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\$\begingroup\$

Both these tags are typically used when the poster isn't intending to dig for an actually descriptive tag. Neither of these tags should be existing, as they apply to every single question on this network.

Both tags are indicative of a bad question:

I don't mean to imply the tag makes the question bad, but tagging something with is a pretty clear indication that the question hasn't seen the required amount of TLE, and the site would, in my humble opinion, be better off if we enforced not tagging with this pseudo-tag.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I did my best to add a play on words into the title, as is the requirement for any good tag-deletion/burnination question, at least on StackOverflow. Please don't PUNish me if it's not up to standards. \$\endgroup\$
    – Marcus Müller
    Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 12:55
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ Electrocution would be a fitting end for those tags \$\endgroup\$
    – PeterJ
    Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 13:50
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ But, but... almost all of my EE questions involve electricity! :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Jun 2, 2020 at 11:21
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ I was thinking about that the other day. It is pretty ridiculous that those tags exist. It's almost like if the Physics SE had a science tag or if Stack Overflow had a code tag LOL. \$\endgroup\$
    – user103380
    Commented Jun 3, 2020 at 3:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ Soemone has added "status review" tag so it should automagically be being escalated. \$\endgroup\$
    – Russell McMahon Mod
    Commented Jun 8, 2020 at 11:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ There is also the electric tag. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Jun 9, 2020 at 9:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Lundin: electrical electricity or electronical electricity? \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Weller
    Commented Jun 11, 2020 at 19:34
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ This is in the CM team backlog, and we'll get back to you when we have updates. \$\endgroup\$
    – JNat StaffMod
    Commented Sep 1, 2020 at 14:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ @JNat um, I feel bad for asking/pointing this out, but these two tags aren't blacklisted for use, so there's new daily additions, what's the state of this? \$\endgroup\$
    – Marcus Müller
    Commented Sep 14, 2020 at 7:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ I still don't have a date for you, @MarcusMüller, and will update y'all as soon as I have it. The CM team is working on this initiative currently, and I'll see if I can squeeze this in this week (no promises, though!). \$\endgroup\$
    – JNat StaffMod
    Commented Sep 14, 2020 at 9:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @JNat no pressure! The question was more whether we can simply blacklist the tag now so that we have less to care about later. \$\endgroup\$
    – Marcus Müller
    Commented Sep 14, 2020 at 12:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ This issue is now in Dev and will be worked on as a part of that queue. \$\endgroup\$
    – Juan M StaffMod
    Commented Sep 29, 2020 at 13:31
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @JuanM thank you, that's good news! \$\endgroup\$
    – Marcus Müller
    Commented Sep 29, 2020 at 14:00

5 Answers 5

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I agree with you, but as I'm currently the only "active" mod (not active, really), I'll leave it open to collect some votes at least. And I hope that fresh new mod(s) will be willing to work on these issues, too.

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\$\begingroup\$

These tags look like a candidate for intrinsic tags.

Intrinsic tags are

term[s] that can apply to all questions on the site [...]

Hopefully, this meta post can also function as a formal request to the Community Manager to blacklist them, as it is also stated,

post a request on your meta and we'll mark it as intrinsic.

(a moderator may need to edit and add to this question, as per What posts should be escalated to staff using [status-review], and how do I escalate them?)

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2
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't know the inner workings of the mod tools, but I believe mods nowadays are able to "burninate" tags without involving CMs. Some mods over at SO have been very active in tag clean-up in the past few years. At any rate, widely used tags like these at least need moderator support to get rid of. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Jun 4, 2020 at 6:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Lundin you're correct that burninating can be done by community and mods, but blacklisting need CM. I made an edit to make it more clear it's about blacklist. \$\endgroup\$
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Jun 4, 2020 at 7:08
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\$\begingroup\$

These tags are intrinsic, they need to go away

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\$\begingroup\$

In general, all adjective-only tags are bad: they change the meaning depending on which noun they are applied to. "Electrical" is obviously meaningless without a noun, or at best equivalent to "Electricity".

"Electricity" is essentially a negative tag - it can be applied to any electromagnetic phenomenon in which the magnetic part is insignificant. This is also not useful, similarly to a "non-java" tag on Stack Overflow or "non-windows" tag on Super User.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Would something like "electrical-field" be more suitable for questions where the magnetic part is insignificant? And btw I now also found the "field" tag... for all our farming questions. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Jun 9, 2020 at 9:07
2
\$\begingroup\$

These tags are now blocked

two intrinsic tags
now added to the blocklist
electrocution!

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