I recommend tossing [hardware-rec]

Question

Subject says it all. Just posted a question and noticed the hardware-rec tag. This site specifically flags items on a regular basis that are hardware recommendations since they are too broad, so why have this tag?

And that said, I would recommend a review of anything that has hardware-rec happens so questions like that—which are pure hardware recommendations—can be ditched.

Answer 1

I agree philosophically, but as a practical matter, blatantly off-topic tags serve a useful function when they are subjects that will always be improperly posted here.

We will never stop hardware or software requests. The same applies to a number of other subjects that are virtually always off-topic. Having a tag that states that is useful (and it's likely to get recreated, anyway, if we delete it, unless it's blacklisted in all of its possible variations).

• Posters may read the wiki excerpt and not post the question here. ROTFL; I crack me up!
• It makes spotting these questions much easier. They stand out like a sore thumb on the main page, which means they get disposed of quickly.
• The wiki excerpt is something we can point to when advising the poster why their question is being closed (or migrated, depending on the subject & tag).
• It clarifies the intent of the question. Occasionally, someone using these tags will have a problem that can be fixed natively, without recommending something they need to purchase. But the tag generally indicates that the poster came here asking for a purchase recommendation, in which case they came to the wrong place. That's a starting point for their interaction.