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When I answered some question and noticed that a question has incorrect tags (or at least tags I considered to be incorrect), I was somewhat hesitant to retag the question. The reason was that this might be construed as an effort to get more reputation in some tags and thus get closer to earning tag badges. So I sometimes did not retag the question -- hoping that, as the question was bumped, some other user might notice the tags and retag the questions.

I would like to know the opinion of other users in MSE community on this. Is it ok to retag the questions, where you are one of the answerers?

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    $\begingroup$ Also, answering questions might be construed as an effort to get more reputation in some tags. So you shouldn't answer any questions, either. ... But seriously: please retag as you see fit - especially right after answering a question, when there's no cost of extra bump. For the more specialized tags, the chance of someone with the required knowledge of the tagging system seeing the post on the front page, and taking action, is far less than 100%. $\endgroup$
    – ˈjuː.zɚ79365
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:40
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    $\begingroup$ I have occasionally had similar worries and refrained from retagging. Perhaps that amounts to worrying about it too much? $\endgroup$
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:47
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    $\begingroup$ I wouldn't frown on the addition of relevant tags to a question by a user at all, without even considering if the retagger had also been an answerer of that question. In fact, I'd even appreciate that the answerer took the trouble to retag, and maybe even edit the question, as I've seen a lot of questions that were answered well, but were not edited/retagged properly. $\endgroup$
    – J. M. ain't a mathematician
    Jun 21, 2013 at 11:49
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    $\begingroup$ I've had similar thoughts, but my guess is, if it were really so offensive, the powers that be would not allow us to do it. $\endgroup$
    – Ron Gordon
    Jun 21, 2013 at 12:43
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    $\begingroup$ @Ron, or there'd already have been loud complaints on meta. ;) $\endgroup$
    – J. M. ain't a mathematician
    Jun 21, 2013 at 12:47

2 Answers 2

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I, for one, have never had that thought cross my mind.

If one sees a question in need of retagging, I encourage anyone capable to retag it; regardless of whether or not you've answered the question. To me, it's more important to have properly organized questions than to keep someone from earning a badge.

That said--this only applies to appropriate retags... If you're retagging "Please solve $x^2 + 2x - 1 = 0$" to or , that would raise red flags. :)

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Answerers have just spent time thinking about a question, and the question is bumped by the answer regardless of tagging, so it seems like a nearly optimal way to improve the tags on a question.

I retag after many answers, and was surprised to read that

this might be construed as an effort to get more reputation in some tags and thus get closer to earning tag badges.

having been barely aware that these tag badges exist, what it takes to acquire them, or what meaning they have. If there are people who take the badges and reputation game seriously, and if that motivates them to improve tags when answering, any badges they gain are harmless to anyone else, and the retagging is Constructive ( http://xkcd.com/810/ ).

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    $\begingroup$ Exactly. Who cares if someone games the system if the end result is that the site is more organized? The only problem would be if someone changes tags to things that don't make sense or barely make sense. $\endgroup$
    – GeoffDS
    Jun 22, 2013 at 15:10

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