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I answered this question yesterday, and then added the tags , and . I got this response from BoltClock about my edit to the tags:

@Daniel Imms: Tags are meant to describe the question, not the answers. Since it isn't immediately obvious from the question that the problem lies in selector specificity it's not appropriate to force the tags into the question. It is also not necessary to fill in all 5 tags on every question - tags like [hover] aren't very effective here

I understand all of BoltClock's points except for the specificity tag. After reading the question it is pretty obvious that the issue with his styles is regarding selector specificity. So wouldn't it be useful to tag it as such even though the asker of the question wasn't aware what his issue was being caused by?

Of course I know that BoltClock is a moderator so he would probably know best but I wanted to clarify as the situation arose again with this question, I think it's an ideal candidate for the tag.

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1 Answer 1

IMHO, tagging the question with tags that are specific to the problem (even if those tags are not mentioned in the question) is OK, since it raises the visibility for people that could be following such tag.

In your case, by tagging with and you increase the possibility of that question being answered by people that are well versed in that particular subjects, and not only in the general technology. (Of course, that tags can be removed or replaced, on the same basis, by someone that think they are not applicable to the problem, but I do not think it is wrong to add them)

Since you also answered the question, you are inviting other people to contribute even better answers than yours. Hadn't you retagged, that question could have been lost among googols of and related questions.

For instance, if someone asks something about "accessing a variable given a name that is only know in runtime", and only tag with the language tag (general technology), I would answer/comment something about , and add the relevant tag, expecting that other people experienced with reflection will provide a more complete answer.

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