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Regarding How should we tag aquarium-related questions? , I have begun tagging aquarium questions with and , as that was the consensus in said question.

In the cited question, I note that for tag search purposes, it might be better to prefix with aquarium than suffix as proposed:

Prefixing with the adjective / water type is probably preferred since that is the natural way it is generally spoken. Both come up when you start typing aquarium, so it doesn't really matter which way is used, but I figured I'd ask and save some future re-tagging.

closed as off-topic by JoshDM, user9, user34, Beofett, Kate Paulk Nov 4 '13 at 12:39

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    The point of tags is making the questions easier to find for searching. These tags actually make the question harder to find than a question tagged freshwater and aquarium unless you know exactly what words to use in the search. – user9 Oct 28 '13 at 15:30
  • The consensus on the other question was to go with fw-a and sw-a and an additional a, much like I've seen some SO encourage java and java-explicit-version on the same q. You want to debate that, bring it up on the other Q, not here. – JoshDM Oct 28 '13 at 15:36
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    I think that maybe it deserves a bit more discussion. – user9 Oct 28 '13 at 15:42
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    You can always use The Litter Box. – JoshDM Oct 28 '13 at 15:46
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    @JoshDM reading that comment out of context is hilarious.. telling someone to use the litterbox! – user87 Oct 29 '13 at 6:44
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    This question is no longer relevant. Aquarium will not be used as a prefix or suffix for adjective tags. – JoshDM Oct 31 '13 at 20:35
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Go with and , which follow standard English practice of putting the adjective before the noun. As you said, when someone starts to type in "aquarium", the tags will appear either way you name it, so there is no reason to name the tag in a way other than in standard English.

  • Although, I prefer simply "freshwater" and "saltwater" as tag names.... – Ben Miller Oct 28 '13 at 16:28
  • I'm in agreement with you. Of note, someone hyphenated salt-water and that's basically screwed me over in the main site because when it is an adjective, it's saltwater, so I've deleted the salt-water and salt-water-aquarium tags and am waiting the 24 hours (or so) till the deletion clears. – JoshDM Oct 28 '13 at 16:45
  • @BenMiller I think this is a great solution – user87 Oct 29 '13 at 6:45
  • @Ben, if you did just "freshwater" and "saltwater", then people typing "aquarium" wouldn't be offered either option. – Monica Cellio Oct 29 '13 at 15:22
  • @BenMiller: what if someone has a question specifically dealing with freshwater or saltwater as a component of their tank -- say, mixing up a batch of saltwater? As opposed to a question that happens to be in the context of a saltwater system. – toxotes Oct 29 '13 at 17:11
  • @toxotes - we will cross that road when we come to it. – JoshDM Oct 29 '13 at 17:47
  • @JoshDM Oh, to clarify, I was responding to his comment -- saltwater" would be ambiguous in that case, not "saltwater-aquarium". – toxotes Oct 29 '13 at 18:09
  • @MonicaCellio I understand your concern, but what I see happening is that someone types in "aquarium", picks the "freshwater-aquarium" tag, then doesn't go back and add the "aquarium" tag. Then you have a bunch of aquarium questions without the aquarium tag, meaning they will be harder to locate later on for aquarists interested in all aquarium questions. The general tags are always more important than the specific tags, in my opinion. – Ben Miller Oct 29 '13 at 18:58
  • @BenMiller, oh, I didn't get that you would also have the general aquarium tag. In that case your shorter alternative seems ok, though note that you'll get a bunch of aquarium questions that don't have either of the water tags because people won't necessarily know they exist. If they're all suffixed with "aquarium" then discovery is easier but you may lose the general tag. Hmm. – Monica Cellio Oct 30 '13 at 0:55
  • @MonicaCellio Yes, and it would be better to have a bunch of questions tagged "aquarium" with no "freshwater" tag than it would to have lots of questions tagged "freshwater-aquarium" with no "aquarium" tag. – Ben Miller Oct 30 '13 at 11:45
  • @Ben, if the goal is to also have the general tag then I agree it would be better not to have the word "aquarium" in the specific ones. Care to elevate your suggestion in comments to another answer so people can vote? – Monica Cellio Oct 30 '13 at 13:01
  • @MonicaCellio, I already had this as an answer on this question, but I deleted it because it doesn't really answer this question, which is whether to put the word "aquarium" before or after "freshwater" or "saltwater", not whether the word "aquarium" should be there at all. If you agree with me on this point, go to the other meta question and vote for my answer there. I've edited that answer to include some additional argument for my case. – Ben Miller Oct 30 '13 at 14:14

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