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In response to questions like this, can we implement a feature whereby questions cannot be posted to certain tags?

For e.g., if someone attempts to post a question to on SO, they (questioner) get a response:

This tag (and the questions) exist for historic reasons. Such questions are no longer on topic at SO and should be asked at X.SE, following the guidelines established at X.SE/faq

where X.SE depends on the tag. This will prevent crap on SO, result in SO getting less flak for migrating crap and prevent "why was my question closed?" questions on meta.

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I can see the value in this ... –  IAbstract Jul 16 '11 at 1:03
    
The effect of such warning could be that the user, instead of asking the question on the other SE site, asks the question without to use that tag; in this case, the effect would be that the question could not be noticed as being off-topic. –  kiamlaluno Jul 16 '11 at 1:17
9  
The real solution is to finally do something with those obsolete but famous questions. The problem is, nobody is quite sure what to do with them and no moderator wants to go near them. If those questions go away, the tags can just be blacklisted, the problem is solved. I don't see any reason to codify something like you suggest because it more or less justifies keeping those questions around. –  Tim Post Jul 16 '11 at 1:21
    
@Tim: at some point in time, .net1.0 .net1,1 .net2.0 tags will be outdated. It does make sense to have some logic in place to be able to turn tags off. –  IAbstract Jul 16 '11 at 1:25
7  
@IAbstract, the technology behind those tags is outdated now, but people will be maintaining .Net 1.1 applications decades from now, I guarantee it. –  Michael Petrotta Jul 16 '11 at 1:45
    
@Michael: and people will be writing career-development questions decades from now. ;) –  IAbstract Jul 16 '11 at 1:56
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@IAbstract: The difference being that .net-1.0 questions will still be on topic on Stack Overflow. –  Bill the Lizard Jul 16 '11 at 3:01
    
see also meta.stackexchange.com/questions/92112/… which is specifically about this tag –  Kate Gregory Jul 16 '11 at 4:19
    
@Bill: The point is, because the career-development exists, it is viewed as on topic, same as the .net-1.0 tag. On-topic and out-dated, or off-topic and out-dated ...it looks the same. –  IAbstract Jul 16 '11 at 10:54
    
@TimPost The tag can be blacklisted even if some questions have it: blacklisting only kicks up when you ask or edit a question. But it has the occasionally problematic side-effect that you can't edit any question that has the tag (or you have to remove the tag at that point). –  Gilles Jul 16 '11 at 18:04
    
Is this different from blacklisting a tag? I know SEI doesn't like the idea of blacklisting a tag while it still has questions on it, but that sounds effectively like what you're proposing. –  Anna Lear Nov 24 '11 at 2:41
    
@AnnaLear See Gilles' comment just above yours. Blacklisting won't let you edit, whereas if we're accepting that certain of these questions hang around, but new ones not be asked, then you'd need something that lets you edit. I think the point I was really trying to make was that you can catch these questions at source by checking and educate them, rather than simply saying "Do not use this tag". We all know how that turned out with "pr0blam". –  Lorem Ipsum Nov 24 '11 at 10:12
    
possible duplicate of Implement a Tag Black List –  kiamlaluno Nov 24 '11 at 18:33

1 Answer 1

I think this is a very good idea. It can be very confusing to have a tag that appears valid; yet when used, your question is down-voted and/or closed.

We do need to be able to inform users when a tag is not to be used for questions. The kind of message @yoda suggests is informative and to the point. There should also be some way to keep new tags from being created by a user with > 1500 rep. I would also assume that any synonyms of would auto-magically throw the same message.

Edit
My point for supporting this feature is that there are many tags that will eventually become off-topic and/or outdated. No one is willing to provide a mandate because that may trigger adverse deletion, removal, or migration of questions. While the tag exists without any form of notification that the tag is now off-topic, it appears to be a legitimate, on-topic subject. As it stands now, off-topic and out-dated looks the same as on-topic and out-dated - e.g. .

The mechanism that the OP suggests prevents:

  1. additional questions added to otherwise bookmarker tags
  2. off-topic questions posed to incorrect site
  3. needless confusion when said off-topic question is down-voted and/or closed
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