Tag Info

I'm not sure that location is as important as are the conditions that occur in that location. We often use location as a stand-in for understanding those conditions, but it would usually be better to embed the relevant information. E.g. in your question What can I plant to attract butterflies and other pollinators in Minnesota? location is helpful, but you ...

I think it should be deleted and the 3 questions edited with the correct tag.

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.

Done. I marked it as an "intrinsic" tag - that is, a tag that is considered to apply to every question asked here. As such, it cannot be used here but won't block migrations from other sites.

This is done! Also blacklisted plants to prevent that from being the go-to replacement option. Thanks Shog!

Yes it does! The only catch I have is that tags with fewer than 2 questions will age away so we will have to readd rare plants. But yes, tags for plants is definitely a good idea.

Because all pots are containers, but not all containers are pots, I tend to agree. The tag for pots should be a synonym for the tag containers.

We already have the pollination tag, which is equivalent to sexual-reproduction. I think the distinction is primarily botanical, and we've always leaned towards the gardening usage rather than the botanical one. For example, root-vegetables for onions & garlic, bulbs for dahlias and other flowering plants, instead of onions, (although there might be a ...

I agree that is has no meaning in terms of helping people find something. Please remove.

As you stated, a very high percentage of questions could be tagged with plant. The tag is far too general to be useful and should be burninated. Perhaps even blacklisted. As it is, practically all of the 18 questions are identification questions. A number of these questions are also closed. If the tag is unavailable new users will simply not be able to ...

I'd be in favor of making it a synonym of bulbs. Our tag synonyms page has plenty of other examples where the singular and plural forms of a word are synonyms, so doing this would match existing practice.

I agree J.Musser! Shrub is the same as bush only more...professional...sort of like soil and dirt! Soil is professional and dirt is dumb! Grins

Thanks for pointing that out. I've merged the tags (since they mean exactly the same thing), which automatically creates a synonym so any future attempts to use pest will get the pests instead.

Each tag needs to cover a specific topic, just like they do now. Tags including 'how-to' would just confuse things and only minimally boost our prominence. And I do see our material quite often in google searches. For example if you search for something about Aloe vera blooming, this one is near the top of the first page. Those things are good to see. The ...

I left a comment a while ago, but decided to expand it into an answer. I agree with those who think the frugal tag's unnecessary. In addition to what's been said: My examination of the existing questions indicates that all of them are worded, or could be with a small amount of editing, in such a way as to render the tag unnecessary. The most recent of ...

I like the frugal tag. But then I hate spending money on my garden. Just this week I have been trying to rig up some kind of home watering system without spending money on an overpriced kit. So it's an aspect of gardening I'm interested in. The tag groups together questions which deal with that side of gardening. But this is a community site and I'm ...

I've removed bush from the questions, it is unnecessary. It will disappear shortly.

I agree that it's not a good tag, and given my druthers I'd just remove it altogether. Twenty-four hours after the last usage of a tag is removed from a questions, it will no longer be suggested when entering tags on new questions, so we could edit it out and it will disappear. On the other hand, if we keep ecological as a synonym of something, we already ...

I concur with bstpierre that location doesn't normally give enough information in and of itself; however, I personally think adding the location provides additional helpful information, and is important, whether or not having tags to convey this information is important. Tags would be helpful to allow users to see groups of questions from a specific area, ...

You're using the wrong analogies to base your arguments. When you ask "how to attract pollinators", people won't ask what location you're in — it's the equivalent of "What is the purpose of a GC". Regardless of location (programming language), question can be answered. However, when you ask "how should I take care of my tree", people will ask what tree and ...

Theoretically you can germinate fungal spores and bacteria as well as seeds from plants. If you only go by the definition then germination includes everything seed starting implies and a little more. The only thing seed starting has going for it is that it is more recognizable to the user base as I believe there are less users who use germination as their ...

I think the frugal tag can be removed. This word is a little uncommon in the English language and it's meaning is not likely to be clear to a lot of users. From Merriam Webster : careful about spending money or using things when you do not need to : using money or supplies in a very careful way : simple and plain

The seed-starting tag is a synonym for germination (along with germinating), so if you try to use it, the system will remap it to germination automatically. If you click through the seed-starting link, you'll see that it shows "germination" at the top right (perhaps not the most obvious place to put it, admittedly). The list of synonyms is also available ...

It's usually used by newer users in identification questions, to clarify what's being identified. New users also don't necessarily know how to properly use tags, so they often use it where a more specific tag would do (they don't know to be as specific as possible). In the Help Center, it is posted that the identification scope covers diseases and pests, as ...

This rule is in place so that newer users who don't have much rep (who usually don't know the site well) can't just edit all they want. You get full editing privileges at 1,000 reputation, so only users with 1,000 or higher can edit without having to suggest and get approved. The limit on how little you can change a post before you get the editing privilege ...

There is no longer a plants tag. I edited it out from all the questions it was on, and it has since disappeared.

There is no longer a plant tag. I edited it out from all the questions it was on, and it has since disappeared. See Do we need to specify what identification is being requested using tags? It wasn't really a very useful tag anyway.

Actually, as wax eagle mentions in a comment, containers is intended for "container gardening" (growing in pots). There's a lot of overlap between containers and potting -- it might be appropriate to make one a synonym of the other. I'm not sure I can think of a useful distinction between the two tags. (IMO, containers would be a better master.)

Agreed. I went through and re-tagged both, that should get rid of it shortly.

In the case of a singleton that isn't particularly useful (this one isn't) you have two options: remove it with an edit let it age away naturally If the question has other issues, you can edit it an remove the tag and do other things. If it's just a tag edit, if the question is otherwise decent then this is a good thing to edit out. However, if the ...