Should a question be tagged with both the narrow and the broad tags in the same category?

Question

Sometimes we will have both broad and narrow tags in the same category. Do we want to tag with both or just the most specific tag?

For real examples,

Should all of the questions with bug-identification also have identification or should we only use identification if a more specific tag is not available ?

Should all of the questions with river-navigation also have navigation or should we only use navigation if a more specific tag is not available ?

Should all of the questions with rabies also have disease or should we only use disease if a more specific tag is not available ?

Should all of the questions with bears also have wildlife or should we only use wildlife if a more specific tag is not available ?

None of these are meta tags, because they can all be used on their own, but I am wondering if we should avoid using the broad tag if there is a more specific tag available?

Answer 1

I agree that specific tags are a good thing. However for me there is one dilemma: Tags are useful to categorize questions broadly, e.g. to favorite/ignore question, narrow the search, ... Categorizing only is useful if there is a critical mass of questions tagged with one specific tag. If I suddenly need to favorite 10 different tags to follow a topic which gets maybe 1 or 2 questions a month that is not useful.

Therefore I would argue that one should use the specific tag without the broader one after it is established, i.e. it got at the very least 10 questions to it already. Before that, use both the broader and the narrower tag.

Answer 2

TLDR, yes we should be removing the broader tag.

For example, with the new bird-identification tag, there were 42 animal-identification questions, 19 of which had to do specifically with birds, so I created the bird-identification tag. It looked something like this,

As you can see, there is now a far more specific tag that has enough questions to justify its existence. Removing the animal-identification while putting on the new tag makes it easier to make sure that I applied the new tag correctly to all of the questions that need it.

There are still going to be questions where the animal-identification is the most specific tag we can use, but it should only be used if there isn't a more specific tag available.

When we create those more specific tags is kind of a subjective thing, but usually once a single topic has more than 5 questions.