BUR #16298 has been rejected.
create alias prosthetic_hand -> single_mechanical_hand
create alias prosthetic_arm -> single_mechanical_arm
create alias prosthetic_leg -> single_mechanical_leg
deprecate prosthesis
related: topic #23640
to preface, the main goal of this thread is to gather ideas, I simply attached the BUR as my "first-draft proposal" on the off-chance it's agreed with right out of the gate.
prosthetic limbs have been getting mixed up with their mechanical counterparts for a while, despite what's theoretically an obvious distinction. drawing from @nonamethanks in the above topic, prosthesis is for 100% biological characters who have replaced a missing limb and the mechanical family should describe mixed lifeforms that were constructed with artificial limbs, such as androids or cyborgs.
searching for prosthesis ~mechanical_arms ~mechanical_hands ~mechanical_legs returns 1730 posts, which isn't terrible but not stellar either when you realize that's almost 32% of a tag which absolutely zero of the instances should apply to, based on our current definitions of both tag families. amazingly prosthetic_arm single_mechanical_arm is 1032 of these posts, which proves that people either don't care or don't know better to differentiate between the two. normally it would make sense to DMail mistaggers and inform them, but on a scale this large it might be more practical to eliminate the root cause. merging prosthesis would also solve cases of ambiguity in determining if a character is an android/cyborg or normal human since some aren't inherently obvious without prior knowledge (which generally shouldn't be used when tagging).
the only aspect of prosthesis I have no idea what to do with is prosthetic weapon, a tag that presents the most legitimate reason to keep prosthesis and has no mergeable mechanical equivalent that I know of.