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Based on comments in this meta, the possibility of standardizing tag formats sitewide came up and I feel that it might be beneficial to the site.

For instance, we have tags for the Final Fantasy games (always stylized officially with Roman numerals (e.g. FFI, FFVII, FFXV, etc)) in the form of Arabic numerals:

, , , and so on.

However, for the Dragon Quest series (also officially stylized with Roman numerals), we use Arabic numerals in the tags, for the most part:

, , , but also and .

I'm all for maintaining consistency in tag format within the same series, but would it also be worth looking at maintaining the same tag format across the site?

Some other examples of games officially stylized with Roman numerals would be the Dark Souls series (, , ) and the Civilization series (, , ).


Personally, I think there are two ways to standardize the format:

  1. Maintain consistency within the series, using the numerical format that is officially used. (this would require quite a few retags, namely for the Final Fantasy, Dark Souls, and Civilization series, though there are likely a few others)

  2. Maintain sitewide consistency, whether that be with Roman numerals or Arabic numerals. (based on what we have already, though, it seems like Arabic numerals would be the easiest way to go about this one)

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    just MHO, but the choice of roman vs. arabic numerals is a branding choice, so it's part of the name, we should probably stick with that.
    – KutuluMike
    Dec 23, 2016 at 15:04
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    @KutuluMike yeah, I feel that way as well, but so far, most of the Roman-numeral-branded series have tags with Arabic numerals, so this would require a lot of retagging. I'm curious to see if others think it would be worth the effort or not. Personally, I've typed in final-fantasy-xv a few times when writing up questions before I remembered that's not how the tag is formatted here.
    – Vemonus
    Dec 23, 2016 at 15:07

2 Answers 2

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Since synonyms for tags exist, I'd rather have the official spelling in the tag, such as or , but with an alias such as for games that use Roman numerals. A synonym would be unnecessary in my opinion.

For games with different numbering systems such as , , and , the official spelling for each game should be used, with synonyms as needed, such as the existing or .

This ensures that users always have an easy time finding the tag they're looking for, while staying true to the series' naming choice. The downside would be the initial retagging, which, from my limited knowledge, shouldn't be too much of an issue for each tag.

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    Good catch with the Saints Row series.
    – Vemonus
    Dec 23, 2016 at 15:11
  • Based on the fact that this has been unquestionably supported, I'm going to accept it. Not sure what needs to be done next, though.
    – Vemonus
    Dec 28, 2016 at 18:24
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    @KutuluMike I believe it is actually "Sid Meier's Civilization V" Dec 28, 2016 at 21:28
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My vote is for Arabic Numbers.

Roman numerals increase tag length

There are a few games with names that would exceed the 35 character limit if they used Roman Numerals. (Located with a custom SEDE query and the Tag Renaming Google Doc)

If we were to switch back to Roman Numerals, we would need to need to figure out how to handle these exceptions.

Numbers keeps site-wide consistency

A vast majority of our current tags use Arabic Numbers. It's a consistent system that makes tagging an easy process. While synonyms would likely be created for more popular tags, creating synonyms has typically required meta discussion with , followed by moderator intervention.

I appreciate the site-wide consistency of knowing how to tag a game. I'm not sure if I would want to potentially lose that for tags that may not get synonimized.

A series can use both numbers and numerals

There are some series which are inconsistent in whether they use Arabic Numbers or Roman Numerals.

  • Metal Gear Solid:
    • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
    • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
  • Saints Row:
    • Saints Row 2
    • Saints Row IV
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    Wouldn't that last point be supporting evidence to not standardize to all Arabic numerals?
    – Mage Xy
    Jan 3, 2018 at 15:29
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    I would rather remain consistent with the game's official name wherever possible, only abbreviating or altering out of necessity like the 4 examples you give. We can add synonyms for games where the main tag uses roman numerals
    – Robotnik Mod
    Jan 5, 2018 at 0:46

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