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The tag was burninated by Jeff Atwood during the 2012 Great Tag Removal Thingymajig.

Since that fateful morn1 it's been re-created most days by people with more reputation than tagging ability. It then gets re-used by people with no reputation, but still more than they have tagging ability, on a near constant basis.

It's generally used by people affiliated to the "let's make a sentence when tagging" school of thought. The most recent two:

All it means is "I am using a library", the answer to which is "great, which?", or "I want to find a library", the answer to which is "care to describe your actual problem?". There should never be a situation where a tag this vague is considered needful.

I remove this tag constantly but it keeps coming back like the ugly wart it is. Can the blacklist be brought down upon this?

1. 9am UTC, he must have been up late.

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    +1 for "more reputation than tagging ability," Tell us what you really think. Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:23
  • 3
    AFAIK the system can't automatically destroy a tag which has a synonym attached to it, and this one has a useless libary synonym attached to it... What the f***?
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:26
  • All that demonstrates is how bad things were before it got killed @animuson :-). I'm a little surprised that you can't blacklist a tag with a synonym because of what I noticed with errors Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:28
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    I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about @george, this is me being circumspect :-). Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:29
  • @benisuǝqbackwards: You can blacklist it. What I'm saying is that it never gets truly deleted. We had this same problem with the web-development tag before, because it had a synonym on it.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:33
  • Of course @animuson, how else would the system know not to use it? That's fairly standard among all suppressions systems. I'm more excited by your allusion to web-development being blacklisted? Can it be true? game-development caused me a lot of pain, and it's together with the web in this blacklist request, which might now be status completed? Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:35
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    @benisuǝqbackwards: I don't think it was ever blacklisted, and that question was probably a result of the tag not getting deleted properly. If the tag never gets deleted, then anyone can always use the tag, even at 1 rep. It doesn't require the 1,500 tag creation privilege, and the tag still appears in the tag recommendations box. That's the problem here. If people keep seeing it, they will use it. The tag needs to be killed off properly first, which AFAIK requires removing that synonym on it.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:38
  • Ah, I see @animuson, that makes more sense. Is there a bug report you know of that I can upvote? Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:39
  • I don't think one has ever been filed. But a simple feature-request to kill off all synonyms for a tag when it gets burninated by a moderator would probably suffice.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:41
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    I don't know what's more incredible [read: horrifying], that library actually has followers (35 currently) or that the tag libary exists...
    – TronicZomB
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:45
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    Stack Overflow: Where we burn [books] and blacklist [library].
    – yannis
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:46
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    Don't worry Yannis both books and library are on Programmers. You can carry the torch forward for us :-). Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:48
  • @benisuǝqbackwards Thanks. Just got home from the stadium, where <local sports team> suffered an embarrassing home loss, and we probably lost the chance to play in next year's Champions League. Was looking for something to do to vent my frustration and satisfy my bloodlust.
    – yannis
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:53
  • Sorry about PAOK @Yannis (nothing is sacred on the interwebs). But, plus side, if you'd got through to the final you might have had to watch thousands of Londoner's tutting at your compatriots for blocking escalators and pavements so it's not all bad :-). Commented May 29, 2013 at 20:59
  • libary synonym deleted.
    – user102937
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 22:52

1 Answer 1

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This has been added to the blacklist, since there was an overwhelming consensus and like that crazy cat, it kept coming back.

WHY DO YOU PEOPLE HATE LIBRARIES? Don't you know those are the only places where some kids have access to books? Sheesh.

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  • I think I love you! Happily accepted :-). Charles won't know what to do with himself Commented Nov 19, 2013 at 13:04

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