I think you need to convert your rules into guidelines. This is editorial stuff and that's really subjective. Chances are by nuking a ton of tags you might be causing a moderator to pull out hair.

I will concede that a tag that can't stand alone probably isn't the best tag. But it's not neccessarily evil and by extension, removing it might not improve the question or the site. A tag is a layer of information about a question. As long as it's relevant, more information is always better.

I understand that somebody only picking one tag (and a version tag at that) not being a great thing... But that doesn't mean the version tag is at fault, it means the user has tagged poorly. Want to fix it? Add more, relevant tags.

And if I had dev access I'd make it so some tags can't be used on their own. Version tags would fall into this group.

I think you need to convert your rules into guidelines. This is editorial stuff and that's really subjective. Chances are by nuking a ton of tags you might be causing a moderator to pull out hair.

I will concede that a tag that can't stand alone probably isn't the best tag. But it's not neccessarily evil and by extension, removing it might not improve the question or the site. A tag is a layer of information about a question. As long as it's relevant, and it's about the question and not the post (a meta tag) more information is always better.

I understand that somebody only picking one version tag for their question is crappy. I get your frustration there... But that doesn't mean the version tag is at fault, it means the user has tagged poorly. Want to fix it? Add more, relevant tags.

And if I had dev access I'd make it so some tags can't be used on their own. Version tags would fall into this group.