radio was finally given a wiki excerpt. I disagree with it and figure it would be better to hash it out here than to get into volleys of retagging.
The wiki excerpt is:
A radio is a device that uses electromagnetic waves to transfer sound or data. For this site, this tag should be used to ask questions about computer related wireless networking. Questions about consumer electronic type radios (am/fm, short wave, HF, etc.) are off topic. Questions related to websites which offer radio type services should be asked at https://webapps.stackexchange.com/.
The last portion of the excerpt, the guidance about what is off-topic, is fine (although I suggest a tweak below).
The first portion, however, is at odds with the majority of historical usage, which mostly refers to broadcast radio content (so few of the existing questions now match it), and makes it redundant with several other tags covering subjects like wireless networking, Bluetooth, etc.
Current usage:
- "radio" mostly refers to audio content broadcasted by radio stations (not all are on-topic)
- a few are about interference from radio broadcasts (radio should be replaced by interference)
- a few are about communicating audio content on a local wireless network (radio doesn't add anything)
- a small number are about (non-audio) wireless networking (the ones I spotted were either redundant tags or poor tag choices)
- there are a few other odds and ends (I spotted one about wireless remote control, another about modifying two-way radios)
I propose something along the following lines for the excerpt (feel free to tweak it or suggest alternatives):
For questions about using your computer to receive or stream audio content originating from commercial/public broadcast sources, or to broadcast/receive audio content on radio bands designated for that purpose. Questions about consumer electronic radio devices are off topic. Questions related to websites that offer radio type services should be asked at https://webapps.stackexchange.com/. Use [wireless-networking] or similar tag instead for questions about transferring audio data over a wireless local network.
