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Bad tags are created frequently, especially on beta sites where the barrier to tag creation is relatively low. There are a few mechanisms already existing that are meant to help remove bad or useless tags:

  • The list of new tags in the 10k tools at /tools
  • An automatic script that deletes tags that are only used once after 6 months

The automatic script is disabled on Arqade. To make sure we can still weed out bad tags efficiently we need better tools than the existing ones. I think some tools modeled after the new review queues would be ideal for this purpose.

I propose the following two review queues for tags:

  • newly created tags
  • tags that haven't been used in a new question the last 6 months

The first one is meant as the main defense against newly introduced bad tags. It is similar to the list at tools, but the review-style format is just infinitely more useful and effective.

The latter queue is meant to catch anything that slips through the cracks and to clean up older bad tags that didn't go through the review system for new tags.

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    If you're going to create a review queue for it, unused tags could be reviewed after just a few weeks or a month (and possibly re-reviewed after every X weeks they are unused); they wouldn't need to be 6 months old as people would choose to not delete them if they had value. Oh, and the review action for newly created tags would need to be a bit more involved; you can't (always) just delete the tag as it may require re-tagging N questions that used the tag. Commented Sep 25, 2012 at 16:01
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    As I wrote on the new, related question, I think a review queue for tags would work better in the other direction: let tags be culled automatically, but provide a review queue which allows (mods? community?) to protect worthy-but-unused tags which shouldn't be cleared away. Commented Nov 4, 2012 at 10:50
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    This affects Scifi.SE as well now that we have the tag removal script disabled too. Commented Mar 15, 2013 at 18:31

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Unfortunately there has been now new review queue implemented so far. I would like a queue that gives me the following tags for review.

Reviewer queue conditions

  • New tags
  • The next four instances of the tag being used
  • Tags that haven't been used in new questions in six months with less than 10 questions. Only triggered once.

Review task: Evaluate proper tagging / Retag

These conditions would be triggers to evaluate the merit of tag with regards to specific questions. The review task would therefore be evaluating if the usage of the tag is proper or if a more established tag should be used. If the tag is completely superfluous, a meta tag, spam, such things. The obvious trigger when it first pops up is to avoid tags going against the tag model of SE. The second condition is a bit of monitoring during the tag's establishing phase.

Reviewer options

Retag question

Just take the tag out. The nightly roomba will move it to tag hell.

Suggest tag synonym

Offer the possibility to suggest a master tag for the new tag. Everyone in the queue can vote on the synonym.

Rename tag

Suggest a new tag name. Reviewers can vote on the renaming. The original tag will automatically be made a synonym of the new suggestion.

Looks Good

Yeah, this could happen.

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