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I have noticed on another SE site that they have put a reminder about correctly using one of their tags, which was not entirely clear.

I do not whether it is possible to link to the community bulletin or how to do it, so I'll post a screenshot:

enter image description here

It was linked to the list of questions with the given tag, which shows the tag-excerpt on the top of the site.

From what I read on meta.SO it seems that mods have possibility to add events to the Community Bulletin. (I suppose that most of the content of C.B. is created automatically, without any human interaction.)

I was wondering whether something like that would be useful on our site too. In connection with tagging, during the algebra tag clean-up, some reminder could have been there. (But something like that is no longer needed, since we do not have algebra tag now.) Anyway I can imagine that it could be useful to remind the users that:

  • The tag should not be used as the only tag on a questions (perhaps with the link to meta thread about this).
  • The tag is for ordinary differential equations, for partial differential equations could be used.
  • This does not have to be only about tagging, I guess that several of our comment templates could be shortened to make a reminder about some useful thing.

So I would like to ask the following:

  • Do you think it would be a good idea to use Community Bulletin in this way?
  • If someone has an idea about something that could be put on the bulletin, where can such ideas be proposed?
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Community events are not the proper way to achieve this, they have a specific start and end date and are just not meant for this purpose. They also show how long the event lasts in the bulletin if I remember correctly, which would be very confusing if they were used like you proposed. But if a moderators wants to put up a specific meta post on the community bulletin, they can tag it as and it will show up there. There are some time limits involved as far as I know, but I'm not sure about the specifics.

But I think that this would not be necessarily a good idea, there are a few drawbacks:

  • By adding a static entry to the community bulletin you are training the users to ignore it, as it contains information that they already know. The bulletin should mainly feature information that is relevant right now, it is more useful that way.

  • New users don't read that stuff, especially the users that have no idea on how to tag in the first place. The best way to learn proper tagging is by observing more experienced users in doing it, by paying attention to the tag wikis and by generally becoming more involved in the community and more experienced with the way the site works.

  • Your specific examples are something that belongs in the tag wikis, as it should be shown to the users right at the moment where they need it. That information is already in the tag wiki in your second example, supporting my earlier point that many new users tend to not read that stuff.

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  • $\begingroup$ "paying attention to the tag wikis" - most users don't do that, either... FWIW, the stuff about homework is also in the tag wiki, but as you say, most people can't even be arsed to read it. $\endgroup$
    – J. M. ain't a mathematician
    Jun 4, 2013 at 1:10
  • $\begingroup$ Perhaps more importantly, it is in tag excerpt - which is the part shown when adding the tag. On the site where I have seen it (see the link in my post), the situation is the same - they have the same information which is in the tag-excerpt also in that one-liner in the community bulletin. I have to agree with you that the people not noticing the information in the tag-excerpt will probably ignore the bulletin, too. Thanks for your answer, Mad Scientist. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Jun 4, 2013 at 5:21

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