The wiki states that: "For a game character, this is a costume other than the standard one that can be unlocked within the game."
However, many game characters, especially in touhou, wear all sorts of differing outfits. And many of them are tagged alternate_costume, such as post #804782, post #805537, and post #797672. Maybe the definition should be refined to say, "Any complete outfit other than the one the character is typically depicted with."
Also, to what extent should we consider a character to be wearing an alternate costume? When they're not wearing much, such as in post #798772, I doubt that should be tagged. Or slight variations, such as post #788759, which I think probably shouldn't either.
Maybe we should have a separate tag for actual existing alternate costumes for a character, and anything else under the blue sky, something else?
I've considered asking this a few times, it seems to be used in the "any outfit" sense. I can see the merit in having one tag for "alternate to default but still canon" outfits and one for "not even remotely canon" but I cannot imagine the amount of work it would take to get that sorted out.
The wiki should be updated to indicate that the costume doesn't need to be canon. It hasn't been used that way in a long time. We do have player_2 but it's just for color swaps.
I don't know if there are many series that would benefit from a canon_alternate_costume tag. It's mostly useful when they have a huge number of posts and alternate costumes often have their own tags already then (song names with Vocaloid, K-On!, Idolmaster, and I can't think of any other large copyright with common costumes variations).
I believe using specific tags is the way to go, otherwise alternate_costume possibly ends up with a lot of clutter. If I want pictures of Remilia in specific styles of clothing I can look for casual, formal, contemporary, kimono, school_uniform, wedding_dress, etc. For outfits she could wear as actual alternate costumes (post #674190) I have no real way to get only those without noise (though in the case of Remilia it still works surprisingly well).
Therefore I would restrict alternate_costume to clothes that make sense as such (rantuyetmai, if you read this, I'm sorry).
Ah that, you properly mean I was applying alternate_costume to contemporary posts though. Because there are instances where the character is in a modern settings without her outfit changed (contemporary -alternate_costume search, now as clean as I could get).
rantuyetmai said: Ah that, you properly mean I was applying alternate_costume to contemporary posts though.
Oops, that's what I meant yeah. Well this is really convenient too. Now this is troublesome however. Can't have this and what I want at the same time with only these tags (and making an exception for contemporary would be weird I suppose).
EDIT: maybe contemporary should be splitted actually, between clothing and setting.
I feel like alternate costume ought to be used for outfits that A. are not the ones they are typically seen wearing, or some slight variation on such, AND B. do not fit into some other generic costume or wardrobe theme.
Preferably, it would apply only in cases where the outfit the character is wearing is particularly original or unique.
I was about to add something about lighter clothing based on the character's regular outfit but I just found the adapted_costume tag, which is exactly that. Adding it to alternate_costume's wiki for now.
I'm thinking that alternate_costume will probably be the catch-all for costumes not officially available to the character, whereas outfits that the character has been seen wearing before in anime/manga/game can be canon_alternate_costume.
Incidentally, why do we use the term "costume"? Just a superficial thought, I think "outfit" fits better, but that's just me.
(EDIT) Incidentally part 2: if we use the "everything not default is alternate costume", cosplay would also be defined as an alternate costume too, wouldn't it.
Example #1: contemporary + casual As previously stated I think contemporary right now is ambiguous and shouldn't mix clothing with setting. As long as it does I agree that adding alternate_costume like rantuyetmai did was a good solution.
Example #2: adapted_costume Since it's distinct enough I feel like this tag should exclude alternate_costume (again, less clutter when you're looking specifically for alternate_costume with no extra modifiers).
Example #3: casual because of Yamada (also possibly alternate_costume for her, would probably add it just in case) Swimsuits aren't really outfits imho. So is sleepwear, etc.
I think that for that matter, we should probably change contemporary's use to only the setting instead. If we do that though, we might need tags for settings in other age periods, and boy will that be a bother to deal with... Well, we'll leave that for another tag discussion some other day maybe.
And here I thought alternate_costume meant an alternate wardrobe of the character's established wear (ex: Tifa's Western outfit in FFVII, though her AC costume would not be an alt for pictures with that tag, though would be for D012 images, since it is literally an alternate).
Ah well, so long as that concept remains intact somehow, then I'd abide. Still, the word choice of alternate_costume seems a touch silly to me being applied to "everything they're not usually wearing", but then again, I haven't had the best track record when it comes to etymological matters (or any, really).