as long as it is called just deformed.