there are a number of tags that need to have some common alias or implication:
hand_on_head
hand_over_mouth
covering_mouth
covering_eyes
facepalm
cover_eyes
covering_ears
mouth_cover

I'd nominate:

{mouth_cover, hand_over_mouth} -> covering_mouth
{cover_eyes} -> covering_eyes

Hand_on_head, covering_eyes, and facepalm seem fine left as is.

I don't know that we should do any further unification grouping beyond that.

EDIT: Actually after checking, there are less than a handful of posts in cover_eyes, and mouth_cover, so I don't see that even an alias would be neccessary.

Hand_over_mouth however is a majority-use tag, in which case we might want to reverse the alias I suggest above.

I'm necroing this because the state of the hand-mouth tags is still confusing. We currently have:

• covering_mouth: 1123 posts, "The act of covering one's mouth with either the hand, or another object."
• hand_over_mouth: 374 posts, no wiki.
• hands_over_mouth: 13 posts, no wiki.
• hand_over_another's_mouth: 7 posts, no wiki.
• hand_to_mouth: 835 posts, no wiki (presumably to be used when a hand (more than one finger) is held near, but not over, one's own (or anyone's) mouth).
• hands_to_mouth: 39 posts, no wiki.
• hand_gag: 28 posts, no wiki (a special case of hand_over_mouth (or hand_over_another's_mouth)).

A lot of the confusion could be cleared up by adding wiki definitions for hand_over_mouth and hand_to_mouth. Then we could either let hand_over_mouth imply covering_mouth or alter the definition of the latter to make the tags disjoint.

Flopsy said:
I'm necroing this because the state of the hand-mouth tags is still confusing. We currently have:

• covering_mouth: 1123 posts, "The act of covering one's mouth with either the hand, or another object."
• hand_over_mouth: 374 posts, no wiki.
• hands_over_mouth: 13 posts, no wiki.
• hand_over_another's_mouth: 7 posts, no wiki.
• hand_to_mouth: 835 posts, no wiki (presumably to be used when a hand (more than one finger) is held near, but not over, one's own (or anyone's) mouth).
• hands_to_mouth: 39 posts, no wiki.
• hand_gag: 28 posts, no wiki (a special case of hand_over_mouth (or hand_over_another's_mouth)).

A lot of the confusion could be cleared up by adding wiki definitions for hand_over_mouth and hand_to_mouth. Then we could either let hand_over_mouth imply covering_mouth or alter the definition of the latter to make the tags disjoint.

I say we do this:

Define hand_over_mouth as:

When a character uses their hand to cover someone's mouth (their own or another's).

If their hand is near their own mouth but not covering it, use hand_to_mouth instead.

Alias hands_over_mouth -> hand_over_mouth (I don't think whether it's one or two hands is a useful distinction)
Alias hand_over_another's_mouth -> hand_over_mouth (This also doesn't seem like a useful distinction since the former only has 6 posts)
Implicate hand_over_mouth -> covering_mouth
Implicate hand_gag -> hand_over_mouth

Define hand_to_mouth as:

When a character puts their hand near their own mouth, such as when yawning or laughing.

If their hand completely covers their own or someone else's mouth, use hand_over_mouth instead.

(Since we don't have a single image tagged hand_to_another's_mouth I assume that hand_to_mouth can only be used for one's own mouth.)
Alias hands_to_mouth -> hand_to_mouth (Same as hands_over_mouth)

Those definitions look good to me. It's a pity that no other users have commented on this issue. Do you think one of us should try posting your proposal as a standardized alias/implication request for jxh2154?

I'm pretty sure that if we don't make the distinction between own mouth and another person's mouth, someone will suggest it two months from now and we'll end up having to retag.

You could choose to leave hand_over_another's_mouth in place, let it implicate (not alias) hand_over_mouth and go ahead with the rest of the changes. Then, if hand_over_another's_mouth ever gets populated, retagging could be handled by scripted mass edits. (Remove the implication, remove h_o_m from all images with h_o_a_m, replace remaining h_o_m with hand_over_own_mouth.)

I can see the point of the own/another's distinction, but the resulting tags are just too cumbersome. I'm willing to accept this kind of ambiguity as an unavoidable consequence of the flat tag data model.

Okay, I split hand_over_mouth into hand_over_another's_mouth and hand_over_own_mouth. I also cleaned up some of the other tags.

Now that I've done that, here's an updated list of aliases/implications I think we should do:
Alias:
hands_to_mouth -> hand_to_mouth
Implicate:
hand_over_own_mouth -> covering_mouth
hand_over_another's_mouth -> covering_mouth
hand_gag -> hand_over_another's_mouth

I went through hand_to_mouth to see if a hand_to_another's_mouth tag would be useful.

One case where it makes sense is during feeding (post #1344101), but I believe feeding alone is already enough.
Other cases are already currently tagged hand_on_another's_face. Creating hand_to_another's_face would make things more accurate but that's another story.

So hand_to_mouth is fine imo. That said, we may want to move it to hand_to_own_mouth just to help preventing future mistaggings.

Agree with the rest.

Cyberia-Mix said:
So hand_to_mouth is fine imo. That said, we may want to move it to hand_to_own_mouth just to help preventing future mistaggings.

Agreed.

Did:
create alias hands_to_mouth -> hand_to_own_mouth
create alias hands_to_own_mouth -> hand_to_own_mouth
create alias hand_to_mouth -> hand_to_own_mouth

create implication hand_over_own_mouth -> covering_mouth
create implication hand_over_another's_mouth -> covering_mouth
create implication hand_gag -> hand_over_another's_mouth