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A question about tags

When you ask a new question on Askubuntu, you are usually adding tags to your problem. However, i've experienced that when i am tagging videos on YouTube, or tagging pictures on my computer, i am adding lots of lots of tags to it.

But it seem to be different here on Askubuntu; I've even asked questions and I have experienced that someone has edited the tags for me, and i haven't quite understood why, when it still asks a question related to all those things altogether.

Is there any nice methods to learn, so you don't end up tagging the world into a question?

Thanks alot.

1 Answer 1

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The tagging guidelines can be found on the main meta site, here and they are also explained in the Help Center, here. Briefly, they suggest the following:

  • Tag from the general to the specific. Include at least one broad tag and also include some specific ones.

  • As a general rule, you should try and add as many tags as you can. You are limited to 5 and, if there are 5 applicable tags, you should use them.

  • You should avoid tags that don't stand on their own. For example, tags like or that need to be qualified by another tag (what kind of programs? What about those programs? What kind of crash? What crashed?) should be avoided.

  • You should try and pick popular tags, those that are used most often.

While you should not attempt to summarize the question with the tags, the tags should give an idea of what the question is about. Tags are used to sort questions into categories, so if a question fits into more than one category, it should be tagged with more than one tag. In addition, many users have "Favorite Tags" and questions tagged with them are highlighted. This means that if you use one of those tags, you are more likely to attract the attention of the people who are most capable of answering you.

So, basically, use as many useful tags as are relevant.

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  • Thankyou, didn't know about the guidelines well enough, which i should have :) But, yeah, i got the idea, thanks C:
    – denNorske
    Apr 23, 2014 at 18:17
  • @denNorske you're welcome. By the way, my first sentence was in no way intended as a reprimand! I just wanted to tell you where to find them, I did not wish to imply that you should have known already.
    – terdon
    Apr 23, 2014 at 23:03
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    I would like to add, that when not sure, also add as many as you find, guys will clean up the irrelevant ones or add relevants.
    – Braiam
    Apr 24, 2014 at 3:17
  • after we extract the information.
    – Braiam
    Apr 24, 2014 at 3:25
  • @terdon okay ^^ But nice to know :D And Thankyou braiam, I'll remember that.
    – denNorske
    Apr 24, 2014 at 6:58

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