The bulk update request #2523 has been rejected.

mass update flower_on_liquid -> afloat_flower
mass update petals_on_liquid -> afloat_petals

Reason: Consistency with afloat.

EDIT: The bulk update request #2523 (forum #165596) has been rejected by @Unbreakable.

Putting "afloat" before a noun is a really awkward construction that doesn't match the way this word is normally used in conversation. I think we should try to base tags on natural English usage whenever possible to ensure that their meanings are clear. Consistency among tags is desirable but it should take a backseat to clarity.

These two tags are fine as they are. If anything, afloat_lantern is the one that should be changed.

Agreed that this is a more awkward name. Afloat is also typically used for people, not objects. Calling these afloat suggests they should be tagged afloat, which I don't think is how the afloat tag was intended to be used.

The bulk update request #2526 is pending approval.

mass update afloat_lantern -> lantern_on_liquid

Reason: As suggested, I made this 2nd request. How do i cancel my 1st request?

Since we have floating_object tag for floating, I thought it's the same for afloat too.

Should we made a tag for "object floating in water"? People keep using floating_object for it and dragging the floating tag to where it shouldn't be.

The bulk update request #2523 (forum #165596) has been rejected by @Unbreakable.

evazion said:

Afloat is also typically used for people, not objects. Calling these afloat suggests they should be tagged afloat, which I don't think is how the afloat tag was intended to be used.

I used to think the same of floating but then topic #13848 happened and in spite of my objection, floating_object now implicates floating. So now we seem to have this weird rule that afloat applies only to characters but floating applies to everything, and I don't fully understand why that should be the case.

yelite said:

Since we have floating_object tag for floating, I thought it's the same for afloat too.

Unfortunately afloat_object doesn't really flow together nicely. Afloat is a bit of an odd duck in that it is a postpositive adjective and can only be used after the noun it modifies. There are quite a few words like this which begin with the archaic prefix "a-": ablaze, aboard, abreast, abroad, afar, afoot, aglow, ajar, alive, aloft, alone, aloud, amiss, anew, apart, aplenty, ashore, asleep, and so on. The English language is a colorful disaster.

*edited for clarity

Lanterns floating [on water] is such a common feature that the intuitive descriptor floating lantern should be supported. To that end, I think the definitions of the floating tag and floating_foo (floating_hair, floating_object, etc.) tags should be changed to mean "floating on water" implicitly, without further clarification. Instances of something floating in/on anything else, liquid or no, should be tagged as floating_in/on_foo (floating_on_lava, floating_in_air etc).

If bouyancy isn't involved, don't use floating at all. Use something else like hovering, levitating, or zero-gee.

Arcana55 said:

Lanterns floating [on water] is such a common feature that the intuitive descriptor floating lantern should be supported.

No thanks. I'm tired of constantly cleaning up tags based on ambiguous terms, and floating is ambiguous by nature. A floating_lantern tag would consistently be misused for sky_lantern posts in much the same way that the former chinese_lantern tag was consistently misused for paper_lantern posts.