What's the scope of a tag?

Question

I have a question the most specific, single tag of which would be "wcf-data-services".

This is a rather esoteric one few people are subscribing to.

So it would be in my interest - as someone who desires more exposure for the question - to give it additional tags that are related, such as ".net". This is because many people experienced with WCF Data Services might be subscribing to ".net" without subscribing to the tag of any arcane .NET technology individually.

It could be justified by arguing that WCF Data Services is a .NET technology. It could also be argued, however, that the question isn't about .NET.

More importantly, tagging it ".net" is not what is best for someone who is searching for questions, since my question isn't actually about .NET specifically. Someone who is searching for a question surely will search in the most specific tag (if he bothers to use a tag search to begin with).

My question is: What is the consensus about tagging on SO in the light of those two conflicting interests?

Also - since I understand that ".net" is (and chosen as an example because it is) excessively general - where is the line to be drawn: "wcf" is less general, but in principle the same arguments I made for ".net" also apply.

Answer 1

Including general tags with highly specific ones is a commonly-used, generally-accepted practice, so including .NET with wcf-data-services is perfectly fine.

The more general tags like .NET and C# are meant to encompass a sub-community within the larger community. Many users favorite these tags so that they can focus on answering questions in their general area of expertise.