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The tag has three main categories of questions:

  1. Questions by people who are developing a plugin. These questions tend to be highly technical, and involve pyqgis code.

  2. Questions by people who are using a plugin - these questions range from "how do I use this plugin" to "why am I getting this error when I run this plugin." These questions tend to be less technical.

  3. Questions from people who are looking for a plugin. These questions are prone to the XY problem, where they want a solution for their problem and have (correctly or incorrectly) assumed that the solution will be a plugin.

The tag wiki doesn't specify which of these types of questions should have the tag. It reads:

Software plugins that add functionality to the QGIS package

QGIS has a plugin infrastructure. You can add a lot of new functionality by writing your own plugins. These plugins can either be written in C++ or in Python.

I found these related GIS-meta questions, none of which really address this question:

Which type(s) of question should have the tag?

What prompted this question, is recently I saw Drawing rectangle with geo coordinates (north/south, east/west) using QGIS where the asker wanted to know how to draw a rectangle from given coordinates. That question would have one answer if they want to do it as a regular QGIS user, but it would have another answer if they wanted to do it in a plugin they're writing. The asker had tagged the question because they thought maybe the solution would be a plugin. To me that seems like not the right use of the tag, but there's nothing in the tag description that would have told them otherwise.

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    Is there any reason it can't be for both?
    – Midavalo Mod
    Dec 6, 2019 at 18:50
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    @Midavalo That's what I'm asking. To me they seem like extremely different categories, with different purposes and userbases. I'd like to clarify the tag wiki, but I want to know what the community thinks. Would you post your opinion as an answer so people can vote on it?
    – csk
    Dec 6, 2019 at 18:58

2 Answers 2

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First, I agree that using is not the right use for that tag in that question. That tag probably shouldn't be on the question at all, that way an answerer could provide an answer for QGIS itself, or for a plugin that could potentially solve the problem.

I believe, however, that the tag could/should be used for both - for questions relating to how to use a plugin, as well as questions about how to write a plugin. Subsequent tags could then be used that would narrow the focus of the question to usage or writing.

For example, another broad usage tag is which is used by people needing help using ArcGIS Desktop, as well as by people asking for help while writing scripts or tools for ArcGIS Desktop.

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  • So, you think the categories 1 and 2 should be on this tag, but category 3 should not? Or category 3 questions are okay sometimes, depending on the specific question?
    – csk
    Dec 6, 2019 at 19:18
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    @csk That kinda enters into the area of XY problems. Better for a question to be asked stating the problem, and a plugin might be a potential solution.
    – Midavalo Mod
    Dec 6, 2019 at 19:24
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As you said, the tag seems to currently be placed on three main categories of questions:

  1. Questions by people who are developing a plugin.

I think that these should be tagged with and (or , and not with because the potential answerers are most likely to be PyQGIS (or C++) developers who probably have (or ) set in their filters.

  1. Questions by people who are using a plugin.

I think that these should be tagged with and , and not with because the potential answerers are most likely to be QGIS users who probably have set in their filters.

  1. Questions from people who are looking for a plugin recommendation.

I think that these should be tagged with , and , and not with because the potential answerers are most likely to be QGIS users who probably have set in their filters.

To improve the tag wiki I would propose something like:

QGIS has a plugin infrastructure. You can add a lot of new functionality by writing your own plugins. These plugins can either be written in C++ or in Python.

If you asking about a QGIS plugin that you are developing also tag it with or .

If you asking about a QGIS plugin that you are using also tag it with .

If you are looking for a QGIS plugin also tag it with and , and provide a detailed description of your requirements, the QGIS plugins you have already reviewed against them, and how those QGIS plugins failed to meet them.

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