8
\$\begingroup\$

When I look at the tag wiki excerpts I see two types of content:

Questions relating to the use of resistors in circuits and designs.

on one hand, and on the other hand

An op-amp (operational amplifier) is a high gain analog voltage amplifier with differential high impedance inputs, and a low impedance output.

With my limited knowledge of the English language the second one is an excerpt (or could be, here the full text is still empty), but the first one isn't. In fact, when I have to rate its information value on a scale from 1 to 10 I would say 0.9. Yet there are several excerpts like this.

Are these entries acceptable, or should they be replaced by a real excerpt of the full description?

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • \$\begingroup\$ Fixed the resistor one. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Carlton
    Jul 6, 2012 at 23:53

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5
\$\begingroup\$

Excerpts and wikis like the first one you mention are completely redundant :). The purpose of a tag is to indicate that a question involves subject matter in that topic - questions with the are by definition "Questions on/about/relating to/using ." The "in circuits and designs" part of the comment should be obvious based on the fact that this is the Electrical Engineering StackExchange site. In my opinion, this is a bad tag in general, but that's another meta post.

Here are some guidelines that (IMHO) a good tag wiki excerpt should follow:

  • Brevity. The first sentence (or two if they're short) should give the essence of the tag. In some views, only the first sentence or so is shown, leaving the rest for the more curious. A long tag excerpt is less likely to be completely read - save less significant details for the actual wiki.
  • De-Jargon. The is a good example, since it mentions its root term (operational amplifier). If the tag is an acronym, the excerpt should give the full term. This reduces potential confusion and helps novices in the subject area.
  • Well written. Answers should use correct terminology and not mention the purpose of a tag. (e.g. Questions relating to... )
  • Stand-Alone. Don't make comparisons in the tag excerpt, there isn't enough room. Describe a topic fully. For example, the excerpt says "Analog circuits have a range of voltages, rather than just two as in digital logic." which illustrates a dichotomy instead of describing "analog".

Any in-depth information should be contained in the tag wiki. Ideally these would be two different bodies of work. A good place to see what the tag wikis and excerpts should look like is the StackOverflow tag page.

That having been said, our tag system is in fairly poor condition. We have a lot of tags that are add-ons that don't improve the categorization, and we are doing a poor job of culling new and underused tags, and properly categorizing new questions. Some tags, such as , , , , etc. are so broad and all-encompassing that adding them means nothing. When was the last time you saw a functioning circuit that didn't have voltages or currents?

\$\endgroup\$
2
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ This has long been on my list of to-dos to deal with but needs a very large time investment and has not been the most pressing to our community. Right now I rate it as my #3 but I will start pushing harder to get my list done, as some ma have noticed I am doing more and more then just dealing with flags and leaving comments for users on site direction. This is helped by users whom are starting to really help leave those notices and flagging to save me time :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Kortuk
    Jul 4, 2012 at 5:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ Wholeheartedly agreed! Thanks. \$\endgroup\$
    – stevenvh
    Jul 4, 2012 at 5:51

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .