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This tag has been burninated. Please do not recreate it. If you need advice on which tag to use, see the answer below. If you see this tag reappearing, it may need to be blacklisted.

At time of writing this post originally, the tag has 4 followers and 201 questions tagged.

The tag wiki info says:

Wheels are round things, that rotate. Many mice have wheels, as do many compact devices where a wheel can be a helpful input device.

Consider using more descriptive tags instead however to tag your questions with.

For the Python packaging format, see .

I can't really see how this tag helps to categorize programming related questions (beyond the python packaging format1).

"Wheels are round things, that rotate. Many mice have wheels ..."
Seriously??2

"Consider using more descriptive tags instead however to tag your questions with."
Looks like the tag invalidates its usage itself.

Update

As requested in the burnination process requirements I'm going to get in more detail as required criteria:

  1. Does it describe the contents of the questions to which it is applied? and is it unambiguous?

Most of the times not, and the tag info wiki is let's say "naive".

  1. Is the concept described even on-topic for the site?

Wheels aren't primarily related to programming. There are programming related concepts though (see Other considerations)

  1. Does the tag add any meaningful information to the post?

Obviously not. Almost every modern homo sapiens will discover the principle of a wheel playing around with their toys at the age of 2 or 3 or so.
Physical details like minimization of friction or such are mostly covered by basic school knowledge.

  1. Does it mean the same thing in all common contexts?

Obviously not. See the list of examples below.

Here are some examples how the tag fails to improve related questions (just the current top ten):

Other considerations

A renaming option for that tag seems to be so the relation to the hardware is made clear (tag info proposal):

  • A mechanical hardware input component that enables to translate angular transitions to discrete positive or negative integer step values depending on the clock- or counter clock-wise direction of the input event.

    A potentiometer combined with an A/D Converter is a feasible implementation.

    An alternative implementation example is a capacitive input component, like Apple realized with the famous iPod UI design.

  • There are also touch screen/pad UI simulations of such hardware input devices, which need to be distinguished further regarding the UI framework. The principle still is the same, translate a clock- or counter-clock- wise circular gesture to a positive or negative step value.

Note: General reference to wheels as physical or metaphysical devices (as for e.g. these definitions) isn't programming related, and you should elaborate your specific relation in your question instead.

Tag Synonyms:

1) At least we should consider to create a tag synonym for and .

2) The intro

Brain: Run this wheel now, we're going to rule the world!
Pinky: Mice on wheels was your best idea ever master!

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  • 74
    Who the hell thought this was an acceptable tag?
    – Nissa
    Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 1:25
  • 50
    I'm strictly against making that a synonym. I say burn the wheel.
    – too honest for this site
    Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 1:30
  • 6
    I started reviewing the questions with this tag and all I saw could either be changed to python-wheel or wheel could be removed without loosing relevant context. A lot of the non-Python questions are bad, too, I started CV-ing them (and requested CV on some of them).
    – too honest for this site
    Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 1:48
  • 3
    Renaming does not make sense either. There are only few questions about hardware-wheels and those which are have better tags instead (e.g. encoder). Tags are not keywords and we should not have more useless tags. (I just found radial, which also seems to be pointless; it has not even a wiki text)
    – too honest for this site
    Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 1:54
  • 25
    At the beginning, I really think the Many mice have wheels is a joke. But after I put that in google, I found that is may refer to the scroll wheel on the computer mouse.
    – Prisoner
    Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 8:04
  • 3
    A quick look at the questions suggests the majority are Python Wheel files, and most of the rest seem to be related to the already existing mousewheel. There is also color-wheel but no wheel-control for the UI element on Android. wheel-device is unnecessary IMO. Oh, and as @Prisoner mentions, there's also scrollwheel, which should be a synonym of mousewheel.
    – Ken Y-N
    Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 8:06
  • 12
    "[wheel] be better off without it", if we need a fresh pun, and more suits my recommendation of a straight burninating rather than salvaging.
    – Ken Y-N
    Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 8:12
  • 2
    I retagged all the Python questions, since those had been cleaned up previously per another Meta. Still leaves 149 questions
    – Machavity Mod
    Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 14:08
  • 12
    There's also this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_(Unix_term)
    – Frozenthia
    Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 20:18
  • 8
    "Many mice have wheels" They're probably more common with hamsters than with mice, though.
    – reirab
    Commented Nov 7, 2017 at 22:12
  • 2
    Stats at the start of featuring, Q +94/2, Answer telling yes +45/-3, Answer telling no +4/-17
    – Bhargav Rao
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 2:42
  • 3
    I say we [wheel] this tag out of here.
    – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 15:14
  • 2
    [whe'll] be able to burninate it.
    – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 22:57
  • 3
    And it burns, burns, burns... the [wheel] of fire... the [wheel] of fire...
    – Machavity Mod
    Commented Dec 23, 2017 at 3:15
  • 3
    Stats at the end of featuring: +149/-2, Answer saying yes +101/-3, Answer saying no +6/-34. The consensus is to burninate.
    – Bhargav Rao
    Commented Dec 23, 2017 at 15:27

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
105

Do we really need to reinvent the ?

No, we need to burninate it!

0
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has been burninated.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Observations/Retag Guidance:

Progress:

The tag is in the process of being burninated. You can help out by reviewing the questions with this tag, and...

  • editing questions (to improve the question and remove the tag),
  • flagging/closing questions that are duplicates/off-topic/unclear/too broad/opinion-based,
  • filtering on this tag in the Close Vote Queue,
  • voting on questions with this tag,
  • voting to delete the questions with this tag (after they have been closed, and only if the entire Q&A contains nothing of value). However, keep in mind that at the end of the burnination process all closed questions containing this tag will be deleted automatically. Thus, there's rarely a need to vote to delete these questions.

Here are some quick links to get you started:

Remember that burnination is a clean-up effort!

Salvage whatever possible by editing and re-tagging.

We don't want to destroy value, so salvaging a post should be your first priority. If a question can be saved, please edit it. Your edit should improve all problems with the question and remove the tag, possibly replacing it with another tag, as described above in "Observations/Retag Guidance".

Unsalvageable questions should just be flagged/closed. They don't need to be retagged.

If the question is not appropriate for this site, then don't worry about removing the tag—just flag/close the question it is attached to.

At the end of the burnination process, all questions that still remain with the tag should have been closed. These will be mass-deleted, which will remove the tag from the system automatically, with minimal disruption.

Ask for help if you need it.

If you have any questions about specific questions you come across, or the process in general, please feel free to leave a comment on this post. You can also drop into the SOCVR chat room for real-time advice and discussion.

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  • I have added this answer after collecting information from all the comments, do edit it in and add more details. Note that this answer would be later on edited to the burnination progress answer, if we decide to continue with the burnination.
    – Bhargav Rao
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 3:47
  • 9
    unix-wheel should be off topic as simply a popular naming convention for system administration, not anything to do with programming.
    – OrangeDog
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 11:29
  • @BhargavRao What's the reason for keeping mousewheel and synonymizing scrollwheel instead of the other way around?
    – jpmc26
    Commented Dec 22, 2017 at 3:23
  • 1
    @jpmc26 [mousewheel] has way more questions than [scrollwheel], so it won't let me suggest a synonym in the other way. (After it is synonymized, I can reverse it.) As for this answer, I took it from the comments where Ken mentions that order. I do feel that this way would be better because, more users are familiar with the term mouse wheel, rather than the scroll wheel. Also, mousewheel has a tag wiki, whereas the other doesn't.
    – Bhargav Rao
    Commented Dec 22, 2017 at 3:27
  • 1
    Dunno if it gets any current use, but also consider the timer wheel
    – Phil Miller
    Commented Dec 22, 2017 at 20:23
  • 2
    I suggest making unix-wheel a synonym for root or superuser, if there are any questions tagged wheel in that sense. I don't hear "wheel" much these days, but "root", "superuser", and "admin" all seem current to me. (of course, it's probably a more useful tag over on superuser than stackoverflow).
    – Soron
    Commented Dec 23, 2017 at 14:19
  • Tbh, I don't think we'll get a chance to create the [unix-wheel] tag, let's wait and see when the actual burnination begins.
    – Bhargav Rao
    Commented Dec 23, 2017 at 14:42
  • 1
    Do any tagged questions relate to wheel factorization or wheel sieves?
    – dfeuer
    Commented Dec 23, 2017 at 21:12
  • I created the [android-wheel] tag, since there's an actual project with code
    – Machavity Mod
    Commented Dec 24, 2017 at 20:43
  • 1
    @BhargavRao There are no open questions remaining in the tag
    – Machavity Mod
    Commented Dec 26, 2017 at 16:27
0

I thought the Unity question on wheel rotation in 3D graphics was the most interesting case in which I can't think of a better, more specific tag that isn't confusing. I don't know that questions about wheels in various 3D graphics, games, or modeling packages are common enough that having a tag for them is useful though.

Maybe wheel-animation, or animatedwheel?

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  • 3
    mice on wheels, mice on wheels, ... (crescendo)
    – user0042
    Commented Dec 22, 2017 at 19:15
  • @user0042 - But, are they animated wheels? And are these mice all named Ralph?
    – Omnifarious
    Commented Dec 25, 2017 at 20:51
-32

My guess is that the tag was defined in that way to discourage its use in favor of more specific ones, such as .

Personally, if that was the original intention I agree. Some new fancy language or library in the future might have an important component named wheel, so it is better to be specific.

If there are so few questions with that tag it seems to be working. Let's not fix what is working. Keep it, I say.

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  • 9
    My guess is that the tag was defined in that way to discourage its use in favor of more specific ones no that would just lead to more mistagging...
    – Suraj Rao
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 8:37
  • 2
    I have the impression that you are making the assumption that python-wheel is the only relevant interpretation that there is and that there always will be. It's a big assumption to make.
    – Rad80
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 9:51
  • 6
    A tag needs to be unambiguous...check the first point in Shog's answer.
    – Suraj Rao
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 9:54
  • That is exactly my point!
    – Rad80
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 9:55
  • Well.. I dont see why you would want to keep wheel then
    – Suraj Rao
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 9:56
  • 3
    By "using up" wheel, you encourage people to use more specific tags. I interpret the low usage as a sign that this is happening in practice.
    – Rad80
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 10:05
  • 2
    As a German, I know why @Rad80 wants to keep the wheel...
    – J Fabian Meier
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 15:04
  • 4
    "My guess is that the tag was defined in that way to discourage its use in favor of more specific ones". This seems to indeed be the case. In fact the text was added by one of our esteemed diamond mods. stackoverflow.com/posts/24347477/revisions. I would assume that they didn't have the energy to start yet another boring tag burnination process and therefore made the edit as a "quick & dirty" fix.
    – Lundin
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 15:13
  • 7
    @JFMeier As a german I have no idea what you are referring to.
    – Xatenev
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 16:47
  • 2
    I'll clarify: the tag should be blacklisted. I believe that removing it without blacklisting will result in a new, inappropriate, wheel tag. To prevent that, the current definition was created and should stay.
    – Rad80
    Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 7:16
  • 9
    @Rad80 Then we deal with the new, inappropriate tags when they arise. That's how this works. We shouldn't keep Bad Tag X just because people might make Bad Tag Y
    – Machavity Mod
    Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 13:54

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