Tagging - 2018-07-18

4:42 PM

0

Q: What's the point of the best-practices tag on meta?

I saw a tag: best-practices Isn't the entire point of meta to discuss what the best practices are? Couldn't we tag just about every meta question with this? What extra information does this provide?

Martin Sleziak

6:01 PM

@MartinSleziak. 5 years ago you seemed to think this fit the bill for "best practices." I am sure you have the type of mind to remember exactly what made you think this a half decade ago. It would be interesting to know what made you think that when trying to answer this question: math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/28717/…. We want to know: What precisely were you thinking when you made this decision and what color socks were you wearing? — Mason 8 mins ago

@Mason Isn't the name of tag kind of self-explanatory? This question is about best way to ask several related questions. AFAICT, historically the tag has been used this way. In any case, these comments are completely unrelated to this question, so if there is some more discussion needed we should continue it elsewhere - either under the new question or in chat. — Martin Sleziak 24 secs ago

In this one Martin Sleziak seems to use Best-Practices as a type of junk drawer. math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10202/… — Mason 59 mins ago

To be honest, I do not follow why you consider the question "junk": Related questions, post as one question?

I will point out the there is tag (best-practices) on Meta Stack Exchange: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/best-practices

There seems to be no such tag for the metas of mathoverflow or cs or cstheory: meta.mathoverflow.net/tags cs.meta.stackexchange.com/tags cstheory.meta.stackexchange.com/tags — Mason 34 mins ago

There are a few other local metas with the tag of the same name (although not many): google.com/…

android.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/best-practices english.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/best-practices magento.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/best-practices

Mason

Should we be inviting the OP?

To this discussion?

Martin Sleziak

I don't have a problem with it. Although I am not sure that there is much to discuss.

Mason

Very good.

I should explain my use of the idiom " junk drawer?" I certainly wouldn't consider the question junk.

I don't mean to strawman but it seems like "best practices" couldn't be taken as "the best practices in use of the site" as this would be too broad.

If meant "best practices in asking of questions" that might be valuable but It doesn't match how the larger community uses the expression "best practices" and I worry people would misuse it.

Martin Sleziak

It seems that the tag was created at some point in 2010: data.stackexchange.com/meta.math/query/787716/…

Mason

Do you have a proposal for a "Usage guidance?"

Martin Sleziak

6:12 PM

It's kind of "I know it when I see it" to me.

Mason

Before I forget: Thank you for all you do for this community. It's much appreciated.

Martin Sleziak

The tag-info used on Meta Stack Exchange does not say too much more than the name does:

> Questions about the best way to do something on a Stack Exchange site, not for questions about questions about best practices.

At the moment there are 44 questions best-practices.

Mason

But I take it that you feel "You'll know it when you see it" wouldn't be the "best practice" Usage guidance for the tag.

Martin Sleziak

Well, the tag seems (at least to some extent) useful to me. But we will see what the rest of the community thinks about it.

Mason

By "junk drawer" i mean an undefinable bucket.

A place where you put stuff but don't have a clean name for. I find that these tend to clutter the mind.

Martin Sleziak

6:17 PM

Yes, I got that. I do not have much better description than the title already gives. I think the phrase "best practices" has quite common meaning.

But if majority of the users are in favor of removal of the tag, I'll definitely have no problem with that.

BTW since I see that you wrote this;

It should be noted that I lack the reputation to vote on issues like tag removal, etc. — Mason 35 mins ago

The tag is removed simply by removing it from all the questions.

Mason

Best Practices: Questions that are about what this community thinks of as good citizenship; these questions should not be about some specific case which is likely to to not represent good behavior on this site.

Martin Sleziak

Other than that, there is, there is burnination - which can be done only by Stack Exchange staff; but it removes a tag without bumping any question.

Mason

How's that as a first draft? Any thoughts on that can be improved?

I got rebuked on meta the other day and might be a tad self conscious. I didn't want to over step my bounds.

Martin Sleziak

Well, in the case of tag removal you don't have to worry that you overstep.

Mason

Very good I appreciate it.

Martin Sleziak

6:26 PM

I suppose that if some kind of agreement is reached, I guess it will be handled by moderators. (Doing it manually would mean to bump over 40 questions, so it would take rather long time.)

I don't think mods are going to act too hastily.

@Mason About the tag-info, I do not have a good idea what to include there. Sorry.

Your suggestion is probably more descriptive than the one on Meta Stack Exchange: meta.stackexchange.com/tags/best-practices/info

Mason

The one on meta stack exchange I am interpreting as best practices of SE sites. This makes perfect sense to me but I am not sure how this would transfer to MSE.

Martin Sleziak

Well, MSE is one of the SE sites and it seems that many questions of the type that are asked on the main meta are also asked here. So there is quite naturally an overlap between the tags used there and here.

Mason

Ok. I will place my suggestion on the post and ask for improvements on the language.

Martin Sleziak

Thanks for doing that.

Mason

Will you put that this isn't on any one's: "Most pressing issue list"?

in the comments. If you think that's worthwhile.

Martin Sleziak

6:33 PM

I'm not sure that I follow the last two messages.

In any case, even if the best-practices tag isn't a pressing issue, in any discussion on meta you are most likely tho get some feedback when the question is new.

Mason

In the comments of the post maybe it's worth commenting that the you " don't think mods are going to act too hastily?"

Martin Sleziak

For one thing, it is shown on the first page of questions on meta. And if it is no older than 14 days old and get at least score +3 (and is tagged discussion), then it can get to the community bulletin, which brings more traffic to the question.

Mason

One more question: Is it easy to see how many tags lack a Usage Guidance?

Is this the only one?

Martin Sleziak

@Mason I think that there is no need to explicitly mention that. It's kind of self-evident for people who regularly use meta.

Mason

Very good.

Martin Sleziak

6:39 PM

@Mason Somebody made this SEDE query: Most common tags with missing wiki/excerpt

I do not know much about SQL, but it seems to do what the title says.

Mason

The post has a second answer.

Martin Sleziak

It shows the tags which have empty tag excerpt or empty tag wiki. Maybe also restricting to the tags which do not have tag excerpt could be useful? (If the tag has tag-excerpt, there is at least some information, even if there is no tag-wiki.)

Of course, the list on the main site is much longer.

Ok, we will see how the discussion on meta evolves. See you later!

Transcript for

$Mathematics$ Tagging