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As an editor, I'm seeking guidance as to the best practice for adding a tag to an identification question once the identification's been made.

From the information section of the tag:

When you get an answer, consider adding a further tag (for the flower, tree, beetle etc that has been identified) so that your question is cataloged correctly.

Adding the tag is an excellent idea, but in practice, I think it looks confusing.

Today I edited What is this houseplant that looks like it has a fruit in the curled leaves?. The answer correctly identified it as a peace lilly. I added the tag, but it made the question look like the OP knew the answer when they posted the question, so I removed it.

In cases like these, should I

  • just add the tag?

  • edit the question with an "update" message? (I personally don't like the way that looks.)

  • post a comment under the question? For example:

    Now that we know it's a peace lilly, I've added a tag to make it easier for future readers to locate the question.

  • leave the question alone, and let the OP add the tag if they so desire?

  • do something else?

I have the same question regarding certain "diagnosis" questions. Should I ask it separately or would the same general rule apply? For instance, if a plant has been diagnosed as having spider mites, adding that tag could definitely be helpful to the community.

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  • @J.Musser I have no problem at all with this being a duplicate. In fact, finding duplicates is something I support! Interestingly, even though the consensus was the same in both, that we should go back and apply a tag, neither of us did it to the example questions we used! I'll do it now!
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Sep 11, 2017 at 21:22
  • I just stubled across 3 questions today, asking basically the same thing (the 2 that are linked here, and gardening.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/821/…
    – J. Musser
    Sep 12, 2017 at 0:23
  • @J.Musser Interesting. That one's a tiny bit different but not really enough. I added my close vote but I assume Alina gets a chance to decide if she wants to edit it.
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Sep 12, 2017 at 0:48

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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In my opinion, new users (so easy to search) are more important than history, so I would include tags, so we can check easier related questions.

Already now with edits, some answer and comments seems out of context, but I don't see this as a big problem.

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  • 1
    I like the way you wrote this, and will begin adding tags when appropriate. In fact, if you'd like to do the same, it would be helpful too! If they end up not looking right, anyone in the community can certainly edit them back out. Thanks for taking the time to answer me!
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Dec 1, 2016 at 22:32

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