Should we use "setting" tags?

Question

Many questions are very dependent on setting. As an example, " What would clever creatures do to protect their lair? " is oriented toward a low-magic d&d-type setting (and the word "neolithic" is mentioned).

The same question could be asked for the future, modern day, post-apocalyptic societies, alternate worlds, etc. These are not system-specific questions, but rather world-specific ones.

Should we have a tagging system for technology levels, magical settings vs non-magical, or any other world-traits? If so, what should it encompass? If not, do you think this will work itself out (e.g. the other supposed question would be called "what would clever creatures do to protect their space station?").

Answer 1

The tag system is emergent. If you think something (a game system, a setting, a setting type, a genre) is important - and a tag should be able to stand as the only tag on a question, it shouldn't be a "modifier" - then use it, and see if other folks/questions use it. I think we have [historical-settings] already because that specific topic saw wide use in addition to specific setting tags like [eberron]. Also there are some tags that are arguably setting, arguably genre, like [fantasy] and [post-apocalyptic].

I am in all circumstances categorically against pre-creating tags - they will just get deleted by the system without notice anyway if more than one question isn't using them.

In the end, what are tags for?

1. Allowing you to easily search for related content. If the content you find isn't related enough to really help, it's a bad tag

2. Allowing you to not have to state/define common terms. If the definition of the tag isn't unambiguous, it's a bad tag.

Any noun in a question doesn't have to turn into a tag. Question text is good.

Answer 2

Sometimes. Like anything else, sometimes a setting crops up often enough that it's useful to have a tag for it. When this comes up, it's best to propose the tag and show an example of existing questions that would benefit from it.

I don't think that we need to make tags for settings something that we tack on as a matter of course. It's perfectly acceptable for additional restrictions on a question to exist in the question body.

Likewise it's acceptable for questions to have similar titles, but different bodies.

I think this is an excellent example of where the question body is the better place to put the restriction anyway... "low-magic d&d-type setting (and the word "neolithic" is mentioned)" is a heck of a lot of information to try to stuff into a tag.