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On the "Ask Question" page, when the keyboard focus is in the entry box for "Tags", on the right hand side we see a box with some information on "How to Tag".

Can we add an item in there to indicate to users that, after selecting a tag, they can hover the mouse over the selected tags (which now appears below the entry box) to read the Tag-Wiki excerpts, to see if they have selected an appropriate tag? I think this will help with the problem of new users applying grossly inappropriate tags because they don't actually understand what a particular tag is for. (This happens a lot on Math, but also a bit on TeX and other sites that I read.)

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  • I've thought before this would be nice, but when there are five tags selected, does it still make sense to show five tag wikis?
    – sarnold
    Commented Jul 6, 2011 at 10:46
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    Well, my proposal is not to show five wikis, but to just tell the users that if they hover their mouse over the tags, they can read the wiki exerpts before they click submit. The functionality to show the exerpts is already there (try it yourself)! It is just not very well known to new users.
    – Willie Wong
    Commented Jul 6, 2011 at 14:49
  • Do new users even look at the box on the right hand side? I seriously doubt it.
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn
    Commented Jul 6, 2011 at 21:09
  • I think a better dup target than the current one is this one.
    – starball
    Commented Nov 18, 2022 at 23:52

2 Answers 2

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Good idea! You can just basically add to the notation already there, as in:

A tag is a keyword or label that categorizes your question with other, similar questions. You can hover your mouse over the tags you chose to read the tag's description and see if it is appropriate.

The words in italics are words that aren't there already, but could possibly be added.

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Would it cost too much to display the tag, or an excerpt when choosing a tag?

I mean the number of tag is limited, so we can have predetermined place-holder to put those descriptions right under the tags when asking a question. This should favourite reading of the tag description.

It could be also useful to encourage people to suggest description for tag that do not have one.

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