19
$\begingroup$

One user has created the tag : see this question. In principle I would have immediately deleted it as totally irrelevant (in the same way I would delete "Stupid question" or "Useless question" from the title of any post), but the user included in his post:

"Remark: I wanted to add the not yet existing tag to my question. I think this would be a good additional tag for many Mathoverflow question inspired for example by a reproachful pile of copies waiting to be corrected."

So I hope we can discuss it here.

I don't quite like the use of a subjective metatag, whose relevance can only be judged by the poster themself (nobody would add this tag to a question of another one: this could sound offensive), and which is absolutely useless as a tag (and by the way not so nice to potential answerers).

And if the purpose of tags is also to reflect OP's state of mind, why not other such similar smiley-like metatags , , , ? Well, I'm joking, but if one creates one such first tag to reflect OP's state of mind or convey jokes, there could be additional ones as well.

$\endgroup$
1

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
31
$\begingroup$

I agree with you completely. Meta-tags are not great, and while some are tolerable (e.g. ), meta-tags that are not descriptive of the question should not exist.

$\endgroup$
5
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Thanks! I see you have removed the newly created tag; maybe it would also make sense to remove the last two paragraph of the linked post (relative to that tag) and maybe also the first two comments ("I second the proposal for a 'procastination' tag. That's what I am doing at this very moment", Welcome to the club!")? $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Dec 5, 2022 at 15:58
  • $\begingroup$ @YCor, re, what is the point of editing that out? The suggestion was made and rejected, but there is no need to pretend it was never made. Although the edit has now been made, I think it would be better if it hadn't been. If necessary, a comment could be left on that post with a link to this one, indicating that the discussion had been had and resolved against that tag. $\endgroup$
    – LSpice
    Dec 6, 2022 at 0:32
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ @LSpice The point is to concentrate on the question itself rather than a distraction (both in the question and in its comments). The "procrastination" stuff is better placed in this meta post. $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Dec 6, 2022 at 8:43
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ A procrastination tag seems a nice thing to me but let’s do it tomorrow $\endgroup$
    – Pietro Majer
    Dec 9, 2022 at 19:26
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ @PietroMajer: I was going to make that joke tomorrow, yes. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Dec 9, 2022 at 19:26

You must log in to answer this question.

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