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Maybe this isn't the right spot to bring this up but I saw this question tagged dnd-4e and changeling. This confused me because when I think changeling I think of the White Wolfs Changeling: The Lost or Changeling: The Dreaming. Is it really appropriate to have a tag for specific race in D&D? It may be but I wanted some clarification and thoughts from others.

My personal thought is that it is too granular and it also pushes the site into an even more D&D focused niche which might not be the overall intent.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ this is exactly the right spot to bring it up. \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Jun 30, 2011 at 14:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ See also: Do we have too many tags? \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Jun 30, 2011 at 15:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ @AceCalhoon, guess I should have searched for a question on tags before asking about tags. Thanks for the link! \$\endgroup\$
    – mirv120
    Jun 30, 2011 at 16:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ We discussed this again a few years later and came to a different conclusion (race tags OK). I've closed this as a duplicate pointing to the more recent discussion. \$\endgroup\$ Jan 13, 2020 at 16:28

2 Answers 2

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I'm of the opinion that race tags aren't useful, specifically because they mean different things across different games.

We could have game-race tag, but that leads to very long tags, and an even smaller use for each one.

Furthermore, is anyone actually going to search or filter based on elf or changeling?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ That's the question, isn't it: are these tags useful? Are they more useful than whatever headache they might cause? \$\endgroup\$ Jun 30, 2011 at 16:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie I don't think so. Can you find me a value case for them? \$\endgroup\$
    – C. Ross
    Jun 30, 2011 at 17:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm not in the right set of people to answer that with expertise, not being a 4e user of this site. Perhaps we need another meta question to specifically tackle those questions. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 30, 2011 at 18:13
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    \$\begingroup\$ I have, in fact, searched on "changeling" in this context before. (I'm playing one now, and some of the particulars are vague and challenging.) \$\endgroup\$
    – Jadasc
    Jul 1, 2011 at 11:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Jadasc you could still search on "changeling" without the tag (in fact I would recommend it, as I doubt the tag is used universally). \$\endgroup\$
    – C. Ross
    Jul 1, 2011 at 18:18
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The relevant game tags are and . (Though perhaps they need to be changed for and , that's a tangent.)

I'd say it's borderline. I don't think there'd be any objection to a tag, so perhaps a tag for the D&D race isn't uncalled for. On the other hand, is really a broad tag that applies to a concept that's not limited to D&D 4e, while (the D&D conception of) changelings aren't broadly relevant beyond the game they're in.

However, I do note that in practice the only questions that have on them are two D&D 4e questions, which might indicate that even is unnecessary granularity.

Judging by the current practice I'd say that race-specific tags are problematic because: a) they are useful in the scope of D&D 4e rules questions, because powers are built around things like class and race, but b) such tags are going to become D&D 4e specific as questions about other games have little reason to use race-specific tags like that.

Calling such tags problematic doesn't mean we should get rid of them, but it does mean they don't fit into our tag system very well.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Just because we know what the relevant tags are doesn't mean someone coming to the site the first time will though. Heck I'm a regular here and I was confused. My thought would be if they don't fit the tag system very well they should be removed or similar problematic tags will get created in the future. The beta should be when these things are ironed out wasn't it? \$\endgroup\$
    – mirv120
    Jun 30, 2011 at 13:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Seven - are class specific tags then also problematic? \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Jun 30, 2011 at 14:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ @mirv - we are still in beta (and I doubt we will be moved out any time soon), just the public kind as opposed to the private kind. \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Jun 30, 2011 at 14:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ @wax eagle Possibly! I don't know as I haven't looked at them. (But note that "problematic" doesn't mean "bad"—our D&D tags were problematic for a while, but we solved their problem.) The race tags do present somewhat of a difficulty: the tag system doesn't do "subtags" that aren't generalisable very well (e.g. D&D-4e-specific [changeling]), and yet they're (at least in theory) extremely valuable for people looking to build (say) a 4e elf avenger. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 30, 2011 at 16:23
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    \$\begingroup\$ @mirv120 You're right, and this does appear to be the beginnings of a first stab at ironing this out. The confusion is an issue but not a deciding factor, as retagging by experienced users is a normal part of the system. From a system perspective it would be ideal to not have the [changeling] tag there to cause confusion, but we can't just get rid of it unless we determine that it's not useful (or more harmful than useful). \$\endgroup\$ Jun 30, 2011 at 16:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie In theory if googling "elf avenger d&d-4e" should turn up a question about elf avenger and tagged with d&d-4e. I don't know how the SE search handles that though. \$\endgroup\$
    – mirv120
    Jun 30, 2011 at 17:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ I wonder if we shouldn't all take stabs at writing up suggestions for a new section on FAQ giving tips for tagging? \$\endgroup\$
    – mirv120
    Jun 30, 2011 at 18:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ @mirv120 It's unlikely to get read by exactly the people who have trouble tagging things well, though. But speaking of, tags have their own pages that explain what they're for and we're underusing them significantly. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 30, 2011 at 18:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie +1 Good point \$\endgroup\$
    – mirv120
    Jun 30, 2011 at 20:24

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