Should we remove general tags (in favour of specific tags) immediately, or create a Meta for review first?

Question

In many cases, questions will be tagged with both a specific tag and a general tag. For example, network-interface and interface on a question dealing with network interfacing. Both tags are undefined. network-interface is unambiguous but interface covers a lot more territory.

If all network interface questions use only the network-interface tag, it would reduce the diversity of meaning under the [network] tag. It could be that the remaining meanings are sufficiently similar that grouping them under an umbrella tag is fine.

This post, tag-tag-version-or-just-tag-version, indicates that as a general rule, the generic tag should be removed if a specific tag is appropriate. When I see examples, should I just go ahead and fix the tag or is this something that should be posted here for review?

Answer 1

interface is a bad example, because it's a horrible tag. In this specific case, interface should just be removed.

Instead of giving a rule, let me give a couple of examples. I don't think there really is a good rule anyway…

1. networking port-forwarding
   Probably fine as it is. Assume people have tags starred, would someone who starred networking like to see this question? If it's about port forwarding, he probably would.

2. windows windows-7
   Should be tagged just windows-7, especially since "windows" is a substring of "windows-7".

3. network interface network-interface
   A personal favorite of mine, should only be tagged network-interface.

4. networking internet browser internet-explorer internet-explorer-11
   Should very likely only be tagged internet-explorer-11.