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In a recent question, about JK Rowling denying writing fantasy, I created the tag 'bias-against-sff'. Somebody changed all the existing tags (including the 'bias-against-sff' tag), but I retagged the question with it. DampeS8N also questioned the need for a tag. I think it's better suited to meta, so I am posting the question here.

Do you thing 'bias-against-sff' should be a tag on this site? Some questions I can think of are - 'What book would you recommend to people who say that SFF books are childish' or 'Should I protest if my local bookstore places all SFF books in the chidldren's section?'

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    Can you give some more examples of types of question where this tag would be appropriate? – Tony Meyer Apr 24 '11 at 19:47
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    @Tony: “Wells is considered both (one of) the first SF writer and a ‘serious’ writer, so how did the idea that sf is not ‘serious’ literature arise?” “Do typical Anglo-Saxon school curricula present SF as youth-only literature?” – user56 Apr 25 '11 at 16:48
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I fail to see why anyone would want to follow a tag called bias-against-sff. It seems like a meta-tag to me, much like 'spoilers' was. And we blocked that tag.

I'm not sure what people will be asking under this tag. The example question relates, somewhat, to a bias that Rowling has against being perceived as Fantasy. However, the question doesn't ask if she has this bias. It asks if she really said something.

I can't see any other types of questions that would go here.

  • Also, I had edited my question to ask for possible reasons she did this. The first answer mentioned that it was because she doesn't like fantasy, so I had not immediately noticed that I had not included that in the question. – apoorv020 Apr 25 '11 at 5:44
  • @apoorv020: Again, I don't really have a problem with the question. I'm just unsure what the value of the tag is. – DampeS8N Apr 25 '11 at 12:05
  • I don't see how bias-against-sff is a meta-tag. It describes the content of the question, it could work as the only tag on a question, it's not wildly ambiguous. – user56 Apr 25 '11 at 16:45
  • @Gilles, if not a meta-tag, I'm still confused as to what exactly it denotes. – DampeS8N Apr 25 '11 at 17:00
  • There is sometimes a perceived bias against sf — the idea that it's escapism, low-brow, youth literature, with no philosophical value. Examples from a quick Google: 1 2 3 It's part of the societal attitude towards SF. – user56 Apr 25 '11 at 17:10
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From the faq,

Science Fiction and Fantasy - Stack Exchange is for questions targeted towards science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts. This includes questions about:

Plot, character, or setting explanations
Historical or societal context of a work
Behind-the-scenes and fandom information
Story identification
Franchise/series reading or viewing order

I think 'bias-against-sff' falls squarely under the second and third points, since almost all works of SFF seem to suffer from bias by people who read intellectual novels and fans should be informed about this as well. So questions about bias, should not be off-topic as long as they are constructive. I don't think there are other tags that would cover such a category of questions. Of course, this tag does not mean that rants about anti-SFF bias should be allowed.

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    My issue isn't with questions about bias being on topic. My issue is that 'bias-against-sff' is somewhat like 'spoilers' and I'm not sure it is a valid tag. Of course these type of questions are on topic. – DampeS8N Apr 24 '11 at 17:51
  • @DampeS8N: The spoiler tag a) does not tell you anything further about the question b) Can be applied to the majority of the questions here. But you can't say the same for 'bias-against-sff'. So I don't think they should be compared. – apoorv020 Apr 25 '11 at 5:41

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