3

I see there are several tags that are in a plural form but the singular form would also be acceptable and vice-versa, for examples :

  • software
  • shortcuts
  • applications
  • settings
  • bookmark

There is the same problem for infinitive verbs and the name derivates from this verb :

  • printing
  • networking
  • charging
  • mapping
  • sharing

As a guideline for the creation of new tags (and why not also edit the current ones) :

Do tags have to be in a plural or singular form ?

and

Do tags have to be in an infinitive verb or an -ing name ?

3
  • Why isn't this tagged [tagging]?
    – Josh K
    Aug 27, 2010 at 14:25
  • If you would like to submit tag corrections, try Tag corrections.
    – Josh K
    Aug 27, 2010 at 14:26
  • Uh, what do you mean by using software as an example here? "softwares" would be wrong and "a-piece-of-software" would be silly; "software" is fine.
    – Jonik
    Sep 28, 2010 at 18:07

2 Answers 2

1

Is there an issue with [printing]? I would default to looking at superusers tags to see which seems to be the "correct" tag for this.

Overall I don't think that tags must be plural / singular or infinitive as a general rule. If you see something tagged [share] it should probably be [sharing] though.

1

About singular vs plural in cases where both make sense; for example:

  • app(s)
  • shortcut(s)
  • podcast(s)
  • accessor(y/ies)
  • monitor(s)

I'd say plural is good, and that seems to be currently preferred in most cases. However: two observations:

  1. In the top tags there aren't that many cases where both make sense. (Quickly I found just monitor and passwords that maybe should be batch-retagged to plural.)
  2. We shouldn't get too hung-up with such rule; rather, use what seems the most natural case-by-case.

For the record, plural is what we went with over at English language & usage (where this affects more tags than here).

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .