The Loop

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toscho

07:39

@Howdy_McGee Weird. I have that.

cjbj

08:28

@Howdy_McGee Yeah, I feel it should be forbidden to add any tag to the wiki without providing at least a description. I've come across some tags that are impossible to describe

toscho

@cjbj You can open a meta topic and ask for the deletion of useless tags whenever you come across one of them

customization is our catch-all tag. I use it to merge obsolete tags into it.

cjbj

@toscho I'm planning to do that once I've worked my through it

edit: worked my way through it

toscho

Q: Tag soup clean up

The following list contains tags for which I cannot see any practical use. They are way too vague, probably just meta tags. What should we do with those tags? body bulk-import – we have also bulk and import challenge code coding create customization default and defaults deleted and deleting dup...

3 hours later…

kaiser

11:25

@MarkKaplun Hey. Can you please start answering with a bit more than a vague one-sentence suggestion? wordpress.stackexchange.com/a/229775/385

Mark Kaplun

12:21

yes @kaiser, I can stop answering

toscho

12:42

@MarkKaplun you know exactly what kaiser meant

Rarst

13:06

@MarkKaplun don't want you to feel ganged up on :) just want to give feedback on instance linked to — with this type of answer I always strive provide link to relevant API in Codex and to relevant source on github or trac. it seems obvious to us, but many people won't know that.

Mark Kaplun

no @toscho, I actually don't knoiw. This comment reminds me my days at high school were it always felt like marks are being given by the length of the answer.

Answer length reflects attention span and and mood in that moment, so I don't read it any other way then "if you don't have half an hour to invest in an answer, don't answer"

toscho

you are too often too vague. all flags against your posts are low quality or not an answer, that's why kaiser is trying to help you informally.

Mark Kaplun

so I don't get it, you are the moderators, delete the answers, it will actually be less offending

or the other way to read it is that the wide community asks me not to answer

Rarst

wide community absolutely glad to have you, moderators including :) many of us are just grumps, short on socially well oiled feedback :)

Mark Kaplun

me included ;)

I admire all the people that give lengthy answers here, but that is not me

Rarst

13:22

please see my feedback above, it's not as much about raw length of the answer, as completeness and making it useful for as wide portion of community as possible (e.g. total novices wouldn't even know were to find widget source)

kraftner

Mark I know that feeling. I often start answering, and then leave without submitting because I'm not in the mood/have time to write a long answer and the short one I just typed doesn't really help enough to warrant being an answer. Just my thoughts.

And I mean you're one of the most active users, so I guess you're help is appreciated in any case. We're all trying to get better at this, right? I guess when @kaiser / @toscho / @Rarst say things like that is always meant as a well meant advice and not an offending complaint

Mark Kaplun

so we back to step one. don't answer if I don't have the time/will to explain everything at novice level

toscho

or even better: stop exaggerating :)

kraftner

At least that is what I do sometimes. Not sure if that is the best approach though.

Mark Kaplun

@toscho, I am not, I am just being upset at the moment.

Rarst

13:30

please understand that this isn't all mechanical when people are involved :) just as this feedback upset you (and I am sorry that my did) the overly short answer can upset an asker and so on

toscho

Our idea of moderation is not just delete it. We try to talk with the users instead, pointing out issues before they are becoming real problems. So please just take this as an attempt to give advice. No immediate action from your or our side is needed.

kraftner

I have to admit I read your first response (yes @kaiser, I can stop answering) kind of like "fu I quit" while you might have meant that you just don't answer at all in the case I described above. [insert reference to chat name here]

Rarst

programmers are tempted to reduce everything to a minimal form, but that is communication style doesn't always translate well to other people