We have a thread for proposing new tags, but anyone who's ever browsed the Tech Hub Tag List will probably have wondered why we have so many. Now, I see the role of tags as being to help people to find SCPs they're interested in. I do not think the following tags help to achieve that - they're either redundant with other tags, so vague it's unclear what they apply to, or so boring that I don't think anyone would ever use them to find new SCPs. I don't think there's much point trying to physically describe the SCP via tags, that's what the description is for, so I think we should focus the tags on the more interesting parts of the article - what it does, and how it does it.
You may ask why this matters, why not just keep accumulating more and more tags? The basic answer is that the more SCP Attribute tags we have, the harder it becomes to tag new articles. If the tag system was simpler, tagging would become quicker and easier, for both authors and the MAST tag team. Therefore, I think it's worthwhile to occasionally take stock of the inventory, and discard the ones we don't need.
Redundant with "biological", "contagion" and "toxic" (depending on the exact nature of the biohazard), redefine "toxic" to include biological as well as chemical toxins.
- biohazard — SCP poses a hazard to humans or the environment as a result of biological function, or is a biological hazard.
Genuinely philosophically difficult to determine, generally redundant with animal or autonomous (sapient isn't quite as bad but Iwould rename):
- sentient — SCP exhibits sentient traits, such as self-awareness and cognitive deduction.
Way too vague, unsure what it actually applies to/doesn't apply to from the definition, most use cases covered by more specific tags, some of which supersede it:
- physics — SCP affects or violates particular physical laws.
- Avoid using with 'ectoentropic', 'electrical', and 'magnetic'
- Superseded by 'thermodynamic'
Diet of SCPs is not particularly interesting - redundant with "predatory" for most purposes.
- carnivorous — SCP is or exhibits traits of carnivorous animals.
- omnivorous — SCP exhibits omnivorous traits.
Superseded too often to be useful (e.g. by insect, vermian (worm) or arachnid), requires too much taxonomical knowledge:
Is this meaningfully distinct from "sculpture"? Consider that the "humanoid" or various animal tags could be used for similar effect.
- statue — SCP is or was a statue. A statue is defined as a free-standing, full-body sculpture of a person or animal.
- Supersedes 'artistic', and 'sculpture'
Who would care about something this vague?
- extremity — SCP is or affects specific extremities, regardless of species.
Seems niche, unintuitive, and easily confused with "observational" and "visual":
- ocular — SCP resembles, is related to, or affects eyes.
Who cares about the SCP's shape?
- cube — SCP is cubical. Should only be used where the entire SCP is cubical or composed of cubes, rather than SCPs in which only one or more components are cubical.
- polyhedral — SCP is a polyhedron: a three-dimensional shape with flat faces and straight edges.
- sphere — SCP is spherical.
The following add significant complexity to the tag system without providing much benefit for discovery purposes:
We're no longer approving new SCP materials, I don't see any reason to should keep the old ones. Knowing what the SCP is made from does not really convey anything interesting about it.
- clay — SCP is primarily or significantly composed of clay.
- crystalline — SCP is or exhibits traits of crystals.
- gaseous — SCP is or generates a gas.
- glass — SCP is primarily or significantly composed of glass.
- liquid — SCP is or generates a liquid.
- metallic — SCP is a metal or is completely or significantly composed of metal or metallic substances.
- stone — SCP is composed primarily of stone (meaning concreted earthy or mineral matter) or rock.
- wooden — SCP is composed primarily or significantly of wood or wood-like material. Should not be used to describe living, unmodified plants that happen to be composed of wood.
I do not see the benefit in most of the subcategories of artifact, considering that they're very broad.
I would only keep "computer", "media", "tool", "toy", "vehicle" and "weapon" - these are related to function, knowing that the SCP is a weapon tells you more about the kind of story it is telling than knowing it is an item of clothing or a container.
- artifact — SCP is or was originally created by humans.
- Superseded by 'appliance', 'clothing', 'computer', 'container', 'jewelry', 'media', 'timepiece', 'tool', 'toy', 'vehicle', and 'weapon'
- appliance — SCP is or resembles a household or domestic appliance.
- clothing — SCP is an artifact primarily intended to be worn for protection or comfort, including armor and protective helmets.
- computer — SCP is a computational device or affects computational devices.
- container — SCP is meant to hold or otherwise contain other material or objects, including decorative vases and other similar objects.
- jewelry — SCP is an object primarily intended to be worn in a decorative manner.
- media — SCP is or is contained on, one or more items of fixed or removable analog or digital media, such as a tape, record, disc, or drive.
- timepiece — SCP is, or a major component of, an instrument or mechanism designed to measure time.
- tool — SCP is (or was intended to be) used as a tool.
- toy — SCP is, or was primarily intended to be, used as a toy.
- vehicle — SCP is or is intended to be used as a vehicle.
- weapon — SCP is or is intended to be used as a weapon.
The following should supersede artifact anyway, of them I'd probably only keep document - although arguably this could be merged with "inscription":
- document — SCP is a textual document of some sort. Includes books.
- furniture — SCP is or resembles a piece of furniture.
- map — SCP is a map, has a map, or otherwise exhibits visual representations in the manner of a map.
- instrument — SCP is an instrument or a tool intended for either delicate, scientific, or measuring work. (Easily confused with a tag for a musical instrument)
- recording — SCP is or contains an audio and/or visual recording. (Redundant with media)
- key — SCP is a standard key or otherwise intended to unlock one or more devices or containers. (Only 9 uses, failing to meet current SCP Attribute tag criteria)
Arguably the benefit of animal tags is also small, let me know if you think we should ditch those as well, but currently I'm working on renaming them because I think they are something people are interested in searching for.
You are free to disagree with these proposals, feel free to defend specific tags as actually useful. We will not be deleting tags if it turns out that people are actually using them to find new content.
I would like to keep this discussion focused on tags to delete entirely, if there are tags to rename there's another thread for that, and if it's tags to merge or redefine then that's probably best saved for another discussion.
I'll leave this discussion open for two weeks, mostly because I don't want to be tinkering with the tag system until SCIPtember is over.