2

How should we handle ambiguous tags? Here are a couple examples:

could be referring to:

  • Sinks
  • Water supply
  • Rain
  • Flooding

or could be referring to:

  • Dryer vent
  • Bathroom vent
  • Gas vent
  • Plumbing vent (see also )

My own thoughts for water are that we have tags for plumbing already, and we could designate water to only be non-plumbing related (rain/flooding). But for vent, I think it makes sense to retag any questions with this to a more specific type of vent tag and possibly eliminate the original tag.

Edit: since we have for plumbing vents, and I feel that most frequently refers to a bathroom vent, that would leave us with only dryer vents and gas vents. Is there a proper term for a gas (combustion) vent?

If we do decide to reorganize, should any frequently mis-used tags include references in their wiki to other tags to consider?

3
  • See also: meta.diy.stackexchange.com/q/221/22 and the various other posts linked there.
    – Niall C. Mod
    Commented Jun 4, 2011 at 4:00
  • note that you can enter tags as vent to have them appear as tags
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Jun 5, 2011 at 14:00
  • Thanks Jeff, I went looking for that syntax when I made the hvac post and forgot to clean this up.
    – BMitch
    Commented Jun 5, 2011 at 16:58

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

I'd be careful of adding compound tags; you can always specify you want two tags like so:

Probably the best thing to do here is make sure questions are tagged appropriately.

3
  • Wouldn't that turn "vent" into a meta tag that is only useful in the context of a second tag?
    – BMitch
    Commented Jun 5, 2011 at 18:15
  • 1
    @B Mitch: meta tags attempt to describe the post itself(such as [tips-and-tricks] or [homework]) but don't describe the content of the post. On rpg.se we have had similar discussions and as @SevenSidedDie said: I think the vagueness sort of "different things" is what we're avoiding. Tags that are ambiguous —that is, have different but well-defined meanings depending on the context—aren't a problem.
    – yhw42
    Commented Jun 14, 2011 at 4:17
  • @yhw42, thanks for that, meta is the wrong term here. I think the problem I'm trying to solve is "how do I get a list of questions about a bathroom exhaust vent?" Someone can correctly tag the plumbing vent for their toilet and exhaust fan with the same vent+bathroom combo and it means completely different things.
    – BMitch
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 13:41

You must log in to answer this question.

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