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Right now, we have very few tags that connect ideas together between different series, aside from the medium in which they appear.

An example of this would be Magic. ftl-drives, time-travel, to name a few of the more popular ones. But it would be nice to see more of these. Should we make a concerted effort to try and tie in questions among different series, and use more of the tags?

Please, if you think this should be done, give a few examples of some tags that might make interesting connections.

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I agree, and I've been trying to do that (not in any concerted way). I encourage people to use them whenever relevant, which is pretty much when a question isn't just about a character background or specific plot point.

Here are a few I've used (some I created, some not):

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I'm going to make 3 very specific proposals, relating to faster-than-light stuff.

ftl-drive should deal with any method of exceeding light speed, but still having to travel somehow.

Wormhole should be any method which transports instantly from one point to another, using some specific device on one or both ends. Star gate would be a more accurate description, but, well, there's a popular series by that name. I'm willing to take another better one if anyone has it.

ftl-communication should be for any method of communicating, defined as transmitting information but not matter, that works faster than light. It doesn't count if it requires either a wormhole or FTL-drive to work (IE, a message probe of some kind wouldn't work)

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  • There's also ftl-drive vs ftl communication. Do the ansible and the dirac get the same tag as the hyperdrive?
    – user56
    Apr 30, 2011 at 20:22
  • @Gilles: Good point, ftl-communication should be a separate entity. I'll put that into the answer.
    – PearsonArtPhoto
    Apr 30, 2011 at 20:24
  • If we're limiting it to travel (as in actually traversing the space in between two points), then [ftl-travel] is better. Many "hyperdrives" out there are are in the "wormhole" class.
    – R. Martinho Fernandes
    Apr 30, 2011 at 20:29
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Another interesting point is about non-human races. There are at least 5 categories that Gilles and I came up with in the chat room. I'm not going to say specifically that these should be used, but rather put them forward as a discussion point. Only exists so far, the other names are tentative.

  • fantasy-races → Non-human races in fantasy that live on the human world. Would include Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Ents, etc.
  • → Alien races, those that live off of the earth
  • genetic-modifications → Genetically-modified humans. Where should they fit in?
  • Intelligent animals- This has to be done for those few worlds in which dolphins, monkeys, etc are intelligent, whether it be through human means, or they just happen to be. Think SeaQuest, Hitch-hiker's guide, Planet of the Apes, Narnia etc.
  • Animals: Any animal which doesn't show particular intelligence. Let's say intelligence is defined by a method of communication with humans, for lack of a better term.

My feeling is that all 5 of these should have a separate tag, and that almost all questions will have at most one of these 5 tags, unless we are dealing with genetically modified humans fighting Elves from Mars;-)

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  • I wouldn't put intelligent dolphins in the same boat as elves. There could even be subcategories there: doplhins-are-actually-intelligent à la Hitchhiker's Guide, dolphins-with-human-induced-enhancements à la Uplift! Where will the madness stop?
    – user56
    Apr 30, 2011 at 20:39
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    I think too specific is a downside. We want them to be large enough to be useful, but with the understanding that not everything will work. Hmmm...
    – PearsonArtPhoto
    Apr 30, 2011 at 20:58

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