Merge "Shoujo Ai" tag with "Yuri" :planned:

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@Teasday

@DYWYPI Talks about the fact that currently in order to search all yuri works if you're ok with smut, you need to do 2 separate searches 1 with "shoujo ai" tag and 1 with "yuri" tag. You have no option to simply search all "yuri stuff" because some yuri works are tagged as yuri and some as shoujo ai, but most are not tagged as both, so if you were to search using both tags, you won't get much results, but while searching both tags separately, first shoujo ai and than yuri, you will go through a lot of the same entries, because some are tagged as both. It's major pain in the ass and I totally forgot to mention it, but I had to do it and I hated it. So yes, having 2 separate tags actually inconveniences people who are ok with smut, like me. Also again, it feels homophobic "I'm ok with het but I don't want to see too much gay stuff" as DYWYPI also mentioned.
 
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@Teasday

You can search for all yuri-tagged works without advanced search, but not all yuri - because some of it is tagged shoujo-ai, largely at random. And because of that, you also can't search at all for all yuri fantasy, or yuri comedy, or yuri anything - because you have to search for "(Yuri AND Fantasy) OR (Shoujo-Ai AND Fantasy), and unless I'm missing something, the engine doesn't support complex Boolean expressions, just a single "tag inclusion mode". And sure, "just report the incorrect tags!" - except the evidence clearly points to everyone having different ideas of what the boundary is supposed to be, so that would be a lot of conflicting reports to sift through if people actually did it, plus it would make actually just finding all yuri works even more difficult. And that's without getting into the "does a series change genres retrospectively when two characters kiss or have sex?" questions.
 
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Who the hell is this theoretical person that wants smut and yuri but not yuri smut? If you want het porn, blacklist yuri, yaoi, and search the smut tag.

There is a yuri tag, a smut tag, why does there need to be a yuri-smut tag?

Who do the separate tags actually benefit? All it does is make things needlessly more complex for people who just want to see two girls kiss.
 

CG

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I remember suggesting this (https://mangadex.org/thread/9674/) two years ago and not getting any proper response.

It really is getting pretty sad, there's a reason why this is being suggested again and again. If I wanted to search fantasy, I would use the Fantasy tag, if I then wanted fantasy with explicit content I would also toggle the Ecchi tag or whatever, seems simple enough, that's exactly the same thing people want with yaoi/yuri. Just let us use the Yuri tag to search for any form of it, then the minority of people who are bothered by explicit content can exclude it, excluding can even be done automatically through settings section, shouldn't we be structuring tags so that people can make use of convenient automated features?

With the current system, if someone wanted to block all explicit content, they have to actually go beyond excluding Smut/Ecchi, they also have to block Yuri/Yaoi too, despite the former being categorized as Content and the latter being categorized as Genre, because not all Yuri/Yaoi content has Smut/Ecchi tags, only very few do actually. Seems a bit silly, especially because more and more people in the west now use the terms yaoi/yuri as they should be (any form of romance between males/females respectively).

This doesn't require any huge overhaul of the tagging system or any complex SQL either, it should only involve setting all tags with Shoujo/Shonen Ai to Yuri/Yaoi respectively, update any metadata scrapers of other sites to do the same thing and then update client-side JS to remove Shoujo/Shonen Ai tags.
 
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@DYWYPI That is also a valid point. Since you can currently only choose between AND or OR integers for all selected tags in either the Included or Excluded sections, searching "Yuri and Shoujo-Ai and Fantasy" will only give you Fantasy manga that have both GL tags, whereas "Yuri or Shoujo-Ai or Fantasy" will give you both non-fantasy related yuri series and non-yuri related fantasy series. And making the search more complex just to accomodate that would just make things more user-unfriendly for the general audience.
 
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It's clear that at this point we're just going "I say/you say" debate route, so I'll end my opinion with some of the common problems OP and other people are having:

"Many series are mistaged"
-> Fix it yourself or use the Report button if the series is locked for whatever reason

"I do not want to use 2 tags to find all GL content"
-> So you proposed a fix to convenient you and inconvenient others. Unless there's a fix that separate GL and H-GL, I'd call it stupid on this change.

"Nobody's going to care about GL, so merge it"
-> There're just so many readers to clarify this. Again, just I say/you say debate, no point to argue.

"We must adapt to Japan scene"
-> Not really possible with the Internet age where so many stuff has been established in the first place. Already discussed to death earlier.

TL,DR: No, you can't throw away the problem I pointed out earlier because it EXISTS, no matter how ridiculous you think it is. Fix it if you can and I'll vote 4 you on this, until then I'm against it.
 
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@CG posted:

This doesn't require any huge overhaul of the tagging system or any complex SQL either, it should only involve setting all tags with Shoujo/Shonen Ai to Yuri/Yaoi respectively, update any metadata scrapers of other sites to do the same thing and then update client-side JS to remove Shoujo/Shonen Ai tags.
What's being asked for is going to require a system for and/or'ing pools of tags for either inclusion or exclusion purposes, which is a huge overhaul for both the sql and even more significantly complicate the ui to hell. I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

It would be like exclude:(yuri && smut) || (yaoi && smut)
 
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@RonBWL

Unless there's a fix that separate GL and H-GL, I'd call it stupid on this change.

Where's my tags to separate straight couples and H-straight couples? I mean, if we have to make the distinction for gay couples (despite the smut and ecchi tags existing for this very reason), surely it's only sensible to do the same for straight couples.

You can't throw away the problem I'm pointing out because it EXISTS, no matter how ridiculous you think it is.
 

CG

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"Many series are mistaged"
-> Fix it yourself or use the Report button if the series is locked for whatever reason
Mistagging of Shoujo Ai/Yuri happens so often because surprise surprise, it's a silly categorization of yuri/yaoi content. Why bother constantly reporting and checking when the whole thing could just be fixed altogether?

"I do not want to use 2 tags to find all GL content"
-> So you proposed a fix to convenient you and inconvenient others. Unless there's a fix that separate GL and H-GL, I'd call it stupid on this change.
The fix has been repeatedly said so many times now that it looks like you're just willfully ignoring it at this point. Ecchi/Smut/Sexual Violence tags exist, they should be used to tag any yuri content which contains any of that. Users can then include those tags to restrict it to yuri content with H, or exclude it to only search yuri content without H, or both by default by just searching yuri, as things logically should be.

"Nobody's going to care about GL, so merge it"
-> There're just so many readers to clarify this. Again, just I say/you say debate, no point to argue.
I'd love to put it to a vote. The amount of times this has been suggested and the general sentiment of this thread gives some hint of what the result would be. Of all my discussions with people who actually avidly read yuri/yaoi, I just can't imagine of them saying "Oh no, we can't merge the two tags because one of the tags focuses a bit more on kissing and being intimate, I wouldn't want that in my genre which literally focuses on romance!".

"We must adapt to Japan scene"
-> Not really possible with the Internet age where so many stuff has been established in the first place. Already discussed to death earlier.
This isn't even about adapting to the Japanese scene, people in the west too generally use yuri/yaoi as encompassing terms for same-sex romance, it's been years since I've heard someone actually refer to it as shoujo/shonen ai, it's fallen in use.
 
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@CG

"The fix has been repeatedly said so many times now that it looks like you're just willfully ignoring it at this point. Ecchi/Smut/Sexual Violence tags exist, they should be used to tag any yuri content which contains any of that. Users can then include those tags to restrict it to yuri content with H, or exclude it to only search yuri content without H, or both by default by just searching yuri, as things logically should be."

In case you missed my initial post, this is under the assumption that readers either are ok or not ok with smut. Yes that works by excluding Smut you'll not find Smut-Yuri, but you'll also not find pure GL in a series that happens to have "normal" Smut, whereas the current system allows it because it has a separate GL tag, allowing the Smut tag to still be available. Call me crazy, but yes it exists, and the proposed idea leads exactly to that, unless you happen to have another fix to address this, which causes more problem than it should be.
 
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@RonBWL The tag system is not meant to cover every specific edge case. As Teasday said earlier in the thread, if there's a practical way to have fewer tags, they'd go for it.

You've attached yourself to this weird idea of someone seeking out a series that simultaneously has heterosexual smut content and non-sexual yuri content. Honestly, why on earth should the tag system cater to this incredibly specific niche, at the cost of the convenience of the yuri community at large? I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if you are the only person on this entire website that is interested in this niche.
 
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@igenetycs

Where's my tags to separate straight couples and H-straight couples?

A side-effect of living in a heteronormative world is that these tags were absorbed into romance and smut, respectively.

@CG Shounen-ai isn't replacement terminology for yaoi. They've always been separate terms. In fact, we should very likely have an additional tag for Bara since the target demographic is different than for yaoi and shounen-ai.
 
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@RonBWL
Unless there's a fix that separate GL and H-GL
Mate.
ez9uPUB.png


As for a "but what if I specifically want to see SFW-only F/F romance and both SFW and NSFW everything else" scenario, it's an edge case. As I have pointed out before, several of these edge cases exist with the current system as well. For example, I can't look for SFW-only het romance while keeping NSFW available for everything else. I also can't look up (all works featuring F/F romance) AND (any other genre tag). "Shoujo ai" AND "Yuri" AND "Sports" query only shows works that have all three tags. "Shoujo ai" OR "Yuri" OR "Sports" includes works that only have one of these tags. This example isn't even an edge case, searching for multiple tags is pretty common.

So yes, I suppose merging the tags would be very convenient for me and inconvenient for that one other person with very specific tastes in porn.
 
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yuri hime series being tagged shoujo ai and not yuri is just laughable. Actually, go through everything published in yuri hime ever on this site, the tagging consistency is laughable.

I wonder if any series tagged yuri were replaced with the shoujo ai tag? Perhaps based on how it crossed some arbitrary line as determined by 1 user? That'd be a laugh. I'd bet it happened sometime but I got no evidence, it seems like a very safe bet tho. Someone please provide examples!

An line which cannot be clearly defined, those stating their personal definitions of said word/line miss the point in that they are no authority on the matter. And none exist because it's a made up western term that some [uhh, people took from an very barely related term. And so it can't even be agreed upon by any majority of people, let alone the large majority you'd need.

At least with other terms there are straight up equivalents even if the words differ, and there is some authority that can define them. Mind you that doesn't stop people from trying to force their own definitions. For example see Parallel Paradise's arguments, despite the official Japanese publishers agreeing on their rules for smut, many readers will try to call it R18. While I get where they are coming from, they seem to be unable to answer much if asked about strict definitions or lines. Some of them even defined it as whether they got horny reading it.

And the shoujo ai/yuri distinction is handled so utterly inconsistently i gave up trying to make any sense of it a long time ago. There's been upwards of 30 yuri series on here that are not tagged with yuri, sometimes not even shoujo ai, mistagged, neither or both. Hell, other users have already listed them. I ended up relying on offsite solutions for tagging yuri. I've never even bothered to try using it here after some testing, it was unworkable.

Sorting by magazine, publisher or artist (or relying on a friend) is far more reliable of a search term, if you want to know. Scanlators can be, too. And good luck with that because magazine/publisher definitions isn't even listed on MU or any common western site catering to weebs. If anything the two sites that even bother to describe it are usually laughed at.

The whole distinction of catering towards some arbitrary "safe"ness or "pure"ness is really weird, it doesn't even exist in most other genres. I can only surmise some sizable (or small but vocal) puritylovers want their one click solution and find two clicks of no-R18+yuri too much effort. But even then they cant agree on anything as it quickly devolves into extreme niche territory based on how "pure" their taste is (no kissing, love declarations, handholding, varying subtext levels, whatever else or a mix of the above). Even if some central authority existed, it would be unworkable and I would pity his job.
I would really say at that point they should be making their own personal complex filters or hiring someone to do it. No one should sanely make one-button solutions to cater to them. It's impossible until Minority Report for piracy exists, lul.

Well, so long as you try to run a large community with very vague rulings, this will happen. Seen it happen often enough, suffered through it often enough, in weeb communities no less, let along elsewhere. History itself has more examples too. Just how it is.

Speaking of which, where are these supposed "large" western communities that have a clear definition of what shoujo ai is?

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Sometimes I wonder if yuri is cursed with how much drama of it gets around, and yet its logically closest controversy deep cousins seem to get noticeably less of it (let's say yaoi, violence, murder, rape, thievery, works of varyingly badly designed stories which miss their intended aseops). Though I suppose those types don't really have puritylovers, or such numerous opposed factions that hate the genre. And I don't hang around those so maybe I just missed it.

Should I list all the /u/, dynasty dramas in the last few years? or VNs? or even a barely few months old tagging drama on a certain undead site? That's only for lurkers on open sites, behind the scenes drama seems even worse from what i heard? or fucking governments or telecom-monopolies being complete fail at their jobs and blocking entire sites or entire IP ranges because of some one terrorist or a supposed CP site, which of course, have to hit some unrelated yuri sub-site or other?
Why can't that much shit hit the controversial genres of other countries? I wonder how much the if popular religions would like losing their tenets to cheap talk (spamming customer service), or if English speaking countries would love to have their violent tv shows. movies and video games shut down. AND every time either faction try to so much as argue it's "safe", all they get responded with is poorly thought out arguments or better yet, witch-hunt type sentences.

even yaoi doesnt feel this bad to be a fan of, boy, being a fujoshi is starting to look real good.

even finding just an updated list of buyable yuri is probably too much to ask nowadays.

i just want to read some !@#$%^&* yuri
 
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Well we came up with a solution, but it's not going to be implemented until after our major site rework next year:

1. Merge Shoujo Ai into Yuri and merge Shounen Ai into Yaoi
2. Rename Yuri and Yaoi to Girl's Love and Boy's Love respectively
3. Overhaul the current system that depicts the level of sexual content, ranging from "safe" to fully pornographic (replacing the current hentai tag)

Rather than doing some excessive filtering like allowing people to filter out "BL (and) Smut", straight and gay content get the same treatment now. Previously, you were able to quickly choose between showing H and hiding H using the cog in the navbar. Now, the same will apply to the sexual content rating of a story. If you wanna see safe shit, you filter everything but safe shit out. If you wanna see fan service and smutty shit, you allow those in. If you wanna see straight up porn, you switch to straight up porn. Probably also letting people make presets so that if you only wanna see boy's love without sexual content, can have that set up in one slot, and in another slot you could be hiding boy's love while you're looking at sexual content.

Well, that's about the best solution we've come up with. The only "issue" that still exists is people can't filter out hetero shit and drown themselves in gay but that'll be for another day. Thanks for the feedback
 
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Awesome!
A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to this discussion and a special thanks to the mods for keeping this thread open and letting people be heard, even when people were getting kind of sick of us.
 
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but muh 1 click to get non-h grills subtext raibu laziness? pls cater to muh! r18-yuri is too heresy for my straight self! i demand some personal standard of purity! and only enough subtext so that i dont feel bad fantasizing if they turn het later!
Okay, jokes aside:

There might have been a case for the term if the western publishers' data is around, then you could just steal their tags but it's not like they'd tag anything they haven't licensed.


Actually, given the current advance search system is it possible to search for something plus either, say "fantasy + (yuri or shojoai)" ? i wouldnt mind doing typing in some regex but it doesnt look possible from the interface?
 
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The only "issue" that still exists is people can't filter out hetero shit and drown themselves in gay but that'll be for another day.
I'd love that.

@Plykiya, while you are at it, how about a tag for those series that aren't quite 'Girls Love', but have pretty obvious hints?
Like many Mahou Shoujo (Nanoha, Madoka, ...), SoL manga (most Kirara), or sports manga (Saki, Scorching ping pong girls, ...).

Some call it 'Yuri subtext', others call it 'yuribait', but like it or not it's a widespread genre in anime and manga nowadays, and there is currently no criteria that allows one to search for it on this website.
The Dynasty Scans website for example has many such tags for varying degrees of overtness, but the addition of even a single one would be a huge help here.
 
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