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Referring to Could we finally get rid of [software-rec]? I get overall impression we want to get rid of the software-rec tag.

At the same time someone is actively editing existing questions all over the place and adding the tag. He edits questions by the dozens.

For example this question: Is there a native tool for parsing xml files available on RedHat?

I read this as, is there a native tool that can do this or that? How is this a recommendation for software? And why on Earth add the software-rec tag here?

Another examle: Is there a diff-buffer-with-file equivalent for Word?. I read this as person asking the question is looking for a feature / toll within Office / Word. Was also edited and tagged software-rec. IMO it's a nonsense tag.

So we have a tag we , as I understand it, want to get rid of. At the same time I see someone tagging question after question.

A far more logical solution seems to me, rather than add the tag:

  • read the question carefully and see if it's actually a request for a software recommendation
  • if so then either cast a close vote, flag it, edit it ..
  • But don't add a tag that appears to be undesired.

So, what is the way to handle questions that are requests for software recommendations?

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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sigh In general the convention is to ask first before doing a mass tag. As a moderator even, when I do bulk retag or

Its a meta tag anyway and doesn't belong. I'll see about trickle in editing these out, flooding the front page on a weekend, or otherwise monkeywrenching the tag.

Mass edits are generally not ok - and feel free to flag future instances of this for attention, it seems we missed that

Annoyingly we've not done a tag cleanup in so long I don't remember the do not use boilerplate we used to have, I'll go dig it up later, but it seems appropriate here

So actions.

I'll be going through the closed but not deleted posts and reviewing what I can delete. This should let us take a bite out of the problem without affecting the front page too much. There's probably a need for an organised cleanup here. I've some ideas but I need to review what we did before, and it'll be a little more involved than the usual 'simple' retagging

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    "sigh In general the convention is to ask first before doing a mass tag" that was already asked on meta.superuser.com/q/8505/116475 and the most upvoted answer stated "the rule always was: Can the question be rewritten to ask for a technique rather than a tool? If so, then it should be rewritten. If not, then it's probably not right for us.". My retagging was in that spirit: tag such questions so that they can be either rewritten or closed. Otherwise, plenty of unfit questions are lingering around, as they have been doing for years. Thank you Franck.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:26
  • In the same answer "That being said, I'm all for cleaning up this tag and, ultimately, removing it from the site. But this is a very delicate tag to clean up." - which means you just added more to clean up. And this is precisely why one asks again and keeps the community in the loop
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:30
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    No, the retagging makes it easier to clean up. Unless we just want bury our heads in the sand and ignore unfit questions?
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:31
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    See, if the tag is gone, we don't need to flood the front page. Voting appropriately is the 'right' thing to do
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:34
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    Closing goes against the most upvoted answer, which stated "the rule always was: Can the question be rewritten to ask for a technique rather than a tool? If so, then it should be rewritten. If not, then it's probably not right for us."
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:34
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    I just quoted the most upvoted answer. And I didn't see any rewrites, just retags. So.. how does retagging follow the intent of the answer when the goal is cleaning up and improving where possible as opposed to making the pile of things that need handling taller? We have a meta for a reason, which is very much so we can co-operate and be on something akin to the same page.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:37
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    Because retagging makes it easier to see which posts to improve.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:38
  • also, I'm going through already closed posts. NOT closing more because most of those were deemed non fixable, and I can reduce the impact of/on the front page.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:39
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    no no no, see. The expectation is to improve the post, not just retag it for someone else and forget about it, when there's a ongoing request to nuke the tag.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:43
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    retagging is better than ignoring.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:45
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    Well no, you turned "the question needs fixing" to "the questions need fixing and there's a pile up on a tag the community wanted gone". We have meta for a reason. Did you consider, perhaps bringing it up again on meta so the community could help sort out the real problem?
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:47
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    no, I turned "some questions need fixing but which ones?" to "here are the questions that need fixing ". I didn't feel the need to post a duplicate question on meta.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jul 12 at 2:49
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    @Franck I get your reasoning and applaud you for your effort, but I agree with JG - adding a tag that the community is trying to remove is more of a hindrance. The benefit of grouping them is dubious: you were able to find those questions without the tag, so it stands to reason that others can find them without it too. If you're looking to do a bunch of tag edits, there's plenty of tags ready to be removed, like microsoft? Otherwise if you're specifically focused on software rec, Take them case-by-case, and reword them so they fit the site or vote to close (as per the meta guidance). :)
    – Robotnik
    Commented Jul 12 at 5:27
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    @FranckDernoncourt while I applaud your intention to "clean up the site" by making these questions more visible, your method is 100% the worst possible way to do it. You basically decided to make a cake, threw all the ingredients around the kitchen, turned the oven on and then just walked away after making a complete mess saying that everything someone needs to make the cake is right there so it's a job well done. You say that a mythical someone could improve the questions in the future which is nice in theory but is just an excuse for not doing it properly to begin with.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jul 12 at 23:31
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    @Mokubai I'd like to argue further saying that adding a tag is cleaner than ignoring questions etc. but meta.stackexchange.com/q/401324/178179 killed the little motivation I had to help anyway so let's all bury our heads into the sand together
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jul 12 at 23:42

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