Should we curse the [defence-against-the-dark-arts] position, erm, tag?

Question

We've had the tag length character limit extended to 35 - that's great! This announcement has prompted an effort to rename old tags that have been shortened due to this limitation - and dada has been successfully renamed to defence-against-the-dark-arts. Awesome.

But why do we have that tag in the first place? From a glance at the questions (28 total), I see that some of them are about the teaching position, and the people who occupied it; some are about Voldemort cursing it; the rest are a mixed bunch, and some I believe don't even need it.

Here's what I think: the position itself isn't a prominent topic in the franchise. If we're going to use the tag to refer to all DADA teachers, then it's too ambiguous. If we're going to refer to DADA as a lesson, then it's no use either because it's too fine-grained. One cannot be expected to focus on this lesson only.

(There's also the argument about the correct spelling - is it "defence, the British spelling, or "defense, the American spelling? the author is British, but the official stance here seems to be to use American spellings (though we don't have sorcerers-stone, thank god). If both are to be synonyms, which should be the main tag?)

I say we don't need this tag. Should we burninate it?

Answer 1

Keep defence-against-the-dark-arts (British spelling).

Why keep it?

Defence Against the Dark Arts is a class the students take. It is also a class that, when not done properly, Harry himself taught in secret.

Defence Against the Dark Arts refers to a position in Hogwarts that is cursed. Why cursed? A: Voldemort was denied the position (I can't have it, no one will). B: Short tenure of teachers reduces their effectiveness. Those effective at defending against the Dark Arts are better at thwarting the goals of Him-who-must-not-be-named.

Defence Against the Dark Arts is a major plot point in the books. It is also a major plot point for the series as a whole. Worse, or more importantly (your choice), it is a major plot point of Voldemort (hence the curse on the position). It's even possible to consider that the subject of defence against the dark arts is a concept to explain life in general. At the very least, it can be considered a life lesson to be learned from the books.

Sum total: Defence Against the Dark Arts is an important part of the Potter universe, number of tagged questions so far no withstanding.

Why British spelling?

Apply the British spelling to the tag since the books originated in British English and Defence Against the Dark Arts is a proper name. While, in this case, the spelling in the books has been "corrected" for US release, they are still UK-style in all the smaller details, and it seems proper to use the UK (original) version of them to determine the "in universe" spelling. Of course, there is also the Pottermore website (possibly a canonical source?) where it is consistently in the UK spelling.

Answer 2

Yes

Burn and curse it.
That is, make sure it can't be recreated.

Rationale

Yes, DADA gets more screenpage time in the books than, say, arithmancy. But still it's just one of the many classes the Hogwarts students take.

Is any of our users a DADA Expert? I doubt it.

Answer 3

Disclaimer, this is an answer that's been copied from this meta of a similar meta. Discussing the same thing. I have edited it to make it relevant but think it is a very good point.

All Credit goes to Captain Edge

This is a mostly no answer, but also a point of discussion.

Harry Potter is one of our largest tags. There's a huge body of questions. These questions can be hard to filter by simple text searches, because searchable terms are often used in questions that aren't about that term.

Want to know more about just Hermione? Good luck narrowing that down. Want to know just about Slytherin? Did you mean Salazar himself or the Hogwarts House? How do you filter out every time a user merely mentions "Slytherin" when they're just talking about a Slytherin, like Draco?

Tagging helps facilitate not just answering the question, but later finding the question and it's answers. Aside from perusing out of personal interest, we have a strong history of citing other answers to strengthen new ones, or to find duplicates.

Our top tags on this site are so large that they and their related tags are often curated by "specialists", people that take an interest in that work and are knowledgeable about it. We have different levels of granularity and grouping in these tags, and should keep that in mind when discussing whether or not to keep a tag. The structure and conventions that work for Lord of the Rings is different than Marvel properties. They're different bodies of work, and we shouldn't try to force a one-size-fits-all tagging policy around them. Story Identification is a whole different beast from Star Trek. We've never really tagged individual Harry Potter films or books, but for Star Wars we have a need to create those individual tags before the movies are even released!

We have the flexibility to make our own tag map, and have our experts help curate and guide new users, write usage guidance, etc.

So, I would encourage people to vote based on:

Is Defence Against the Dark Arts a reasonably helpful tag for people of the Harry Potter Fandom? Is it reasonable to assume some people might want to know about just that subject? Is the tag unlikely, when used appropriately, to interfere with other Harry Potter tagging (such as the 5 tag limit)? This seems a more reasonable approach to me than voting on a Harry Potter tag the same way you would for a Game of Thrones tag. Different fandoms have different needs, different things they want to know, and different types of source material.