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I have a reasonable idea for a feature request.

When a user is creating a tag the system will recognize that and point out that the following tag is new, requiring the user to acknowledge the creation of the tag.

Possibly the message can show the names of similar tags (e.g. creating the tag will show the name and and so on), and point out that it might fit under these tags instead of creating a new tag. The shown tags can be selected based on the tag name alone, or by searching the tag wiki excerpt for words appearing in the new tag (e.g. if I were to create a tag then a suggestion to use instead should show up, as the tag excerpt contains such term).

My view is that such message should show for each and every new tag created by the question, so if someone decides to create five new tags, they should authorize five different tags.

This may help decrease the creation of essentially-duplicate tags, or new and essentially-over specific tags.

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    $\begingroup$ Something like that could also help (at least to some extent) with the problem mentioned here, i.e. tagging a question by (algebraic) and (geometry) instead (algebraic-geometry) and similar mistakes. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Oct 2, 2013 at 9:31
  • $\begingroup$ I'm pretty sure something like this already exists, but it is limited in scope (an algorithm determines if a to-be-created tag is close enough to another tag, e.g. catching singular/plural). I'm in favour of widening the scope. $\endgroup$
    – Lord_Farin
    Oct 2, 2013 at 9:31
  • $\begingroup$ @Lord_Farin: Nothing like that exists. (Proof of concept in this very thread.) $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Oct 2, 2013 at 9:33
  • $\begingroup$ @Martin: Yes, that was one of the triggers for the idea. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Oct 2, 2013 at 9:34
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    $\begingroup$ For example if you try to create (cardinal) on the main you get: You are attempting to create the tag [cardinal]; however the tag [cardinals] already exists! If you think this new tag should be allowed, raise it on meta. I guess this is what @Lord_Farin had in mind. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Oct 2, 2013 at 9:36
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    $\begingroup$ I found this on meta.SO: Warning or confirmation on new tag creation. It is tagged (status-planned). Although the question is from 2011 and the last activity was 7 months ago. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Oct 2, 2013 at 9:39
  • $\begingroup$ @Martin: Hm. Well, I'm asking for a slightly better solution than just matching something by name, instead I suggest searching for keywords in the excerpt (or in fact, we can add "keywords" to tags!) as well. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Oct 2, 2013 at 9:48
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    $\begingroup$ @Lord_Farin, Martin: I didn't get such notice when I just created [taggin]... $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Oct 2, 2013 at 9:49
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    $\begingroup$ What about some kind of review mechanism for new tags? $\endgroup$
    – azimut
    Oct 2, 2013 at 9:52
  • $\begingroup$ @Asaf That's just... disappointing. More power to this request! $\endgroup$
    – Lord_Farin
    Oct 2, 2013 at 9:53
  • $\begingroup$ @azimut: There is one, essentially, the list of newly created tags appear in one of the pages of the moderation tool available to the 10k users. But the system should make it "less easy" to create tags to begin with, not cause a lot of work for those which are already burdened with reviewing a lot of things on the site. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Oct 2, 2013 at 10:03
  • $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila: Thanks. I'm really looking forward to 10K to get the full picture... $\endgroup$
    – azimut
    Oct 2, 2013 at 10:06
  • $\begingroup$ This answer claims: you cannot create a tag which differs from an existing tag only by the addition or removal of hyphens or a final S. This should explain (taggin) vs (tagging). $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Oct 2, 2013 at 10:11
  • $\begingroup$ @Martin: Ah, yes. That one is true. While it will hold if someone would try to create [cardinal] on main, it will fail to do so if someone would try to create [cardinal-arithmetics] tag. Moreover, I'm not trying to prevent the creation of new tags. Just to make sure that the user knows that there are other relevant options, and that they are well aware that they are creating a new tag. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Oct 2, 2013 at 10:13
  • $\begingroup$ @azimut: I might be mistaken, but I think that the list of newly created tags is available to all users, not only 10k+. (If you go to tags tab, you can choose 3 "orderings": popular, name, new.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Oct 2, 2013 at 11:10

1 Answer 1

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Sorry about the insane delay here. I wasn't aware of this post when the new tag creation warning was implemented.

It is on for Math.SE now. Let me know if you see any weird behaviour.

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  • $\begingroup$ Do all users get the warning or is it only for users below some reputation? (If the linked post contains information about this, then I did not notice it.) I'd prefer if the warning is given for all users. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Oct 19, 2015 at 17:00
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    $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak The answer Adam links seems to say that the warning, when enabled on a site, is shown to »moderators and users with the "create new tags" privilege«. Indeed, I just tested it, and it was shown to me. $\endgroup$
    – user642796
    Oct 19, 2015 at 17:08
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the response @Arthur. It seems that I should have read the post a bit more carefully. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Oct 19, 2015 at 17:13
  • $\begingroup$ I have noticed that the warning only appears on the main site. Perhaps it could be reasonable to extend this on the main site? (I found out this by mistake - I wanted to check the exact text shown in the warning. So I tried to create a new tag in this question - and I found out that I was shown nothing.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Apr 11, 2019 at 7:10
  • $\begingroup$ I meant to say that it would be good to extend this to meta. Sorry for the mistake in the previous comment. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Apr 11, 2019 at 14:43
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    $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak Easy enough to enable it, but best to start by opening a new discussion here on meta to see if folks generally feel the warning would help. $\endgroup$
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Apr 11, 2019 at 15:21
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the response. I have created a separate question about that: Warning when creating a new tag on meta. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Apr 11, 2019 at 15:39

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