8

Ok, according to the help pages:

Incorrectly tagged questions are hard to find and answer. If you know of common, alternate spellings or phrasings for this tag, add them here so we can automatically correct them in the future. For example, suggest “bike” as a synonym for bicycle, or “sock” for socks.

Now, why is gnome-shell and gnome-shell-extensions synonym of gnome? GNOME, last time I check out, is an umbrella project for an array of libraries, programs, etc. under the same goal. The tag excerpt agrees:

GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment) is a collection of GTK-base software that provides the desktop environment GNOME-Shell. This is a very general tag that should only be used for questions referring to GNOME in general, and not a specific component.

The problem is... that specific components like, gnome-shell and gnome-shell-extensions are being directed to that tag, and I mean to ask... why? The gnome related tags has the advantages that most of them start with the prefix gnome-, so I can follow the entire gnome questions or just the, i.e. gnome-shell-extensions. Can this be reverted back to 3 separated tags, please?

6
  • 5
    In all fairness, show some compassion. If my GNOME panel is broken, and I didn't know that GNOME Panel belongs to gnome-session, it's safe to assume I'm going to tag it with plain GNOME as a tag, which is probably the reason the tags were combined.
    – eyoung100
    Jun 17, 2014 at 20:53
  • 4
    @ECarterYoung that's not excuse to prevent experts from correctly tagging a question. Tags are not for people to tags their questions, they are to connect experts with the question they want to answer. If OP tags a question wrongly, there are more than enough users to correct it.
    – Braiam
    Jun 17, 2014 at 22:30
  • 4
    That's my point... A user is going to tag it gnome because it belongs to gnome proper, but a user is not always an expert.
    – eyoung100
    Jun 17, 2014 at 22:44
  • @ECarterYoung so you are saying that the synonym doesn't make sense?
    – Braiam
    Jun 21, 2014 at 12:10
  • 1
    @Braiam He is saying the synonym makes sense, because users aren't going to tag gnome-panel problems gnome-shell or gnome-session, they are going to tag them gnome.
    – Seth
    Jun 26, 2014 at 23:04
  • 2
    @Seth and I said that its not excuses to prevent the expert from doing it right. There are enough users to fix tags. GNOME != GNOME shell neither GNOME != gnome-shell-extensions. Also, that synonym goes against the very tag excerpt.
    – Braiam
    Jun 26, 2014 at 23:07

1 Answer 1

1

Some of this, anyway, makes sense.

I've gone ahead and removed the -> synonym.

As to -> , you're going to have to convince me it isn't better to fold gnome-shell questions into gnome. Besides, how many questions about gnome "as a framework" or "the project in general" are we going to get?

9
  • Please, just read the excerpt: This is a very general tag that should only be used for questions referring to GNOME in general, and not a specific component. I want to answer gnome-shell question, as I use Debian, you can't hope to shove me all the mess of the gnome tag. Two wrongs doesn't make a right. If you want people to correctly tag questions, just teach them.
    – Braiam
    Jun 26, 2014 at 23:20
  • 1
    @Braiam The tag is what we make it, obviously the people who handled those synonyms thought we should use gnome for generic gnome questions, they just didn't update the wiki. As for "teaching them" I'm not just referring to users tagging wrong. a) we don't want it to be confusing to new users, b) we don't want to fragment all the gnome questions across the site. Broad tags are not bad, as we've tried to tell you many times. I'd be happy to unlink them if you could show me some good reasons, and hopefully have some real community backing behind it.
    – Seth
    Jun 26, 2014 at 23:24
  • There are 7 upvotes in my question, what community support you need?! I already have the backing of the people that cares about it. The ones that does care (me for starters) considers such things just ridiculous and upvoted my plea. If you have any reasonable reason that is not "but poor users doesn't know how to tag questions, aww~" please, share it with me. BTW, I haven't hinted that I want to remove the gnome tag, so why you bring your argument about "broad tags"? I just want two tags that means totally different things being totally separated tags, that's all.
    – Braiam
    Jun 26, 2014 at 23:31
  • @Braiam "users don't know how to tag questions" was not my argument, although it is true. My point is having "gnome" "gnome-shell" "gnome this" "gnome that" gets confusing and is hardly helpful to anyone. Some people obviously thought most gnome questions would be better off folded into one tag: gnome. You haven't given me a single good reason to undo that, other than "I want it!".
    – Seth
    Jun 26, 2014 at 23:38
  • BTW, it wasn't "users" but a single moderator that took action.
    – Braiam
    Jun 26, 2014 at 23:38
  • It doesn't allow me to answer questions! Is that a powerful reason?
    – Braiam
    Jun 26, 2014 at 23:39
  • "GNOME also includes more than just the shell, as Unity, GNOME Classic, Pantheon and Cinnamon demonstrate. We could have questions come up which are about the underlying GNOME 3 system itself, and not GNOME Shell or whatever other shell is running on top of it. As such, I think we should recognize that the DE and shell are sufficiently different topics that we keep their tags separate, as well." Community was against it. A moderator came and did it.
    – Braiam
    Jun 26, 2014 at 23:42
  • Read also Uri Herrera comments about the topic and read the "Merging Desktop Environment Tags with Ubuntu "Flavor" Tags" section for more. If we follow what you are saying, we should be merging unity-related tags with unity because, hey, I can't have the component without unity anyways. That just doesn't work. Each component of everything if it's too big should have their own tag.
    – Braiam
    Jun 26, 2014 at 23:47
  • Also if you really want to see disaster: check out gnome questions with the unity tag also. That's really confusing.
    – Braiam
    Jun 27, 2014 at 0:17

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .