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A new tag has been created on this site - - currently containing 6 questions at the time of writing.

It intends to be for questions where a certain Puzzling SE tag is required as the final answer to some kind of pattern. A tag wiki and tag wiki excerpt proposal was made when there were a handful of questions, though it was rejected (and the content can no longer be viewed as far as I am aware). NB: I was involved in the rejection but I will remain impartial for the purposes of this post.

In the past couple of days, its appearance has been disputed. For example, an edit war here has resulted in 4 changes to the same post merely adding and removing the tag.

What does the community think about ? Should it be kept? Why, or why not?

Relevant information:

  • Jeff Attwood's inital post on meta tags
  • Winter Bash 2018, and the fact that a 2013 secret hat was about creating new tags (can't find the post which explained the actual award criteria but it is possibly relevant)
  • - "A puzzle whose answer will be a word or a set of words but not a phrase, sentence or sentences" - a similar sort of tag (though its practical usage might actually be different - for discussion)
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  • $\begingroup$ I've gone ahead and killed the tag. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Dec 19, 2018 at 9:01

1 Answer 1

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I can't speak for the entire community here, but I'll tell you what I think.

Is find-the-tag a meta tag?

In the post about meta tags, Jeff Atwood makes two points on what is considered a meta tag:

  1. If the tag can’t work as the only tag on a question, it’s probably a meta-tag.

  2. If the tag commonly means different things to different people, it’s probably a meta-tag.

Point #1

No, this tag can't work as the only tag on a question. It doesn't explain what type of puzzle the question is, only a certain objective.

Point #2

This tag generally does have one clear meaning, however. The intent is obvious, you have to relate a certain pattern in a puzzle to a certain other tag.

So, is it a meta tag?

This is difficult for me. I'm leaning towards no, because while it doesn't work as the only tag to a puzzle, it does identify a particular category of puzzles with a clear solution.

Is find-the-tag a good tag?

Here, my answer is a resounding no. Although it avoids the pitfall of a meta tag (for me, anyway), its sole purpose can be entirely replaced by the tag and a sentence or two saying "The word you are looking for is a Puzzling SE tag." Other puzzles with the tag have sentences like these all the time, like this puzzle, asked today. saying it required a mythological answer. Why does get a special tag for itself only? It shouldn't. And that's why I recommend 's deletion.

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  • $\begingroup$ I think the argument that you could add a sentence to the OP is a rather weak one. After all, I could say "You are looking for a single word" instead of having word or "This question involves logical deductions" instead of logical-deduction. I don't see the benefit in find-the-tag, but I think we need a better reason to remove it. $\endgroup$
    – David Starkey
    Dec 17, 2018 at 17:12
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    $\begingroup$ @DavidStarkey (commenting as a user not as OP) An observation: it’s probably easier to search for posts with “tag” than “word”. In a completely different vein, I believe logical-deduction is not necessarily about the answer but actually a category of “thinky” or “reasoning” puzzle which goes beyond merely “this question involves logical deductions”, since though it may, it’s a certain mindset that’s required to solve the puzzle (which is different, say, to grid-deduction which also requires logical deductions). $\endgroup$
    – boboquack
    Dec 17, 2018 at 22:39
  • $\begingroup$ I agree that it shouldn't be a tag. It really doesn't add anything of value, since: A) there's nothing particularly special about tags, even in the context of these puzzles, it's mostly just a restricted subset of "words"; and B) almost all puzzles are effectively find-a-thing already, and there's plenty of more common categories of "things" which don't have/need their own tags. I don't see the need for a proliferation of find-the-song, find-the-movie, find-the-historical-figure, find-the-animal, find-the-puzzling-meta-site-comment tags. $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Dec 18, 2018 at 0:39
  • $\begingroup$ To add: If there was a burning need for a new tag here, then a more useful one would perhaps be some sort of broader PSE "meta" tag (not to be confused with metapuzzles or meta-knowledge). I've seen other puzzles which rely on the existence/content/order/etc of other users/puzzles/tags/etc on the site. Still don't think it's necessary, but at least it would have potential use beyond one small chain of puzzles which, whilst interesting, won't be sustainable enough to become a "genre" (the list of tags is far to limited). $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Dec 18, 2018 at 0:48
  • $\begingroup$ (having posted the above, now I'm starting to think that the user who is creating the find-a-tag puzzles was just aiming for a grand finale meta puzzle where the tag to be found was the find-a-tag tag, which admittedly would've been kind of amusing) $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Dec 18, 2018 at 0:55
  • $\begingroup$ One noteworthy point is that find-the-tag puzzles is sort of a guarantee of its originality, since tags in puzzling.se are unique. You get what I mean, riddles with these tags as answers are hardly found on the internet, so they are very likely to be original work, which deserves recognition $\endgroup$
    – Omega Krypton
    Dec 18, 2018 at 10:18
  • $\begingroup$ @OmegaKrypton (again as user) I feel like that's something which can quite easily be determined by the reader in most cases - and is not really the job such a specific tag (and a broad tag would require massive retagging). I think it would fit into the same categories as "Riley riddles" and "What is a XXX™?" puzzles (which don't have their own tags) - a chain which is virtually guaranteed to be original but isn't signposted as such. $\endgroup$
    – boboquack
    Dec 18, 2018 at 11:47
  • $\begingroup$ @boboquack Yes, i do agree there should be a riley tag, and maybe also a classifation tad for "what is a xxx". then bongard can be replaced by visual/ pattern + classification, though that may deserve another thread to discuss the issue $\endgroup$
    – Omega Krypton
    Dec 18, 2018 at 13:54
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    $\begingroup$ As the original creator of find-the-tag I have decided to stop making my find-the tag puzzles and focus on another type of puzzle. Thanks for clearing this whole edit war up for me. $\endgroup$
    – TakingNotes
    Dec 21, 2018 at 16:44

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