Update
This proposal was suggested and approved.
Original Post
A while ago, I endeavored to clarify the use of the marriage tag and its related tags:
There was some static from a few users, but the community seemed mostly supportive of the changes, so I made them, they went through the review process and were approved. Most notable was Flimzy's answer/comment, and recently Lee's answer, which lead to a long chat discussion (Read from this chat message down.)
Lee and I came to a simple compromise that a few have noted in chat that they would support.
The marriage tag excerpt currently says:
Use this tag for questions about attitudes and doctrines regarding traditional marriage (one male and one female). For non-traditional marriages, use the appropriate tags, such as polygamy or same-sex-marriage.
It should be changed to:
Use this tag for questions about attitudes and doctrines regarding marriage. For questions relating specifically to same-sex marriage and polygamy, use the appropriate tags.
This change is minor, but is only meant to do something simple. The current excerpt can and did lead to polarization on this sensitive topic for some users, and will likely do so again in the future. Since the excerpt is the most seen description for tags, it was needlessly provocative, possibly turning away users over an issue that does not really exist. Lee said it best and ultimately convinced me that this small change was worthwhile:
This [excerpt] would, I think, cover what the bulk of people in the culture think about marriage anyway, without being unnecessarily polarizing right in the tag excerpt.
Chat message
This meta post was made for two purposes:
- The topic is sensitive and therefore deserves the full protocol.
- The change may be viewed as too minor, and therefore rejected once it is in the review queue.
Comments are welcome in the answer space below.