When should site-specific tags be included in site recommendation questions?

Question

There are several site-recommendation questions, including site-specific tags; however, several questions recommend, i.e, Web Applications SE not having a tag for this site.

There are 6 questions, including google. One of the questions is about the Google Maps API. In this case, the recommendation mentions GIS Stack Exchange.

I know that tags like stack-overflow, serverfault and superuser are from the time when there was no per-site child meta. WordPress development was launched after Web Applications SE.

Site specific tag	site specific tag + [site-recommendation]	Questions
stack-overflow	*	40
serverfault	*	7
superuser	*	10
mathoverflow	*	2
ask-different	*	1
computer-science-se	*	4
software-engineering-se	*	6
wordpress-se	*	3
math-se	*	7
area-51	*	26

So, in which cases does it make sense to include a site-specific tag?

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Possible exceptions to the general tagging recommendation

I will list some exceptions. The Tags column doesn't include site-recommendation because all the questions listed have this tag.

I started by reviewing questions tagged wordpress.se

Question	Tags	Remarks
WordPress Answers or Stack Overflow?	discussion,stack-overflow,questions,wordpress-se	Might require scope
Should I ask this question on WordPress Development or Stack Overflow?	support,wordpress.se	Might require scope
What is the intended difference between MathOverflow and Mathematics?	discussion,math.se,mathoverflow	Might require scope

Sample of possible questions where the site-specific tag could be removed

Question	Tags	Remarks
Where's the best place to get my iPad, iPhone and iPod touch questions answered?	ask-different
WordPress questions - Where to ask now that we have Stack Exchange?	wordpress.se

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The following come from comments on Nij's answer.

1. Not all posts with site-recommendation ask for a site recommendation.
2. Not all site recommendation questions have the appropriate mandatory tag, i.e., some should have support instead of discussion.
3. Is it relevant if the site-specific tag was added because it's the answer or because it helps to connect with the site experts that might help to improve the answer recommending such a site or add a better answer?

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Side note: It looks like some questions having wordpress.se are because the questions mention WordPress, not because they are directly related to WordPress development SE.

Answer 1

It never makes sense.

If you know the site already, the question isn't necessary. Adding a tag is in effect editing the question to include its answer, which is never necessary and interferes with the meaning of votes.

If you have to ask the question, the site tag is meta-tagging. There's a reason we delete those when they are added on main sites and reject suggestions when they're ideated on meta sites.

It's not a question about that site either, it's a question about the network as a whole. The fact that a site is the answer does not mean a site is the question.

Tags are for finding questions around a particular topic or focus. They're not shorthand for answers, or shortcuts for the system as a whole.

Consider the relatively common situation of a recommendation request that has multiple applicable sites. Which of them do you include? We don't have to find exceptions or resolve this if we just follow the plan: tags for questions, answers for answers.

Answer 2

It never makes sense. If you know the site already, the question isn't necessary. If you have to ask the question, the site tag is meta-tagging. It's also not a question about that site either, it's a question about the network as a whole.

--Nij

Tags should be used only taking into consideration the information in the question. That's the same reason we don't use tags about the (potential) solutions on a question that doesn't refer to the solution.

Answer 3

Specific Question retagging

Case 1

Regarding the specific case of the question having ask-different, this question was migrated from Super User, having ipadiphone and ask-different at that time. I removed these tags as they have a different usage on Meta Stack Exchange.

Despite the above being a single case, I think it might be fair to look at inbound migrated questions. It might be very likely that the site-specific tags were added before the question was migrated.

Case 2

Could we possibly get a "featured program" section for profiles on Stack Overflow?

The above question is a feature request, not a question asking for a site recommendation, not related to questions asking for a site recommendation or related to the tag. Probably, the user who added site-recommendation thought that it should be used on posts making a suggestion.

Case 3

Questions with site-recommendation + google

Questions with these tags are about where to ask questions about Google. google should be removed from them.

Case 4

site-recommendation + wordpres-se

wordpress-se should be removed from the following questions

Question	Status Closed/Open	Status Tag Clean-Up
WordPress questions - Where to ask now that we have Stack Exchange?	Open	Pending
WordPress Answers or Stack Overflow?	Open	Pending
Should I ask this question on WordPress Development or Stack Overflow?	Open	Pending

Case 5

site-recommendation + area51

Most questions, including both tags, are because the answer recommended to make a new site proposal or to look at Area51 but some are not asking for a site recommendation; they might be criticizing something related to the site proposal process or another thing.

Thoughts

Some questions include site-specific tags because the question mentions a site. A possible typical case is OP's mentions looking for site recommendation because a question has been closed on, i.e., Computer Science SE, but the is not asking something about Computer Science SE. In cases like this, the site-specific tag should be removed because adding tags based on concepts mentioned in the question content is bad tagging, as tags should be added based on what is being asked, more specifically, the tags that better connect with the experts having the specific skills required to provide a specific answer to the question.