Combine multiple words into single-words, space to separate up to 5 tags (python c# ruby)

That's nice and compact, and I think the meaning is clear enough to native English speakers. However, I'm getting the impression that some of our non-native English speakers don't get that "single-words" means "a single word composed of the multiple words, separated from each other by hyphens".

I also think we could use a brief description of the purpose of tags - say they should be directly related to the question, and that they are used to categorize questions for easy search, etc. Someone who tags with "distinct ip addresses" is not understanding this.

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2 Answers

It should probably be:

Combine phrases into single-words; space to separate up to 5 tags (e.g.-python c# ruby)

The use of a comma when it should clearly be a semi-colon there has bugged me for some time.

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Give some credit to us polyglots (or is it polyglotts?) :-)

Anyway, whoever understands the concept of tags will get that sentence. And if they're unfamiliar with the idea, there's way too much to explain anyway. At least too much to put into that little info box.

And in the end, since the min rep for retagging is quite low, mistags will be taken care of.

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I obviously don't mean someone who speaks English as well as you do. –  John Saunders Aug 18 '09 at 8:51
    
@John Saunders: I understand that, and I took no offence. But I still think that especially those people who are not as fluent in English won't read a longer explanation, and for people who are unaware of the concept of tags, you would need a longer explanation. –  balpha Aug 18 '09 at 9:43
    
Ok, but what about "Combine multiple words into single-words" it seems to me that's only clear because I know that "single-word" is not a word, so it must mean "single words separated by hyphen". I felt a non-native speaker might just think "single-word" is another word they don't know. –  John Saunders Aug 18 '09 at 11:09
    
Maybe on of the examples should just be such a case, like "...space to separate up to 5 tags (python c# unit-testing) –  balpha Aug 18 '09 at 11:36
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