12

The tag here on this site doesn't seem to serve much purpose in categorization.

The excerpt for the tag states the following:

Use this tag for questions about the software that powers the Stack Overflow, Stack Exchange etc.

Given that we have a close reason for questions that "[do] not appear to be about the software that powers the Stack Exchange network", this tag would therefore cover every open question on the site.

The extended tag description provides some specificity:

This tag is added to questions about the software that is used to make the Stack Exchange network tick.

...meaning it's for questions that are asking about the system's internals. However, we already have another tag for this purpose, .

Looking at the actual questions using the tag, only one is about the topic outlined above, and is already also tagged . The vast majority are using the tag in reference to some other non-SE software, pretty much all of which have other, more useful tags. There are only three that lack another non-required tag, of which two could use the tag, and the last remaining one is out of scope for this site today.

Should we uninstall the tag?

4
  • 1
    I agree with your analysis, but why would the last one be out of scope?
    – Luuklag
    Sep 8, 2021 at 7:00
  • @Luuklag Asking for recommendations for external software is no longer within this site's scope. Sep 8, 2021 at 7:05
  • From the last few paragraphs it sounds like [software] should be made a synonym of [technology] yet you propose burnination. What am I missing here?
    – VLAZ
    Sep 8, 2021 at 7:14
  • 1
    @VLAZ All but one of its current uses are not about the topic indicated in the tag descriptions for each. Synonymization is preferred if most questions are about the same topic; if not, it's better to burninate. Sep 8, 2021 at 7:16

1 Answer 1

3

Given the positive votes and no major objections raised, I've been gradually removing the tag from questions every day for the past few days. Today, there were five questions using the tag, and I removed it from all of them.

In the one case where the usage was about the topic indicated in its wiki, it was already tagged , the canonical tag for that topic, as I stated in the question.

So long as the tag isn't reused from the time of this post, I think we can effectively call the tag:

UNINSTALLED!

2

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .