20

Don't just delete the tag from the question and ignore everything else.

If a question also has grammatical errors, terrible title, et cetera, then fix it along with removing the tag.

Let's Get This Party Started

Considering the positive response to Oak's meta, I think it's about time we begun a clean-up similar to the one happening at Stack Overflow. I've excluded Type 6 from Oak's meta, tags which mean roughly the same thing in different games, but are otherwise very unlikely to be used as filters by themselves, since there is still some dispute about whether this tags should be deleted. There are plenty of other tags to clean-up so we can have separate discussion about those types of tags after we've managed to clean-up the other type of tags.

  • If a tag is clearly burnable, please add it. For those tags in the gray area, please post an answer asking for it to be added to the list, and why. We'll just the net score to decided if it should be.
  • If there is a tag on the list you don't think should be deleted, please put a note next to the tag in this question saying it's 'Disputed', and post an answer saying why you think it should stay. We'll use the net score to determine if we should save it.

A few things to keep in mind:

  • Avoid clogging up the front page. We don't want to completely destroy the front page while doing this.
  • Don't just delete the tag from the question and ignore everything else. If a question also has grammatical errors, terrible title, et cetera, then fix it along with removing the tag.
  • If a question should be closed, then cast a close vote (or flag it if you can't cast votes). Make sure to share the question in The Bridge so it will get enough close votes.
  • If you come across a closed question, and you're >10k then cast a delete vote on it (assuming it's not a duplicate).

I've divided the tags into two main categories:

Tags to Delete

We don't want these tags, just burn them. If during the process of burning these tags you notice that most of them are all attached to questions about one game (i.e. 10/13 questions tagged with is also tagged with ), then just delete the tag from the questions not tagged with that game, and flag one of the remaining ones for moderator attention. The mods will then merge the game tag and the tag to be burned, allowing for us to quickly and silently destroy a bunch of tags. When flagging for a mod make sure you tell them which tags to merge.

When you begin deleting a tag you should edit their Tag Wiki Excerpt to contain the following message:

DO NOT USE - Removed as part of "The great Arqade clean-up of 2012" - See link in Tag Wiki for more information.

And then put this in the Tag Wiki:

DO NOT USE - Removed as part of [The Great Arqade Clean-Up of 2012](https://gaming.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4758/the-great-gaming-stack-exchange-clean-up-of-2012)

Tags to Fix

These tags are either inconsistently used, or we've decided to change how they are used. Retag questions accordingly, and modify the tag wiki if necessary.

When these tags have been cleaned-up add them to the Cleaned section at the bottom of the post so no one else spends time looking through them.

Okay folks, let the clean-up begin. turtle shades

Tags to Delete

Meta Tags

Tags describing the question, and not the problem:

(None)

Type 3

Tags which mean different things from game-to-game (remove):

Type 6

Do not add anymore tags to this section until a meta discussion is held on these types of tags.

The community is still divided on whether not not these tags should stick around, so tags should no longer be added to this section until a discussion is held on them.

Tags which mean roughly the same thing in different games, but are otherwise very unlikely to be used as filters by themselves.

Misc

  • — Leave questions with this tag alone if you're not sure what game the question is about. Just leave a comment, or ask someone in chat.
  • - this tag is scheduled for burnination. However, there are a few special caveats:
    1. DO NOT remove this tag from any questions which are also tagged as . There will be a request to rename to at the end of burnination.
    2. There are a number of other titles where a hyphenated multiplayer tag makes sense. Use your best judgement, and/or follow the example set by other editors to apply these where needed. For example, might make sense, though it's borderline. (CURSE YOU TAG LIMIT!)

Tags to Fix

Platform Tags

Follow the guidelines laid out by LessPopMoreAwesome's meta post. Keep in mind that many of these posts will need a bit of editing or cleanup to include things like platform specific constraints.

Genre tags

These tags should only be used when it's a question about the genre. They shouldn't be used on a game just because it falls under that genre. Relevant meta

(None)

Misc

  • - 114 - Widely used as a meta tag. Most questions currently tagged with this should either have the tagged removed, or re-tagged with the name of the DLC.
  • - 117 - Questions like 'what does X mean?' when generically referring to the term would fit under this tag, whilst 'what does X mean [in this game]?' (whether directly referencing the game or whether it is implied) should have the tag removed.
  • - 10 - Questions asking for information on release dates

Cleaned

Removed Burninated

Fixed

12
  • 5
    Hey, what are these all questions that aren't about Diablo doing on the front page?!
    – bwarner
    Commented May 31, 2012 at 13:29
  • 1
    Or skyrim, but (looking at the site through six-month old glasses).
    – casperOne
    Commented May 31, 2012 at 13:57
  • 8
    so, I need to ask, why the down votes? Is the opposition to the clean-up itself, the tags listed, the structure, et cetera?
    – Wipqozn Mod
    Commented Jun 1, 2012 at 11:41
  • 8
    Just wanted to pop in and say good job and we're all counting on you! More of this kind of stuff needs to happen in the future.
    – agent86
    Commented Jun 6, 2012 at 16:22
  • Can we just kill the last untagged question? It is the only question and answer from that given user, and he hasn't been back to the site basically since then. It's also been closed as off-topic.
    – MBraedley
    Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 20:15
  • 1
    mini-games probably needs to be added to the list
    – Zelda
    Commented Jul 2, 2012 at 2:03
  • @BenBrocka mini-games is now dead
    – user27134
    Commented Jul 24, 2012 at 12:30
  • Netflix? WTF was tagged Netflix?
    – MBraedley
    Commented Jul 24, 2012 at 13:28
  • @MBraedley I believe it was a question about NetFlix on the PS3. Which, if I remember correctly, was closed as off-topic.
    – Wipqozn Mod
    Commented Jul 24, 2012 at 13:38
  • "single-player" doesn't appear on this list, but has the "DO NOT USE" link. What's the real status on it?
    – McKay
    Commented Mar 13, 2013 at 15:44
  • @McKay Someone probably modified the tag without adding it to the list. I can't imagine why we would need such a tag, so we should just delete it.
    – Wipqozn Mod
    Commented Mar 13, 2013 at 15:51
  • @Wipqozn yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking.
    – McKay
    Commented Mar 13, 2013 at 15:53

10 Answers 10

Reset to default
23

Please don't kill .

If these questions are allowed to remain on the site, then grouping them together is a logical thing to do. The same general expertise applies to many of these cross-game (although this isn't always true).

Being familiar with computer hardware and common software misconfiguration is an area of expertise, which is the general basis for what makes a good tag.

Also, for those of us specifically lacking this area of expertise, or who might not think that these are worthwhile questions for the site, having a quick and easy way to keep them out of sight is a bonus.

9
  • I've added a disputed notice to the tag until we come to a decision on this.
    – Wipqozn Mod
    Commented Jun 1, 2012 at 16:41
  • I also vote to leave this tag, instead I would prefer remove other related tag like hardware, nvidia, graphics-card, multiple-monitors and so on. We should group all technical issues connected to gaming together in my point of view. I know that meta/category tags are not liked too much here but have a plethora of niches tags linked to hardware/software problems is also bad and fits more with SuperUser.com
    – Drake
    Commented Jun 2, 2012 at 13:02
  • 3
    I think the key part is "If these questions are allowed to remain on the site". I'd argue that almost every technical-issues question that I've seen is too localized to provide use for others and/or ends up with a handful of "guessing game" type answers where people attempt to diagnose the issue by throwing out suggestions. The rare case where neither apply are when the problem is widespread, i.e. Diablo 3's launch issues, and in those cases being tagged with the name of the game seems sufficient.
    – dlanod
    Commented Jun 2, 2012 at 21:56
  • 4
    I surveyed this tag some time ago and came to the conclusion it is seriously underused. A lot of questions that should be tagged [technical-issues] aren't. This is in addition to it not really carrying any information by itself, and I'm not sure it's really possible to be an expert on technical issues. So I do think that it should go, because even if it isn't, it will remain of dubious use.
    – Oak
    Commented Jun 3, 2012 at 6:59
  • 1
    Being familiar with computer hardware and common software misconfiguration is an area of expertise embodied by the community at Super User. Unless it's really game-specific and widespread, like dlanod mentions, the questions are probably much better suited to SU (if not already covered there). I think this is one case where overlap is bad, since we're not as good with generic tech support as SU is and shouldn't try to hold the questions here. Obviously this doesn't apply for consoles and other subjects off-topic on SU.
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Jun 5, 2012 at 16:59
  • 3
    @MatthewRead I think these questions should be closed as off topic. If they are allowed to stay despite that, then they should all be categorized together. It is my contention that this is a useful tag for the subject matter. I don't really want to get into whether the subject matter should be allowed at all. That's beyond the scope of this project.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Commented Jun 5, 2012 at 17:38
  • OK sure, that's fair. I've asked about their on-topicness here.
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Jun 5, 2012 at 19:12
  • @Oak No tag can be used all the time. Setting a standard that can't be met and flunking a tag for not reaching it is not a process I can agree with.
    – badp
    Commented Jun 11, 2012 at 9:29
  • I've removed the tag from the list.
    – Wipqozn Mod
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 10:47
14

Can we keep please?

There are many instances (for example) where a gaming related question is raised asking for a definition of gaming terminology. In these instances removing this tag would result in these valid questions not having a relevant tag to live under.

4
  • 1
    Please save "terminology". While there are questions that should be tagged with their correct game, because they only pertain to them, other are cross-games, and would miss a proper collocation.
    – Kappei
    Commented Jun 26, 2012 at 10:26
  • 2
    I agree, I think the solution here is to classify exactly when to use [terminology]: It should be used in the case of general gaming terminology, such as What does pwn mean?. It should not be used for terminology specific to a single game, e.g. What is the "Archon Toilet", the tag adds nothing here, only the game tag is required.
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 26, 2012 at 10:28
  • 4
    @QAdley exactly - questions like 'what does X mean?' when generically referring to the term would fit under this tag, whilst 'what does X mean [in this game]?' (whether directly referencing the game or whether it is implied) should be retagged as the game in question without the terminology tag
    – user27134
    Commented Jun 26, 2012 at 10:47
  • 1
    @ickleislands I've moved [terminology] from 'Burn' to 'Fix'
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 29, 2012 at 10:13
6

Relevant Meta Discussion

Please don't kill .

I think this is a very useful cross game tag as you can have people the specialize in acheivement hunting without specializing in the game they are playing. For example, I know a number of people who will buy (or more likely, rent) a game just to get some quick achievements and they know nothing about the game itself (and therefore wouldn't follow the tag) but know about the achievements for that game.

I think it creates a good cross game filter to go off of for these people, and a good tag to follow as well.

13
  • 1
    "...specialize in acheivement hunting without specializing in the game they are playing" - really?!
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 16, 2012 at 11:45
  • 1
    @fredley Yes. In fact, there are people that this is all they do. They learn only enough about the game to get the achievements, and no more. In fact, there are sites dedicated to helping people do this.
    – LoveAndCoding
    Commented Jun 16, 2012 at 17:35
  • @QTash I guess the question is do we want to be (like) one of those sites?
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 16, 2012 at 18:40
  • 2
    @fredley We already are. We help people and allow them to ask questions about achievements. You may not partake in this particular aspect (and may even think less of those who do) but that doesn't mean it isn't a perfectly valid part of gaming and something that people can ask about. Obviously we are not limiting those questions, and there is a good case where people would specialize in just achievements, and more importantly would be able to help others in getting achievements, so why would we kill this tag just because some don't agree with how others might use the extra filtering?
    – LoveAndCoding
    Commented Jun 16, 2012 at 22:08
  • 1
    @QAdley why not? It's a Q&A site and 'How do I get achievement X?' fits perfectly into that format. Sure at times in certain games it can expand into more of a 'guide-like' format but they're useful questions that generate content that is valuable.
    – user27134
    Commented Jun 25, 2012 at 11:34
  • I'm not saying 'How do I get achievement X' is a bad question, in fact it's a great one! I'm saying we don't need a special tag to highlight those questions, anyone hunting a certain achievement will be able to find it by name.
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 25, 2012 at 11:39
  • @QAdley by removing the 'achievement' tag you will basically be requiring the word achievement to appear somewhere in the title or body of the question, which is no different from the instance of 'forcing the game name into the title' rather than just tagging the question correctly (something that has been discussed more than once). By clearing tagging achievement related questions with achievement this problem is prevented before it happens and results in cleaner question titles rather than a list of questions all starting as "ACHIEVEMENT: bla bla bla"
    – user27134
    Commented Jun 25, 2012 at 11:43
  • @ickleislands No I'm not. People are much more likely to search for a specific achievement by name. Removing the tag means that titles would be much better though, instead of acheivements - How do I get Balls? you would get deus-ex-human-revolution - How do I get Balls?, for example.
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 25, 2012 at 11:47
  • 1
    @QAdley so your justification for removing the tag is that the tag system doesn't have priorities on which tag is shown first and has nothing to do with the tag itself?
    – user27134
    Commented Jun 25, 2012 at 11:49
  • @ickleislands In part, yes. Achievements wouldn't be a bad tag, if our tag system was better, but it's not, so remove it. Tags like this clog up the system, and damage our search ranking, and search is our primary source of traffic.
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 25, 2012 at 11:54
  • @QAdley maybe I am being naive but would the correct solution not to be to request an expansion to the way the tag system works then? All it would need is a basic priority system to ensure that the game tags ("The tags with the highest priority") come first and are used in the page titles? This wouldn't be something just for us as I image this would effect all SE sites? (both the problem and the solution)
    – user27134
    Commented Jun 25, 2012 at 11:58
  • 2
    @ickleislands Oh believe me, we have asked, and the answer is no!
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 25, 2012 at 12:00
  • @QAdley now that I have an understanding of how the tag system works, I can see why you would want achievements removing but still think it is a valid tag. Would be nice if we could mark certain tags to just never appear in page titles though... (Even simpler than adding a priority system)
    – user27134
    Commented Jun 25, 2012 at 12:10
2

Can we keep ? No particular attachment to the tag itself but there are instances where it can be used as the only tag validly without being off-topic.

7
  • For the question you have linked, trainer is a much better tag. I can't think of any other questions, real or otherwise, where this tag would be appropriate.
    – fredley
    Commented Jul 16, 2012 at 13:13
  • Surely trainer would be better off as a synonym of cheats anyway?
    – user27134
    Commented Jul 16, 2012 at 13:14
  • A trainer is a specific thing, in which you could be an expert. You cannot be an expert in cheats.
    – fredley
    Commented Jul 16, 2012 at 13:15
  • 1
    So, burn cheats, create a brand new tag called trainer?
    – user27134
    Commented Jul 16, 2012 at 13:16
  • 1
    That would be what I'd do in the case of the question you linked. Are there any others that you think might be a problem?
    – fredley
    Commented Jul 16, 2012 at 13:18
  • I haven't looked through cheats extensively, there is this, this (would fall under 'trainers'), this (cheating as an action rather than a process), this (probably retag as VAC) etc
    – user27134
    Commented Jul 16, 2012 at 13:22
  • 1
    this one is specifically about the konami code
    – user27134
    Commented Jul 16, 2012 at 13:26
2

Is there any reason to keep , its not there in the list.

1
  • 1
    Yes. Mass Effect 3 is the primary example, although one could argue that those questions could be retagged as me3-multiplayer. Actually, since ME3 accounts for nearly a third of all multiplayer tags, let's just do that.
    – MBraedley
    Commented Jul 11, 2012 at 10:56
2

Is there any reason to use , looks like Type 6 to me - it doesn't have a tag wiki, but from the questions I would have suggested 'Games that are played as a diversion or story element within another game, such as Triple Triad in Final Fantasy VIII'

Also, please comment on whether it is appropriate to create new posts for different tags or I should be editing an existing answer when suggesting other tags for consideration.

2

YAT6 (yet another type 6):

Same with

Same with

0

posts can be retagged as

-2

I've removed the disputed status

Disclaimer: Personally I'm fine with burning the tag, but I'm also fine with keeping it around (it isn't that different , or which we are keeping for the time being). However there does seem to be some dispute amongst the community on whether or not we should keep the tag. Since none of the users I've seen adding and removing have bothered to start a meta discussion on it or make a post here, I thought I would. Feel free to make a proper meta if you feel this warrants more discussion than just through the comments of this answer.

Don't burn .

14
  • 2
    I vote for keeping story
    – Alok
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 0:43
  • quite a few stories have already been untagged, but I'm not fussed whether it is kept or not
    – user27134
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 1:11
  • 3
    I'd have thought the fact that it was removed twice previously from the "To be removed" list was hint enough.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 1:42
  • 2
    @QAvenDreamer Your removal reason is valid, but that tag was mis-classified as Type 3. It fits perfectly into the description of Type 6: "Tags which mean roughly the same thing in different games, but are otherwise very unlikely to be used as filters by themselves (remove)"
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 10:47
  • 1
    @QAdley Remember, I removed the Type 6 questions originally because there was dispute about whether or not those tags should be removed, because of this you need to be careful when adding tags that fall under that heading. Yes, some of them are just useless (like ai), but others have strong support in the community (like achievements).
    – Wipqozn Mod
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 11:00
  • @Wipqozn Fair enough. I guess I don't understand how [story] is actually useful in any way, but I'm willing to be educated.
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 11:06
  • 4
    There isn't any dispute: one person just keeps rolling back edits that remove it and removing it from the cleanup list. The concept of using tags like story was already rejected here, here, and here.
    – user3389
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 14:27
  • @Alok Why do you vote for keeping [story]?
    – fredley
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 15:27
  • 5
    @QAdley: Because it is a useful subclassification of questions: those that relate to setting/lore rather than actual gameplay or mechanics. On some games, I'd like to actively look for it and contribute, whereas others I may prefer to ignore questions tagged story. If it helps, I would like to see it renamed to 'lore' instead, which is more general imho than story (and better classifies some of the questions asked using that tag)
    – Alok
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 19:16
  • 4
    @MarkTrapp: There is certainly more than 1 person who would prefer to keep story; and I can also say there are a few who keep deleting the tag while it is still disputed!
    – Alok
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 19:40
  • 3
    @Alok It wasn't in "dispute" until Wipqozn created this answer as a devil's advocate. Story is unquestionably a bad tag and we've had numerous previous discussions about how to handle questions about lore (see my comment for links to just a few). Only one person, who got massively downvoted each time, kept insisting that story should stay and refused to accept community consensus regarding its deletion and replacement with game-specific tags.
    – user3389
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 21:39
  • 2
    If you have something new to add that hasn't already been said on the earlier discussions, do it there.
    – user3389
    Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 21:40
  • Is this tag still in 'disputed' status? It's been currently marked as 'DO NOT USE'.
    – galacticninja
    Commented Jun 30, 2012 at 13:27
  • @galacticninja: I'm going to remove it tomorrow if none of the people voting to keep it don't provide any additional arguments as to why it should be kept.
    – Wipqozn Mod
    Commented Jul 2, 2012 at 14:01
-4

What's wrong with ? It's a well-defined concept, and there can easily be questions about storing, backing up, or sharing save games, independent of any specific game. (In that case, it could be used as the sole tag, so it's not a meta-tag.)

1
  • 4
    This is a meta tag, which means it's neither a game or a platform. Two key principles for meta tags are use in search and people adding it to their favourites (i.e experts within save games). Right now, it has 3 followers, so it all but fails the second criteria. I can't really speak for how useful it is in search. A third, less important factor is distinguishing it on the front page, but [save-games] doesn't really succeed in this respect as it should be obvious from the title that's it's about save games (and since next to no one is following it).
    – MBraedley
    Commented Sep 18, 2012 at 0:03

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