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I have just noticed that, right now, old questions in field theory and Galois theory are being brought up because someone is tagging them , for instance here, here, or here.

This somewhat suppresses new questions and seems unnecessary, but what strikes me is: Field and Galois theory is hardly ring theory in most situations, certainly not in the ones named in the examples. One could just as well tag these . Tagging them would be much more justifiable. So I think this is actually cluttering the tag.

Don’t we have policies against possibly counterproductive retag sprees?

Evil suspicion: Does retagging old questions one has answered add to the specific tag badge process?

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    $\begingroup$ To answer your Evil suspicion: Yes. Those retagged questions award any answerers of the questions credit in the newly added tag. $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Jul 14, 2020 at 23:41
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for posting this. The rep system and the "badge acquisition system" unfortunately encourage users to focus on acquiring rep and/or badges, via questionable means, more than it encourages them to do so honestly. $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Jul 15, 2020 at 0:08

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The rule is not to do too many retags at the same time (where three to five is a rule of thumb). This was respected by the retagger as they did four and then stopped. As you mention correctly for smaller tags it can still be an issue.

Of course retagging poorly should always be avoided but it is harder to have a simple guideline there (I did not check the posts in detail). If you think a retag is really wrong, undo it. You can also comment-notify the user that did the retag (auto-complete does not suggest it but it works for users that edited the post).

Regarding your suspicion, technically that's true, I'd doubt it was the motivation. That it concerns their posts could also be explained by them cleaning up in their profile.

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    $\begingroup$ The three inappropriate retags mentioned in the OP have all been undone. $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Jul 15, 2020 at 0:05

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