10
votes
Should "how do I DIY electrical work" questions be banned from this site?
Your outlook is incorrect/misguided in a few ways:
Millions of people around the world do their own electrical work, legally, every year. Just because you don't feel comfortable doing it, or it's ...
7
votes
Should "how do I DIY electrical work" questions be banned from this site?
Forbidding knowledge of how to safely do a task, and just putting a blanket statement to "hire a professional", won't make people safer. First, there are lots of locations where electrical ...
BMitchMod
- 42k
7
votes
Merge [washing-machine] and [clothes-washer]?
I agree these should be synonyms. Washing machine is certainly the term most used in the US, hence the many more questions tagged with that. Typically that would mean clothes washer would be the ...
BMitchMod
- 42k
6
votes
Tagging questions about multi-way (i.e. multi-location) switching
I think a multiway-switch would be the most general tag, with synonyms three-way-switch and two-way-switch for discoverability. The Wikipedia article for multiway switching even describes the ...

Niall C.Mod
- 20.5k
5
votes
Can we add an identification tag?
Many other SE sites have identification tags for movies, shows, books, plants, etc. where physical/visual objects come into play. I could see
tool-identification
device-identification
tags being ...
5
votes
Accepted
The [fridge] should be a tag synonym for [refrigerator]
Thanks for pointing this out. Looks like tester101 created it, and I just approved the synonym.
BMitchMod
- 42k
5
votes
Should we merge/synonymise the [fire-pit] and [hearth] tags into the more common [fireplace]?
I think they're all slightly different. A fire pit is a hole in the ground where you burn things, which is not a fireplace. A hearth is part of a fireplace, so maybe it could use the same tag. ...
5
votes
Accepted
Should we break the [circuit]?
I don't think circuit is a very useful tag, as I can't think of any time you'd use it as the only tag on a post. I also don't think many folks would use it to find questions they might be interested ...
5
votes
Anxiously looking over my shoulder for a [backstab]
I think this is too much of a Meta tag
Let's consider
This is a colloquialism. We have a question that has to define the term. We shouldn't expect new users to know the colloquial term. Leviton calls ...
4
votes
Should the UK tag be removed
I believe it should be removed like other regional tags. If there's any value in tracking these as a sub category of another tag, I wouldn't be opposed to creating something like electrical-uk, but a ...
BMitchMod
- 42k
4
votes
Accepted
Do we need the [gas] tag?
I think gas makes sense for many questioners/searchers. They often know they are dealing with gas, but may not know which type.
4
votes
Accepted
Time to redistribute [electrical-distribution]?
I think when it started, the tag was for questions that had to do with the electrical system beyond the service drop. Transformers, types of systems, etc. However, it's likely not used properly, and ...
4
votes
Accepted
Rename 'refinsh' tag to refinish?
Good catch!
I created a new tag, refinishing (because we have the other tags basement-refinishing and hardwood-refinishing this seemed like the logical choice for a name), and merged the typo tag ...

Niall C.Mod
- 20.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Synonym [electricity] and [electrical]
Thanks for the proposal. I've gone ahead and approved the electricity -> electrical synonym.
BMitchMod
- 42k
4
votes
Should "how do I DIY electrical work" questions be banned from this site?
Frame challenge here (what a surprise!)
You certainly know you're not going to stop DIY forums all over the world from talking about electrical, just because of your beliefs.
Scaremongering is ...
4
votes
Accepted
3
votes
Should asbestos identification questions be off-topic?
An elegant way to handle recurring questions would be to write a generic Q/A on how to proceed if something may or may not be made from asbestos, that can serve as duplicate target.
Roughly ...
3
votes
Accepted
Merge [septic] and [septic-tanks]
Thank you for the suggestion. I've put in the requested synonym, but haven't merged it yet to give the community time to discuss it. For now, any new questions will only be tagged with septic.
BMitchMod
- 42k
3
votes
Is upholstery on topic?
Upholstery is (almost) entirely used on furniture and other items that are not part of the house. This makes it decidedly off-topic here, as an arts & crafts type of question. Questions using the ...
3
votes
Accepted
Make [health-and-safety] a synonym of [safety]
Thanks for the suggestion. I saw a few questions that used both, and nothing that stands out needing only a single tag. I've approved your proposed synonym. This can still be undone if others have a ...
BMitchMod
- 42k
3
votes
Should we remove the [wire]?
wire is only a good tag on questions that ask specifically about wire. For example: "Is there a difference between stranded and solid wire?", "What material is the insulation of THHN wire?", etc.
...
3
votes
Can we add an identification tag?
I could talk a bunch about ideas on strictness of criteria and such when it comes to identification questions across the network, but I think that's a genuinely different problem than what we're ...
3
votes
Accepted
Merge (delete) misspelled [celing-fan] with [ceiling-fan]
This is done. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
BMitchMod
- 42k
2
votes
Can we add an identification tag?
I came here to ask this exact question. I would like to note that as of this time there are 944 results when searching for "what is tool" on the site. This seems like more than enough content to ...
2
votes
Accepted
Merge tags [lighting-fixture] and [light-fixture]
I agree. I've merged them, and you should only see light-fixture in future.

Niall C.Mod
- 20.5k
2
votes
Please add a "flushmate" tag
That would be a vendor specific tag. I don't believe those are encouraged here, and I'm not a fan of adding them myself. In fact we've been cleaning up some questions that used trademarked names to ...
BMitchMod
- 42k
2
votes
Accepted
Make [odor] a synonym of [smell]
I'm not seeing an odor tag. If there was before, the questions with that tag have been retagged and the system will delete an empty tag automatically. The odors tag is already configured as a synonym ...
BMitchMod
- 42k
2
votes
Do we need the [gas] tag?
I think you could try to retag some if its absolutely clear what they mean, but I would wager that most of them are not specific enough.
Adding a more specific tag in to help future searchers is good,...
2
votes
Should I create a fish-tape tag?
The tag fish-tape is too specific. In my experience (here and IRL), most people who have a fish tape already know what to do with it. The people who don't have a fish tape, don't even know the term.
...
2
votes
Accepted
Make [structure] a synonym of [structural]
Thanks. I've added the synonym. There were a few questions in the structure that were not about structural. However, the ones I saw used it more as a meta tag that had no value.
BMitchMod
- 42k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
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