alias dowsing_rods -> dowsing_rod

alias dowsing_rods -> dowsing_rod

reason: brings it in line with how things are tagged and is better representative of the pictures with only one dowsing rod.

Natural pair, -1

No they have dowsing rod setups with only one rod.

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/wifi-dowsing-rod-2.jpg

In this case it finds wi-fi signals.

This request should be in forum #14788. But +1 from me, because types of single dowsing rod exist.

Whoops, I completely forgot about that thread.

-1 from me as well, and I'd rather have both tags in use depending on the number.

That argument can be used in a lot of plural -> singular cases, like a single crystal (post #801534) is different from a bunch of crystals (post #744557). I don't object the idea of separation, but we should have some guidelines for decision.

Anelaid said:
No they have dowsing rod setups with only one rod.

Usage trumps perception by a lot there are approximately zero Y dousing rods tagged unless there's some hidden in nazrin which I'm not going to check due to her signature item being a pair.

I don't think separation is necessary here. Dowsing rods on Danbooru are foreseeably going to feature one or more of only three things: Nazrin (in person or reference), treasure-hunting, or random junk. Whether there's one, two or 37 involved does not matter, their purpose is the same.

Log said:
Usage trumps perception by a lot there are approximately zero Y dousing rods tagged unless there's some hidden in nazrin which I'm not going to check due to her signature item being a pair.

Deciding to use plural tag (which is against the norm of single for most tag) is based on natural existence, not by post count.

Dowsing rod is not a natural pair irl.

That's actually not how it it has worked since before you had an account but thanks for playing anyways.

I apologize for joining this site late, but please give me an example of what you're trying to prove.

theadonicus said:
I don't think separation is necessary here. [...] Whether there's one, two or 37 involved does not matter, their purpose is the same.

The reason I'm in favor of separation is not purpose but because it's easier to find what you want with 2 tags rather than mixing stuff and look at each thumbnail one by one.

1. Dowsing rods are not a natural pair, so singular should be canonical.
2. I don't see why anyone would care about the number of rods in the picture, thus I see no reason to keep them separate. It should be aliased.

Given that the metal L-shaped rods are naturally used in pairs, we should probably go with dowsing_rods.

Until some examples of the wooden Y-shaped dowsing rods appear, we should go ahead and alias dowsing_rod to dowsing_rods. Though I do think that if the wooden Y-shaped dowsing rods do appear, given that they're completely different looking from the metal L-shaped dowsing rods, that they should have their own separate tag. Could probably go with wooden_dowsing_rod should they ever crop up, or Y-shaped_dowsing_rod.

L-shaped dowsing rods come in a natural pair, as to dowse with them to indicate that you've found something they have to cross over each other, which would be impossible unless they came in a natural pair.

Again, why'd you care about the distinction? The important part here is dowsing, distinguishing between every variation possible is pointless granularity. Dowsing is bunk science anyway, so it's not like there are any actual reasons to have them shaped like this or that. That, and before Nazrin I've never encountered the paired variant, all references to dowsing I've ever seen involved the Y-shaped kind. Which means they're very much not a natural pair.

rantuyetmai said:
I apologize for joining this site late, but please give me an example of what you're trying to prove.

He's refering to the fact that until maybe a year ago or so the policy was to alias everything singular → plural rather than plural → singular. Switching it generally made more sense in most contexts except where plurality needed to be kept in the case of natural pairs / sets.

I don't have an strong opinion in this case. In my head, the single y-shaped dowsing rods are more prototypical (Perhaps that's a western culture vs eastern culture thing), but that appears to be counter to our most common usages here. Since we generally go with common usage, I don't have a problem with going plural in this case.

@Renim: If we ever use L-shaped_dowsing_rods, I'll agree letting it be plural. Until then, dowsing_rod is a catch all term and should be singular.

Edit: got ninja'd by Hazuki.

Except the only version of dowsing rods ever depicted in anime and manga are the metal L-shaped variety. If you do a dowsing_rods -touhou search, what few other examples depicted are very clearly the metal L-shaped paired variety.

I too was only aware of the Y-shaped type of variety until a year or two ago, but given how frequently when dowsing rods are shown in anime are the paired L-shaped type, the Y-shaped stand alone type may not be very well known there.

True that even one L-shaped type would be a "dowsing rod", but given that they're only usable in pairs in that form, would indicate that it is a natural pair.

葉月 said:
2. I don't see why anyone would care about the number of rods in the picture, thus I see no reason to keep them separate. It should be aliased.

I don't care myself either. I just think tagging dowsing_rod instead of dowsing_rods doesn't make things any harder for taggers the rare times when it occurs, while the alias makes things harder for searching. But fine if no one likes this policy.