Are you sure? Because with just a quick google search, the only definition I can find for shoujo ai is yuri/gl. It's basically a synonym. Not disagreeing about the tag system being bad, but what do you shoujo ai means?
shoujo ai generally involves the cute stuff regarding w/w relationships and the nsfw does not apply in this genre. that's where yuri get in the picture, an umbrella term for wlw relationships that includes the nsfw
All I can find is agreement that Japan doesn't use Shoujo-Ai much at all and it's a western thing to separate it from Yuri, but what I can't find is agreement which is which. Yuri is what Japan uses for all NSFW GL content as well as SFW GL content, so I get the idea that it's supposed to be separate from Yuri, but there's no generic agreement anywhere. But one could argue it's also the opposite, since Shoujo-Ai directly translates to Girl Love while Yuri is metaphorical and directly translates to Lily.
So I don't know which should be which, but we can both agree that the first poster saying that "Shoujo Ai isn’t even the right term for yuri/gl works" is just flat out wrong. And I think we can both agree that instead of having two tags for GL depending on how explicit it is or isn't, it would be better to just use one tag and an additional tag for how explicit the content is. Easier to understand and would make searching far easier.
Sorry but from what I read and have been told Yuri is the correct term, not shoujo ai. In Japan shoujo ai has nothing do with yuri, instead it denotes to adults who have a fetish for young girls and pedophilic relationships between adult men and young, underaged girls. Shoujo ai is a word by Western fans. It’s the reason why when I look through the tags here you’ll see hetero stuff on it as well.
Like if you put "百合(yuri)" and "少女愛(shoujo ai)" in google with japanese language and region setting, see for yourself the difference.
Yes it's only a western thing, but that doesn't mean it's not what it translates to. Western name for this genre is Girls Love, since most places don't exactly want to use the word lesbian, which is more accurate. Shoujo-Ai translates directly to Girl Love and Yuri translates to Lily, which is a symbolic word for Lesbian.
Yuri is the correct term, but so is Shoujo-Ai. It's just the west trying to use two tags to mean the same thing, but for different levels of explicit content. From what I can find, there's no agreed upon definition for which is more for adult stuff and which isn't, but none of that makes it the wrong tag to use.
But I do agree that it's a stupid idea to have multiple tags, this is a western site, so we should either use the Japanese tag Yuri or use English like we do for other tags. Two tags is stupid and the fact that I have to use two bookmarks to check all the GL uploads is stupid. But Shoujo-Ai is still not the wrong tag, it's just stupid that this site has two tags for the same thing.
The main problem that we are using to tags with same meaning. And there are two possible solutions:
1) Use only one tag, Yuri as more common, or GL as western analogy.
2) Separate meanings of two tags: Shoujo Ai for girls friendship, with no sex involved, Yuri for girls relationship with sex involved.
Bro please tag this yuri. Shoujo Ai isn’t even the right term for yuri/gl works. And I’m honestly getting tire having to go through so much crap just because this place has a bad tag system.