The bulk update request #4437 is pending approval.

create alias eldritch (125) -> eldritch_abomination (2369)
create alias eldritch_being (474) -> eldritch_abomination (2369)
create alias feet_growth (0) -> foot_expansion (269)
create alias feet_expansion (0) -> foot_expansion (269)

Reason: Used the tag with the fewer posts to alias from and the tag with the most posts to alias to.

Again, it's really not a good idea to combine multiple unrelated subjects into the same BUR or thread. It lowers the chances of it getting approved or even seen. Nobody's going to judge you for opening two different BURs for two different sets of tags.

That aside, what exactly is the difference between foot_growth and foot_expansion? I note only the latter has implications.

wat8548 said:
That aside, what exactly is the difference between foot_growth and foot_expansion? I note only the latter has implications.

It's not the only tag set like that. There's also ear_growth and ear_expansion. I'm not sure what the distinction is intended to be either, perhaps they should be aliased together (to *_growth IMO).

watsit said:
It's not the only tag set like that. There's also ear_growth and ear_expansion. I'm not sure what the distinction is intended to be either, perhaps they should be aliased together (to *_growth IMO).

Expansion is more common.
belly_expansion
butt_expansion
breast_expansion
I have already made the bur to alias from foot_growth to foot_expansion, but it hasn't been approved yet.
https://e621.net/forum_topics/37440

wolfmanfur said:
Expansion is more common.
belly_expansion
butt_expansion
breast_expansion

Those are generally about a size increase to become more plump and rounded. Feet and ears and such can also be involved in something like a transformation, where it's not just becoming bigger but also changing shape. claw_growth, fur_growth, feather_growth, tail_growth, etc, are tags too, while claw_expansion, fur_expansion, feather_expansion, tail_expansion, etc, are either non-existent or used far less. More generally, _growth just sounds/reads better: grass is said to grow when it sprouts out of the ground and a tree is said to grow and it gets larger, it's not normally said that grass or trees expand as they get larger. A person grows as they get older, we don't say a person expands as they age (except perhaps in terms of fattening and becoming more rotund, which is separate from the growth from aging).

watsit said:
Those are generally about a size increase to become more plump and rounded. Feet and ears and such can also be involved in something like a transformation, where it's not just becoming bigger but also changing shape. claw_growth, fur_growth, feather_growth, tail_growth, etc, are tags too, while claw_expansion, fur_expansion, feather_expansion, tail_expansion, etc, are either non-existent or used far less. More generally, _growth just sounds/reads better: grass is said to grow when it sprouts out of the ground and a tree is said to grow and it gets larger, it's not normally said that grass or trees expand as they get larger. A person grows as they get older, we don't say a person expands as they age (except perhaps in terms of fattening and becoming more rotund, which is separate from the growth from aging).

That may be true to you, but foot_expansion is clearly the preferred tag here with 108 posts vs 33 posts for foot_growth and there is no visual difference between the posts under both tags.

wolfmanfur said:
That may be true to you, but foot_expansion is clearly the preferred tag here with 108 posts vs 33 posts for foot_growth and there is no visual difference between the posts under both tags.

Post count doesn't always dictate which tag should be used. Sometimes a tag with more uses is aliased to a tag with fewer uses if they mean the same thing anyway.

Since I'm now looking at these though, these BURs are incompatible. In this one, you're aliasing feet_growth -> foot_growth, and in the other, you're aliasing foot_growth -> foot_expansion. You can't use a tag that's aliased away as an alias target (you can't alias feet_growth -> foot_growth if foot_growth is already aliased to foot_expansion), and a BUR can't alias a tag that is already an alias target (a BUR can't alias foot_growth -> foot_expansion if foot_growth already has aliases or implications associated with it; transitive like that are only automatically handled by normal alias requests), so once either one is accepted, the other will become invalid.

wolfmanfur said:
The bulk update request #4437 is pending approval.

create alias eldritch (125) -> eldritch_abomination (2369)
create alias eldritch_being (474) -> eldritch_abomination (2369)
create alias feet_growth (0) -> foot_expansion (269)
create alias feet_expansion (0) -> foot_expansion (269)

Reason: Used the tag with the fewer posts to alias from and the tag with the most posts to alias to.

I guess I agree for the most part.

I'd argue that not all Eldritch are not abominations
but eldritch is usually paired with the word abomination.
So it's a bit of a word checkmate...

but I don't really care. Edlritch abomination is usually just a tag filled with Cthulu's sexy ass

Regarding growth vs expansion, I'd like to point out the growth and expansion wikis do currently define growth as sprouting a new body part (like growing a new tail) and expansion as an existing body part getting bigger. Maybe the tag names are confusing though

watsit said:
Post count doesn't always dictate which tag should be used. Sometimes a tag with more uses is aliased to a tag with fewer uses if they mean the same thing anyway.

In this situation, both tags are used interchangeably and it is not an issue even on par with the whole Vtuber bur headache that has not even been fixed yet as of speaking. At least over there the argument could be made that Vtuber is used more frequently than Virtual_YouTuber, so it should be used instead of Vtuber. Foot_expansion seems to be more popular than foot_growth, on top of that foot_expansion has already an implication like Wat mentioned. The last thing I want is another headache, and one as petty and insignificant as this.

Since I'm now looking at these though, these BURs are incompatible. In this one, you're aliasing feet_growth -> foot_growth, and in the other, you're aliasing foot_growth -> foot_expansion. You can't use a tag that's aliased away as an alias target (you can't alias feet_growth -> foot_growth if foot_growth is already aliased to foot_expansion), and a BUR can't alias a tag that is already an alias target (a BUR can't alias foot_growth -> foot_expansion if foot_growth already has aliases or implications associated with it; transitive like that are only automatically handled by normal alias requests), so once either one is accepted, the other will become invalid.

Didn't know that, will update accordingly. Thank you for the heads up.

cloudpie said:
Regarding growth vs expansion, I'd like to point out the growth and expansion wikis do currently define growth as sprouting a new body part (like growing a new tail) and expansion as an existing body part getting bigger. Maybe the tag names are confusing though

Definitely confusing. Generally speaking, "grow" is a perfectly valid word to indicate something that exists is getting larger (saplings grow into trees, kids grow into adults), while "expand" gives an impression more like something's being stretched like a balloon or fattened by being overfilled. Given a static image of variable detail, it can sometimes be unclear whether a new part is sprouting or an existing part is getting bigger, especially for things like transformation (e.g. claws are sometimes depicted as sprouting from the toe/finger tips or from underneath the toe/fingernails, while sometimes they can instead be depicted as the toe/fingernails themselves lengthening into claws, or like the ears in post #3804657, did the human ears go away and new fox "grow" on their head, or did the human ears move up and "expand" into fox ears? often it's impossible to tell which it is). Or something like snout_growth, where a humanoid face doesn't have a snout, but all a snout is is the part of the face around the mouth and nose stretched outward. So a character can get a snout where they didn't have one before ("growth"), but it's also just an enlargement of that part of their face ("expansion").

If we were to keep growth and expansion separate, I'd say "expansion" should be for when an existing body part gets bigger and retains it's same structure (a human ear getting bigger while staying a human ear, a butt getting bigger and staying a butt, breasts getting bigger and staying breasts), while "growth" would be for something new sprouting or an existing part changing into something different (fur or scales growing out of skin, dog or rabbit ears growing from human ears, claws growing out of or from toe/fingernails, etc).

Or we can alias them together since they convey a similar enough concept, where I would suggest *_growth can be used more consistently to make the most linguistic sense. "Fur expansion" makes no sense, and "ear expansion" makes me think of something cartoonish like this, rather than something growing into something bigger in a general sense.

wolfmanfur said:
The last thing I want is another headache, and one as petty and insignificant as this.

...And this is another reason why it's generally not a good idea to put more than one unrelated proposal in the same BUR, in case an unexpected controversy arises with only one of its parts.

Personally I also think "growth" makes more sense as a tag with the meaning "expansion" currently has. It has fewer counterintuitive gotchas, like muscle_growth not actually referring to a character sprouting entirely new muscles. We would need to think up an alternative vocabulary for the likes of penis_growth first though.