Should we remove the [preparation] tag?

Question

We currently have the two tags preparation and surface-preparation of which the first is used erratically.

• Preparation often seems to be used for questions about preparatory steps, but in which the 'preparation' has in fact nothing to do with the actual problem at hand (see the list of questions in the tag link).
  There are a few questions in which its use is at least logical, such as the following:

  • Can you use acrylic gesso for oil paint?
  • What would happen if I machine laundered dry clean only fabric before making it into a garment?
  • Efficient cutting and preparation of fabric for sewing clothing

  
  But even here the tag doesn't add any information to the questions that is useful when writing answers.

  The tag seems obsolete to me, as almost any step in a crafts project can be a preparatory step. It also won't be of help for users to find specific questions.
  I think this is a good example of what the tagging help page describes as a 'meta-tag', a tag that is not descriptive of a question when used alone and means different things to different people.

• On the other hand, the use of the surface preparation tag is a lot more consistent, and is without exception appropriately used on questions concerning the preparation of surfaces: its use is intuitive.

I would like to suggest removing preparation. What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

I think you're technically correct, but I wouldn't remove preparation yet. Yes, it's a meta tag, but for now, it may be the best solution. Some thoughts:

• One purpose of a tag is to frame the subject to orient the reader or potential reader. Preparation is typically a specific and important step of the process, and not everyone has the same expertise or interest in that aspect. Knowing that the question focuses on preparation can influence whether someone thinks it's a question they want to investigate, so some form of preparation-related tag can serve the function of screening or attracting appropriate readers and is beneficial.

• The existing one is a meta tag in that it needs to be used in combination with a subject tag, and that usually isn't the best practice. On A&C, though, that isn't as big a problem as on some of the large, technical sites. When used in combination with a subject tag, it will usually serve its purpose for this user base.

• One thing that can make meta tags a problem is that they can be too broad. If you try to use them in a search, much of what is returned will be noise for you. At the other extreme, tags can be too specific or granular. You don't want to have to do multiple searches to capture everything of interest. Also, if tags are associated with only a few questions, they tend not to get used on other questions when appropriate, and people don't think to use them in searches, so they don't provide a lot of benefit.

  Tagging is a balancing act. A&C doesn't yet have a lot of questions. If we had granular, subject+preparation tags at this point, they would mostly have just a few questions each, which wouldn't be a net benefit.

I think the most benefit at this stage will come from keeping tag usage clean, so searches don't return unnecessary noise. For example, on several of the preparation and one of the surface-preparation questions, the question didn't even relate to preparation; the tags were just decoration. I removed it on those.

Actually, even surface-preparation isn't a great tag. It's a little narrower, but it still isn't specific to a subject. When the question base gets to the point where it can support preparation tags by subject, we would probably want to appropriately retag both collections.