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I had this suggested excerpt rejected

A well known children's book series featuring the lovable bear Winnie the Pooh, his various companions in the Hundred Acre Woods, and their human friend, Christopher Robin. Use with the [disney] tag if referring to the more modern works using the characters.

I thought it contained usage guidance, but apparently not. So, what kind of usage guidance does this need?

2 Answers 2

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The usage of the tag itself needs to be defined.

As listed in Rand's answer, a wiki excerpt needs to provide the usage for that specific tag. Although a short description is usually good, it should not drown out from the usage. The usage is essential here. To round off the tag, suggesting guidance for how to use sub-tags (assuming it's not a universe tag).

A good example is our current tag wiki excerpt written by Rand'al-thor

For questions about any works in J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium - The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and other works set in the same universe - or about that universe as a whole. Questions about movies, games, or other media set in the same universe should also use this tag. Questions about Tolkien himself or works by him which are not part of the Middle-earth universe should NOT use this tag.
Tolkien's Legendarium tag wiki excerpt and info


The reasons (and subsequent discussion) for my rejected edit can be found here

A well known children's book series featuring the lovable bear Winnie the Pooh, his various companions in the Hundred Acre Woods, and their human friend, Christopher Robin.

That isn't tag usage, that's a tag wiki
Initial reasons for rejection: 1 and 2

Above are listed my initial reasons for rejecting the tag. For the majority of the excerpt, it's a wiki, the rest is (less-than-accurate) guidance for how to use another tag.
I go on to describe, after a moderator asks what usage is required, the usage requirement for a tag wiki excerpt:

Rand al'Thor: What usage guidance does this tag need?
Edlothiad: When to use the tag.

Short and sweet, your tag wiki edit, provides no usage for how to use the tag itself, it merely gives a description of a set of books, which feature a set of characters. Although these book are directly related to the tag, they're not telling us when to use them.

"But Ed, why would we need to give a guidance for the tag if it's obvious?" - Confused User

Well, Confused User, as laid out in this comment:

your point is entirely moot, because if that was the case, what is the point of a tag wiki excerpt? The edit did not make it clear how we should be using the tag, and also held incorrect usage information for the Disney tag. The new tag wiki excerpt is much clearer, and without tooting my own horn, a good example of how excerpts should be laid out.

A wiki-excerpt is useless if we assume "the usage is obvious". The excerpt is for laying out the specific usage of that tag, stating when to use it, how to use it, where to use it, and only in addition to those, what to use it with (back to that later).

A stander-by then makes a good point about some crucial guidance the tag wiki excerpt is missing, the when, how and where (all three are, in essence, the same).

Mithrandir: I think that this tag wiki should specify that it's about the books and the movies and the TV shows etc
Same discussion

Finally, the "what to use it with". This one is more tricky and sometimes requires some research effort. One has to familiarise themselves significantly with the tags in question, the questions that have been tagged with those tags and whether they have been tagged by the OP or added later. This is particularly difficult for Disney questions, as although 46/61 questions are tagged exclusively to Disney's works involving their fairy tales (e.g. Disney's Frozen, Disney's Brave etc.) 15 of the question were tagged with (mostly story-id and Star wars) tags which seemed for the most part odd.

In this case, given the fact Disney's Winnie the Pooh is only one adaptation of the work, it would not make sense to add the Disney tag to all the questions about Winnie. should be its own universe tag, and should not be scoped within Disney due to the multitude of works outside of the Disney scope.

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    Yaassss. In fact, the 'reject' reason for 'lacks usage guidance' says: Simply defining what a [tag] is rarely helps those using it unless the tag's name itself is ambiguous. Excerpts should describe why and when a tag should be used. See the help center for more guidance. That explains a lot. You don't just way what something is (unless it's ambiguous), you need to say how to use the tag. That's of utmost importance.
    – Möoz
    Dec 12, 2017 at 4:46
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Here's the guidance which appears in the sidebar whenever you're editing a tag wiki:

The usage guidance, or tag wiki excerpt, is a short blurb that describes when and why a tag should be used on this site specifically.

The full tag wiki is a detailed introduction to the topic, suitable as a destination for those curious about it:

► what questions should have this tag?

► some basic definitions

► brief introduction to the subject

► important links for learning more

► one reasonably sized page

See our advice on writing great tag wikis.

Note the difference between the excerpt and the full tag wiki: the former should focus on usage guidance for this site specifically, while the latter can include more general information about the topic. There's also more excerpt-specific guidance in the help centre.

I don't know why your suggestion was rejected by two reviewers; I probably would have approved it. Perhaps they felt that you spent too much time describing the books themselves rather than how the tag should be used for SFF.SE ... but what can be said about how the tag should be used, beyond the obvious "use it for questions about the Winnie the Pooh stories"?

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    I would have approved it as well, since it's obvious when one would use it here.
    – Null Mod
    Dec 6, 2017 at 17:46
  • @Null We could use mod powers to override the rejection and approve it anyway. But I'm curious to hear from the rejectors first (both of whom are reasonably meta-active, I think) about their reasoning for rejection.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Dec 6, 2017 at 17:50
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    @Null your point is entirely moot, because if that was the case, what is the point of a tag wiki excerpt? The edit did not make it clear how we should be using the tag, and also held incorrect usage information for the Disney tag. The new tag wiki excerpt is much clearer, and without tooting my own horn, a good example of how excerpts should be laid out.
    – Edlothiad
    Dec 7, 2017 at 9:16
  • @Randal'Thor you are now fully aware of why it was rejected as is highlighted from reading down from here and should make the relevant edits to your answer.
    – Edlothiad
    Dec 7, 2017 at 9:17
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    @Edlothiad Why don't you (or amflare) post an answer? Seems like a waste of time for me to attempt to explain your reasoning by quoting you from chat, when you're right here yourself.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Dec 7, 2017 at 12:44
  • I would have rejected it, because we've for awhile been trying to get people to stop using generic definitions in tag guidance. Is it only about the Winnie the Pooh book series? Not the character? Then why isn't it -series or something? Should the character have a tag, too? Why does disney needed to be added to newer ones? If they're a separate series, they should have their own tags like winnie-the-pooh-and-pals or winnie-the-pooh-2011. And then probably still needs a generic linking tag for the character/franchise. Seems to be like to many decisions being made in one suggested edit
    – user31178
    Dec 7, 2017 at 17:57

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