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Over the last couple of days I have seen a number of tag-wiki edits for tags that was just created and sometimes isn't even used on a question. I started to notice that they all were from the same user which seems to be doing nothing but tag-edits.

I wouldn't mind if they were good, informative wikis that helped people know more about the tag and when to use it, but many of them are really uninformative or general.

Is there something that we can do to avoid this?

My first idea was to disable tag-wiki edits for a tag until it has at least a small number of questions (maybe 5-10). This would at least mean that someone is interested in the tag before it gets a wiki that someone else has to review. Hopefully, this wouldn't hinder new, upcoming and interesting tags from receiving good wikis.

My second idea was to limit the number of tag-wiki edits that a user can do in one day to prevent a farming (like the 90 edits this user did yesterday (18 November)). This wouldn't necessary increase the quality of the tag-wikis but it could potentially reduce the number of short, uninformative wikis.

In my opinion it's not always better to have a wiki. Some tags are self-explanatory or at least requires a long, descriptive wiki to provide more information than the tag name itself.

A third idea that I had was to indicate in the review interface that the tag isn't used anywhere or perhaps add another reason for rejection.

The most fitting rejection reason is "excerpt not helpful" with this paragraph:

Some tags are common knowledge. Most tags require a bit of explanation in the excerpt, even if it’s only 3 or 4 words. But if the tag is common knowledge — that is, if you walked up to any random person on the street and said the tag word to them, and they would know what you were talking about — then don’t bother explaining the tag at all. Stick to usage of the tag within your community in the excerpt.

but sometimes the the tag is simply not useful (like .net-4.0-beta-2). Almost all that can be said about that tag is in the name.

Is this even a problem? What do you think we should do about this?

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    +1 for disabling tag wiki until at least one question got it for at least one day (my idea, close enough) but -1 for your "limit the number of tag-wiki edits that a user can do in one day" - one person with lots of time and knowledge can put good content and we don't want to lose this. When enough edits are rejected, user will be blocked for a whole week from suggesting new edits so this should be enough to block those who make invalid edits. – Shadow The Dragon Wizard Nov 19 '13 at 11:42
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    +1 from me. I agree it should be possible to add wikis only to established tags, even if that's just a minimal establishment, like @ShaWizDowArd proposed. But I would personally opted for more complicated calculation, like tag used (and not removed) on questions by more than 5 users (not counting deleted questions), and at least one day old. I too disagree with limiting number of edits, but overall it is a problem, on Drupal Answers as well. – Mołot Nov 19 '13 at 11:48
  • Sometimes we see tags being created and used for several purposes (with ambiguity). Why would not be a good idea to have a tag started with excerpt and wiki defined (of course, they would have to follow tag policy). The user who made 90 suggestions yesterday have a history of 143 suggested edits approved and just 15 rejected (IMO, a good history). The wikis need to be approved by at least 5k users. Summary: if anything, the problem does not concern the number of edits a user can suggest. – Andre Silva Nov 19 '13 at 11:48
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    @AndreSilva describing tag before people starts to use it might be a problem. Especially with tags like 'accessible' when we can't predict what it will really be used on. For example now this tag is unavailable for questions about 404, 403 and other website access issues. What if they are majority on programming page? and if UX wiki makes no real sense? Wouldn't it be better to wait until we can know? The fact it was accepted is strange for me. – Mołot Nov 19 '13 at 11:56
  • @Molot; Ok, I agree with you, but I think it goes both ways. For example, see the tag heterogeneous, which became very subjective and unlikely to be labeled now. Maybe the tag policy could be edited to address this issue. I understand that would be better if tags were born with a tag usage specification and then, they could be edited to incorporate more uses if they come up later (I can be wrong in my interpretation, though). – Andre Silva Nov 19 '13 at 12:05
  • @AndreSilva if tag has a potential to be "subjective and unlikely to be labeled", it shouldn't exist at all. Since only one tag is needed, each tag should have enough information in it to be the only tag on a question, right? At least that's what I've heard. So tags you mentioned shouldn't, as far as I understand, exist, and as "non-existent" are not convincing for me ;) – Mołot Nov 19 '13 at 12:09
  • @Molot. Yes, you are right. The tag heterogeneous does not say much about what a question is and probably would be for the best if it does not existed. The problem I see is to identify tags like that in the beginning. My point is if one is going to create a tag, it is nice if he/she could fill an excerpt which would say to what purpose the tag is being created. Then, it would be easier to take further actions (improve, burninate, blacklist, etc). What I am also arguing is that premature wikis does more good than harm. continues.. – Andre Silva Nov 19 '13 at 12:22
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    All it needs is the reviewers to pay attention and help to improve them if they see such possibility. Small sites suffer a bit with lack of tag wikis and excerpts. – Andre Silva Nov 19 '13 at 12:22
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Users creating useless tags are a problem.

Users creating tag wikis with useless content is a problem. A very widespread problem.

But your two main proposals would not solve these problems, and they come with additional disadvantages.

If a tag needs a tag wiki, then the best time to write one is the very first time the tag is used. The usefulness of a tag wiki is not related to the frequency of the tag. In any case, blocking tag wikis.

Generally people don't create a tag wiki for tags with no question, they create a tag wiki for tags with one question. Tags with no question are deleted by a daily cleanup job, but there is an interval during which the tag still exists and a tag wiki can be created. It wouldn't be harmful to prevent the creation of a tag wiki for a tag with no questions, but it wouldn't be very useful either. Most of the time, when you see a suggested edit creating a tag wiki for a tag with no questions, the tag did have a question when the suggested edit was made, and someone retagged in the meantime.

Throttling tag wikis with a daily limit wouldn't do much good. The problem is not the quantity, it's the quality. Given that reviewers accept any crappy tag wiki — I've had problems with moderators creating crappy tag wikis — limiting the number of suggestions from one person wouldn't help.

Indicating in the review interface for a suggested tag wiki edit that the tag is obsolete would help — but why do this? If the server is checking this, it might as well drop the suggested edit altogether.

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