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You are a user asking a question, and the system is helpful, so it shows you this:

the image was captured when I almost finished this question, and didn't include the most relevant tag: [tag-suggestion]

(the 5 of them were suggested when I finished writing this post, I used only one, tag-wiki-excerpt)

Seeing the problem yet? No? Well, lets explain: there's a common hearsay in meta about tagging and the misuse of a tag, and how people try to alleviate the situation by writing a tag excerpt that explains how the tag should (not) be used, which questions must use the tag and so on, to which most people respond "people don't read tag wiki/excerpts".

And they are right, and is our fault that they don't, I mean, we make them select some tags via "tag suggestions" where it only the name of the tag is visible. The tag excerpt is ignored. They just click and the tag is added without any other interaction.

So, how do we fix the situation? Well, I propose that instead of the tag names, we also pull the tag excerpt and show something like this:

color sucks, I know

That way at very least (we hope) they will read the tag excerpt, and be able to evaluate if the tag is related to their question.

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  • 1
    Sheesh. I'm really from those people, even though I'm a member of chem.SE for eight months. Good call!
    – M.A.R.
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 18:10
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    I'm not sure if it needs to be implemented this way but it sure needs something to indicate there is more then just one word
    – rene
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 19:40
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    I believe that if you include tag excerpt too, it would become too messy and crowded. In the image you show, you include only one tag, try adding the other four and see how it looks like.
    – Mohammad
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 19:43
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    @Mhmd not necessarily, when you type the tags in the editing box the excerpts are shown there.
    – Braiam
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 19:47
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    @rene of course I suck at UX.
    – Braiam
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 21:27
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    @Braiam thanks for getting that clarified
    – rene
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 21:29
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    Even if we did get this implemented in sone way, how would this translate to mobile? Or maybe it shouldn't? Not suggesting against it but not sure how clean this will be for the mobile apps.
    – aug
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 18:16
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    @aug a lot of things a different for mobile. I'm sure they have a similar thing to my suggestion below?
    – Tim
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 20:43

2 Answers 2

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80

What about the same way that Meta forces one of 4 meta tags? You click there, and they are there waiting, with the excerpt:

enter image description here

But instead of etc, it is the suggested tag?

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-3

I agree with the notion that tag usage should be much more visible (*I've barely noticed them myself*). That being said, following the tag with a paragraph description of the tag would be bad UX as it'd take up significant space (See Example 1 below). Furthermore, it would also be duplicating an existing feature: tooltips (See example 2 below). As a middle ground solution, I'd suggest that we explicitly point out the tooltip feature by attaching an icon (icon ) to the tag when suggesting them.

Example 1

Suggested tags:

This tag is for proposals of new features on the Stack Exchange network, or requests for a change to an existing feature.

This tag is for proposals of new features on the Stack Exchange network, or requests for a change to an existing feature.

Tag wiki excerpts are the most visible portion of tag wikis. They're shown when hovering over a tag, on the Tags page, and in the autocomplete suggestions when adding tags.

Tags suggested to question authors based on the contents of their question.

Example 2

Suggested tags:

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  • 1
    That paragraph is already present for required tags btw
    – Tim
    Commented Oct 6, 2016 at 21:42

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