14

I've accepted the option as that has currently the highest score (+14/-1). Adding a synonym for (so prefixed with mask) should improve the chances of the correct tag being found.

Yesterday, this question was posted:

Is there a canon source from the 1980s covering the death of Matt Tracker's brother from the MASK franchise

We didn't have a tag for the franchise, so I added .

Is this tag the best tag for this franchise?

Considerations

The name of the franchise is M.A.S.K, which stands for Mobile Armored Strike Kommand. While not an actual backronym, since all characters wear helmets with special powers, it's likely that they came up with the acronym first, then made up something to fit it.

It consists of a toy line, an animated TV series that ran for two seasons (1985–1986), a short comics run, and three video games.

Currently, we don't have enough questions to warrant a subdivision for the different franchises. We went years without a single one. After the first one, we quickly received three other questions about the franchise (one of which was mine).

Suggestions

The following suggestions were made in chat:

Current tag. Unambiguous, but not easily recognisable for people who only remember the acronym and not easily discoverable either.

As close as we can get to the acronym. Pretty unambiguous, but still not easily discoverable.

Very ambiguous, will need disambiguation in its usage guidance to differentiate between M.A.S.K., The Mask (green-headed Jim Carrey), the DC villain, the general idea of masks, and possibly other characters or works with the same name. Easily discoverable, though.

May still need disambiguation to clarify which Mask franchise. Still easily discoverable.

We usually don't use tags with the year in it for an entire franchise, although in this case both the TV series and the toy line are from that same year. Still easily discoverable.

6
  • 1
    To be honest, when I read the title, I thought this was about the movie The Mask. I think the full text sounds like the best.
    – Clockwork
    Nov 16, 2021 at 13:03
  • the tag the-mask already exists, so there no need to worry about overlap there
    – AncientSwordRage Mod
    Nov 16, 2021 at 15:17
  • @AncientSwordRage of course, but when typing mask and seeing both mask and the-mask, the usage guidance of those tags should clarify what is what.
    – SQB
    Nov 16, 2021 at 15:29
  • Oh of course, I hadn't properly read the whole sentence, and I assumed the issue was the possibility of the tag being claimed by other works, such as if the Jim Carrey film had claimed mask instead of the-mask
    – AncientSwordRage Mod
    Nov 16, 2021 at 16:06
  • Just "Mask" makes me think of the Cher movie first.
    – Spencer
    Nov 20, 2021 at 21:07
  • How many questions and when was the last one that was tagged as being about M.A.S.K. ?
    – SpacePhoenix
    Nov 25, 2021 at 23:11

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
16

Current tag. Unambiguous, but not easily recognised for people who only remember the acronym and not easily discoverable.

5
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    I'd vote for this, with the addendum that we make mask a synonym until such a time we need it for another tag. That way typing mask will pop this up, and the other tags that match, and the user can pick between them.
    – AncientSwordRage Mod
    Nov 16, 2021 at 13:56
  • My preference would be to have m-a-s-k either as the primary with this as a synonym, or vice versa.
    – SQB
    Nov 16, 2021 at 14:58
  • 1
    The issue with not involving mask, is that as you start typing in 'mask' when asking a question (which I'd bet is 99% of what people would do) afaik you aren't going to hit m-a-s-k or mobile-armored-strike-kommand.
    – AncientSwordRage Mod
    Nov 16, 2021 at 15:17
  • 1
    @AncientSwordRage We might want to make the synonym mask-something just so typing mask still brings it up but if you just put in mask meaning something else it won't auto-change it to this.
    – TheLethalCarrot Mod
    Nov 17, 2021 at 15:30
  • 1
    How about mask-mobile-armored-strike-kommand? Perhaps as a synonym?
    – SQB
    Nov 23, 2021 at 12:29
9

As close as we can get to the acronym. Pretty unambiguous, but not easily discoverable unless the querent guesses how we turned the acronym into a tag.

1
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    The major problem here is that the dashes are not going to be typed by users and typing "mask" may not yield the tag.
    – Machavity
    Nov 19, 2021 at 20:44
6

I would suggest an option not mentioned: synonyms. Mods can create them and when you type in the term, they show up.

The primary tag really is best for the SE system as . I propose adding these synonyms to it so you can find it if trying to tag "mask" (i.e. [mask-tv]). Not ideal, but we have some tags like that already (i.e. )

2
  • The Mask also had an animated TV series
    – SpacePhoenix
    Nov 25, 2021 at 18:06
  • @SpacePhoenix True, but it's titled The Mask (and is tagged [the-mask] as well). Remember that the synonym only allows it to show up when people type "mask". The actual tag should help steer people to the correct one to use.
    – Machavity
    Nov 25, 2021 at 18:58
-1

We usually don't use tags with the year in it for an entire franchise, although in this case both the TV series and the toy line are from that same year.

Easily discoverable.

-2

What about:

"The-Mask(Jim-Carrey-Movie)"

MASK(Mobile-Armored-Strike-Kommand)

The-Mask(Cartoon-TV-series)

A little long winded but it makes it clear which franchise a question will be about. I don't recall ever seeing any questions about The Mask TV series (the one based on the Jim Carrey film)

4
  • That's not really possible within the limitations of the tag system.
    – SQB
    Nov 22, 2021 at 8:35
  • 1
    @SQB what are the limits of the tag system?
    – SpacePhoenix
    Nov 22, 2021 at 15:17
  • Parentheses aren't available.
    – SQB
    Nov 23, 2021 at 12:21
  • What about replacing the ( with a # and removing the ) at the end?
    – SpacePhoenix
    Nov 23, 2021 at 12:58
-3

May still need disambiguation to clarify which Mask franchise. Easily discoverable.

-4

Very ambiguous, will need disambiguation in its usage guidance to differentiate between M.A.S.K., The Mask (green-headed Jim Carrey), the DC villain, the general idea of masks, and possibly other characters or works with the same name.

Easily discoverable, though.

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