Warning or confirmation on new tag creation

Question

In retrospect of this massive cleanup operation, I would like to ask the community how they feel about a warning or confirmation (or just special highlighting) on new tag creation.

Everybody hates stock "are you sure?" confirmation, but a lot of tags get created by mistake (and then used ad nauseam).

For example, I think I might have created the c#-4 tag by accident. Assuming the right tag was c#-4.0, there would be two tags for c# 4.0, until they are made synonyms. With a warning, some accidental tags could be prevented.

Answer 1

As of yesterday, we can show the following dialog to moderators and users with the "create new tags" privilege when they attempt to create one or more new tags either while asking a question or during an edit:

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What sites is it enabled on?

As of January 24, 2022, this feature is currently enabled on the following sites:

• Ask Ubuntu
• Biblical Hermeneutics
• Blender
• English Language & Usage
• Mi Yodeya (Judaism)
• Mathematics (and Mathematics Meta)
• MathOverflow
• Pets
• Physics
• Stack Overflow
• Stack Overflow em Português (Stack Overflow in Portuguese)
• Server Fault
• Sound Design
• Sports (and Sports Meta)
• Super User
• Unix & Linux

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How can we get this warning enabled on a site?

Misspellings aren't really the main reason to add an extra step before tag creation; you can fix them right away, or the site moderators can merge/rename the misspelled tag to the correct name if necessary. However, this feature is much more useful for broader issues involving unnecessary tag creation, such as users creating redundant tags without first checking whether a relevant tag already exists. This warning exists as a reminder to check for existing tags on the topic before creating new ones.

If the creation of unnecessary tags is a widespread/recurring problem on a Stack Exchange site, you should create a post on the site's Meta suggesting that this tag creation warning be enabled for the site. If there is community consensus in support of the request, the site moderators can then add the status-review tag to the request to escalate it for staff attention. The CMs will then assess the request, and enable this feature if it makes sense to do so.

Answer 2

Possible solution:

Only new tags should be confirmed by a mouse click on the one added to the preview box.

Answer 3

I've created a couple tags accidentally, just typing them in thinking I remembered them. I only noticed when someone else came along and retagged to use the correct ones. I can't be the only one.

Since adding the tags is usually the last thing done before posting, it's easy to miss if one is wrong. A dialog might be a little annoying, but just changing the text of the "Post Your Question" button to "Create tags and Post Question" when new tags are entered would give users a heads-up.

Answer 4

This would be massively intrusive early in a site's life cycle---which suggested leaving it off of Stack Exchange for now, and eventually making it switchable---but is reasonable for mature sites.

My only concern: will users who just hammer in tags without looking at the matching options actually take the hint? Or will the just blithely continue (maybe hoping for a taxidermist badge)?

Answer 5

Definitely a good suggestion. The ideal implementation will:

• Draw the user's attention--unmistakably yet unobtrusively--to the fact that the text just typed will create a new tag, and
• Gain the user's confirmation without the need for even one extra click.

My suggestion is that when the typed text changes its appearance to look like a tag, it takes on a strikingly different appearance (red like a WP redlink, funky border, perhaps glowing bright and then dim). That combined with Brad Mace's suggestion to change the text of the "Post Your Question" button should do it (although my suggested text would be "Confirm creation of n tags and Post Question"). That button could become more striking in appearance too.