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In editing some old questions and answers today I noticed that the tag seems to be getting used as a meta tag. Occasionally it is on a question about a specific doctrine, but usually it's just appended when the questioner feels strongly that their question should be answered with doctrine.

Seriously folks! Of the 2,359 questions we have, do only 108 of them ask about doctrine or call for a doctrinal answer?

On the contrary, I would argue that maybe 108 of our questions ARE NOT about doctrine or DO NOT call for doctrinal answers.

Of the questions that ask about a specific doctrine, I think a more specific tag using the name of the doctrine in question would be more appropriate. That leaves the vast majority of our questions missing a relevant tag. But how relevant is it? Wouldn't this be like tagging most questions on StackOverflow with programming?

If it's useful: what is it for? If not, should I burninate it?

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    Sadly "Bible" might be on that list too, except there is a real call for it. Unfortunately, it also seems to be the "I can't think of anythng else" tag. Plus, I like my "Bible" Badge. I'm nearing a silver.
    – Affable Geek
    Commented Oct 1, 2012 at 14:49
  • @AffableGeek: I was just griping about that tag and a few others in chat the other day. I figured I'd start with one of manageable size, but I have my eye on those ugly monsters too!
    – Caleb
    Commented Oct 1, 2012 at 20:48
  • Duplicate?
    – Ryan Frame
    Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 16:11
  • @RyanFrame Apparently. Of myself no less. Goldfish anybody? I'm going to close this in reverse since this is meta and this has the resolution of the discussion.
    – Caleb
    Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 16:35
  • I hold no opposition.
    – wax eagle
    Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 17:12

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Yes. It is useless.

The typical path for tag removal is to edit it out of each question it is on and then have SEI blacklist the tag (or just keep editing it out, depending on severity and recurrence)

Let's take care if we do remove it to do it slowly as not to overwhelm the front page.

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  • If it's really serving no current purpose and nothing about the question it is currently on needs to change, we can actually just nuke it. However, I think we should clean up and properly tag any questions ahead of a move like that.
    – Caleb
    Commented Oct 1, 2012 at 12:36
  • @Caleb the concern is if any of those questions have doctrine as their only tag.
    – wax eagle
    Commented Oct 1, 2012 at 12:39
  • Yes, there are at least a couple. They are just a little bit hard to find.
    – Caleb
    Commented Oct 1, 2012 at 13:03
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So...

All singletons have been removed. Can a mod destroy the tag without filling the pages, or does it need to happen slowly?

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    I think we can nuke it. If we can't we can request help from higher up, people with bigger hammers. And thanks by the way for all your work on cleanup issues.
    – Caleb
    Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 16:25
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I think it would be nice to have a since that's certainly a real thing and would be a nice complement to .

Would it be better to use with than with ?

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  • Can you give an example of what kind of question would need a catholic-doctrine tag? As opposed to one that would not?
    – Caleb
    Commented Oct 1, 2012 at 20:46
  • Why was the Blessed Virgin Mary assumed into heaven? (dogma) Why don't Catholics use Birth Control (Doctrine)
    – Peter Turner Mod
    Commented Oct 1, 2012 at 20:50
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    I'm not sure what the difference between dogma and doctrine might be. According to a quick read of a Google search result, "all dogmas are doctrines, but not all doctrines are dogmas." So dogma might be helpful, but doctrine probably isn't.
    – Jon Ericson
    Commented Oct 1, 2012 at 22:00

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