Should we have a tag for significant points in time?

Question

There are many discussions about the current incidence. For example:

• Summing up the main issues (The Story So Far)
• Disclose the discussion that started the current SE-moderators debate
• An Update to our Community and an Apology
• An apology to our community, and next steps
• Firing mods and forced relicensing: is Stack Exchange still interested in cooperating with the community?

Should we have a whole tag for this incidence? In general, if in the future there are more crises and incidences like this, should they have their own tags too? I feel it's fine, as we have specific tags for individual events like winter-bash. And, should we have a crisis tag?

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Related:

• Is there a good term/phrase to denote the "current events"?
• How can we improve the inconsistent tagging of the questions relating to the recent uproar and associated issues?
• How can I keep track of all the developments surrounding the current controversy?

Note that these questions are specifically about the conflict 2019, while this question is simply about creating meta tags for significant events.

Answer 1

The series of events which culminated in the firing of Monica Cellio is so exceptional in the history of Stack Exchange, it makes sense that a special tag is needed in order to keep track of the ever increasing number of related posts.

At the beginning, the tags: code-of-conduct and moderator appeared to be sufficient to cover the task, many users were hopeful that management would open a private conversation with Monica, which would lead to her reinstatement. On October 15th, Shog9♦ reassured the community that a solution was within sight; a new process was being formulated by the team, “that'll give Monica a fair shake” that would finally restore her diamonds. But on October 22, the dismissed moderator refused to enter the new reinstatement process, arguing that “The process starts from a presumption of guilt”.

Seven weeks later, there is no sign of the saga ending, Monica Cellio appears to have initiated legal proceedings against Stack Exchange, and management has refused to respond to her repeated requests for dialogue. The conflict continues.

Hence my suggestion, conflict-2019

Conflict because Meta Stack Exchange has been a battleground; employers and volunteers are in litigation; not all users have seen eye to eye, a significant number of Stack Overflow users have expressed serious reservations about the relicensing and audio/fingerprinting issues. Non-native and native speakers have expressed perplexity and concerns over pronouns such as the singular they. Meanwhile the management continues to observe the fighting behind enemy lines.

Volunteers: LGBTQ+ community and long-standing SE members; disillusioned and frustrated SO users; resigned and reinstated mods; suspended users, and diamond moderators; and last but not least, one defamed person. There has been considerable conflict in the last seven weeks with some valiant attempts at pacification but with little to no success.

Lexico defines conflict as

1.0 A serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one.

1.3 A serious incompatibility between two or more opinions, principles, or interests.

The year 2019 is self explanatory but if this conflict should continue into the New Year, the tag can be easily modified to: conflict-2019-20

I am aware, and sad, that the tag is pessimistic but how do you put a positive spin on what's been happening?

Answer 2

I do agree with all the arguments in the other answers, especially the one written by Glorfindel.

One argument given is that the tag should not be time-sensitive. There are some tags that are used for a specific point in time, with little relevance later on. winterbash-yyyy is the most common one. So there is no specific rule against time-sensitive tags and the grouping of posts by a period of time.

I want to point out one counter-argument for creating that specific tag, and that is the significance of the event (just like the mso-mse-split).

I would love to see a tag (with an appropriate name), that just lists all posts related to the current event. Of course, you can use all sorts of filters to find these posts, but a single tag would benefit greatly in finding these posts.

Yes, you could consider it a meta-tag, but still, it is important meta.

Answer 3

From the Help Center:

What are tags, and how should I use them?

A tag is a word or phrase that describes the topic of the question. Tags are a means of connecting experts with questions they will be able to answer by sorting questions into specific, well-defined categories.

1. I would argue that the topic of those questions is the code-of-conduct and the way one of the moderators has been treated by Stack Exchange. Most (all?) questions have either or both of those tags; if they don't, please add them where appropriate. 'Crisis' is not really the topic of those questions.
2. You can't really be an expert in Stack Exchange crises without having a broad knowledge about the various topics here that would lead to said crises.
3. Filtering on questions about the current event is already possible: just search for the name of the moderator, or code-of-conduct and limit the creation date. An example query would be [code-of-conduct] or [moderation] is:q created:2019-09-27...

So I don't think we need a tag for the current crisis, nor do we need a general 'crisis' tag; the latter would be a prime example of a meta-tag:

meta tags, tags that cannot stand alone as the only tag on a question, are not allowed.

Answer 4

I propose community-crises, or perhaps community-crises-2019-2020.

This phrase "crises with the community" was used in this answer by employee Yaakov Ellis on 2020-02-18.

Answer 5

Should we have a whole tag for this incidence?

Nope. Tags are for long lasting "things". This incident will eventually blow over one way or another.

And, should we have a crisis tag?

Nope. The main topics of the posts can be covered using existing tags: welcoming, code-of-conduct, moderators, discussion, and support.