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I just added as a sort of advisory non-tag:


DO NOT USE - Any user with the create-tags privilege can create a new tag. Please leave a comment on the question requesting that someone do so instead of posting the request on meta.

Hopefully when someone sees it they'll follow the instructions therein instead of posting on meta.

A tag suggesting that it not be used feels a bit funny, but there are certainly plenty of questions on meta that are tag creation requests. The answer's always "You don't need to post here," and it'd be nice to not have those questions at all.

If is used in this advisory way, should be synonimized to it instead of .

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  • 4
    What's wrong with asking on Meta?
    – Gaffi
    Sep 1, 2012 at 1:31
  • @Gaffi Usually, the questions with that tag are from people asking for tags on questions not even asked yet; the system simply doesn't work that way. If it was to put a tag on a question that already existed, I'm ok with that as they might not have the rep to create the tag, or comment on a question they believe deserves the tag (and they might have a good suggestion for one). Generally, I'm for this, if you're asking a question with this tag, you should seriously consider whether or not it needs to be asked.
    – casperOne
    Sep 1, 2012 at 1:36
  • It amuses me that your post asking to remove the tag-request tag uses the tag-request tag ;) Also it seems that only 3 questions on meta are actually using this tag; so at the very least this isn't a rampant problem.
    – WendiKidd
    Sep 1, 2012 at 2:47
  • @WendiKidd The three questions using it are the ones that I tagged just now, there are many more that should have it, e.g. ... (see below)
    – blahdiblah
    Sep 1, 2012 at 2:50
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    @blahdiblah Oh, I wasn't saying your request wasn't valid. Upvoted your question, in fact. Was just sharing some information and a fact that amused me; sorry for the confusion. Honestly I'd raise this question for all of the tags that were marked DO NOT USE in the Great Tag Cleanup... If they're not to be used, why don't we burninate them?
    – WendiKidd
    Sep 1, 2012 at 2:52
  • @Gaffi While nothing's wrong with asking on meta per se, they're all duplicates inasmuch as the answer is always the same. Mostly I'm just tired of seeing them, and right now there isn't even an easy way to automatically ignore them. Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc.
    – blahdiblah
    Sep 1, 2012 at 2:53
  • Though I'd also add that, regardless of whether it's necessary or not, if the tag has been marked "DO NOT USE" then we shouldn't be tagging questions with it.
    – WendiKidd
    Sep 1, 2012 at 2:58
  • @WendiKidd Yeah, tag's that say "DO NOT USE" definitely feels like shoehorning in what should really be a proper part of the UI, but it is a much easier change to make.
    – blahdiblah
    Sep 1, 2012 at 2:58
  • Unfortunately, "DO NOT USE" tags or obvious (to more veteran SO users) incorrect/irrelevant tags are often missed by newbies, so tags that should not be used are still used all the time...
    – Gaffi
    Sep 1, 2012 at 8:46

1 Answer 1

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We already have a tag that pretty much covers this: . Most people just don't think of "creation" for some reason when they come to ask about it on Meta (not even I did at first). A synonym for could be beneficial, but a separate tag is purely not needed.

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  • I don't think they're quite the same thing, actually. The tag-creation tag's wiki says: For questions about the process and etiquette of creating new tags. I think the obsolete tag-request tag was for people asking users to create a certain tag for them, which isn't really useful.
    – WendiKidd
    Sep 1, 2012 at 2:54
  • @WendiKidd: All cases of that result in explanation of how tag creation works, so I feel the tag tag-creation is a perfect match. Creating a tag specifically for questions which shouldn't exist doesn't make any sense. That's like going through and marking all the SO questions that get asked here as belongs-on-stack-overflow.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Sep 1, 2012 at 3:02
  • @animuson Making that tag more discoverable via synonyms and usage would definitely be a good thing. How about the problem of those questions not needing to be asked (or being dupes)? Is that something we'd like to solve, or should we accept a constant (low) volume of "Hey can you create this tag for me?" "Sure." questions on meta?
    – blahdiblah
    Sep 1, 2012 at 3:06
  • @blahdiblah: There's just nothing you can do about it. We get a constant flow of questions that don't belong here and people asking about question bans too. They often end up closed quickly and eventually deleted.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Sep 1, 2012 at 3:08
  • @animuson I think I misinterpreted your answer, sorry. I was stuck on 'synonym = they mean the same thing, and these two tags don't mean the same thing at all' and I think I missed the spirit of your answer. Definitely agree that tag-request is a pretty useless tag. I laughed at the belongs-on-stack-overflow tag comment ;)
    – WendiKidd
    Sep 1, 2012 at 3:14
  • @animuson Certainly there are always going to be bad questions, but new tag request questions seem to be handled differently. Instead of being closed and deleted someone dutifully creates the tag and (sometimes) tells them that they didn't really need to come to meta. (At least there are numerous cases of that, I don't know how many deleted requests there are.) Is that an implicit argument that they do belong here?
    – blahdiblah
    Sep 1, 2012 at 3:17

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