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The ambiguous tag is approaching burnination with less than 50 questions still bearing it, and still needing their content checked to determine whether they should be re-tagged as , , , or another arc* tag.

The background to why ceased to be considered a useful tag is covered in Tagging ArcGIS questions?

What should happen to the tag when its count reaches 0?

Some options are:

  • Do nothing - inevitably this will see someone with enough privilege to create a tag resurrect it, probably on an almost daily basis.
  • Blacklist it - which will mean that it cannot be used, just like the gis, spatial and geospatial tags cannot - users trying to type it will need to choose something else.
  • Make it a synonym of - this term does not seem to be in general use but as a "catch all" it would be accurate.
  • Make it a synonym of - this is still what most users mean when they say ArcGIS.
  • Make it a synonym of - this is what a significant subset of users now start to call ArcGIS.
  • Make it a synonym of something else.
  • Something else?
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    Presumably if you blacklist it, users trying to type arcgis will see all the other alternatives in the suggestion box and be able to make their own choice?
    – Sideshow Bob
    Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 9:18
  • @SideshowBob That's right - try typing spatial as a tag to see the equivalent experience
    – PolyGeo Mod
    Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 9:56
  • Can the same be done for the arcmap tag, since the arcgis-desktop tag "should normally be used in preference"?
    – Barbarossa
    Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 12:49
  • @Barbarossa I don't think there is a case for arcmap being burninated. Those using it without arcgis-desktop simply risk not reaching the filters of some potential answerers. If I see arcmap unaccompanied by arcgis-desktop I add the latter, but I would not normally remove an arcmap tag unless it is occupying a slot needed for arcgis-desktop.
    – PolyGeo Mod
    Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 23:10
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    The arcgis tag has now been blacklisted. Thanks for your support to enable this to happen.
    – PolyGeo Mod
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 22:14

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Firstly, congratulations! It was quite a job organizing the 'arcgis' tag.

I believe we should definitely blacklist it.

  • Users will use the correct tag from now on (when typing 'arcgis', they will see the alternative tags and be able to make the correct choice, as mentioned by Sideshow Bob).
  • There will be less tag-editings bumping posts to the active page, which is good because minor edits take away attention of posts with new answers and from posts substantially edited.

Doing nothing will make the problem to come back. In the best scenario, making it a synonym of 'arcgis-desktop' would only reduce the amount of posts incorrectly tagged. Idem for making it a synonym of something else.

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    Agreed on all parts. Nice work @PolyGeo--it has been an epic job on your part cleaning the arcgis suite of tags.
    – Aaron Mod
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 3:30
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    I agree with this completely as well. Blacklisting the tag seems like the most logical choice at this point.
    – Hasan Mustafa
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 5:04
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    Blacklisting of the former arcgis tag was just completed - thanks for your support on this. It was a hard sell to the community in the early days but I believe it had to be done, and knowing you, @Aaron and others were onboard made the mop up much easier.
    – PolyGeo Mod
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 22:08

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