How to use the [productivity] tag?

Question

productivity has no tag wiki.

Is it category of software, i.e., productivity software (if there is such a thing)?
Or is it a motivation, e.g., I need this-and-that to improve my productivity?

Do we need it? If yes, which excerpt should it have?

Answer 1

Well, “productivity software” is a commonly used software category, so it makes sense to have it as a tag. However, beware that it doesn't mean the same thing to everybody — I don't think the Wikipedia article, which defines the term as encompassing office suites, databases, email clients, etc. reflects 21st century usage.

I would recommend using more specific tags instead where applicable. For example, if it's about email, use email, not productivity.

I think there are two main useful definitions of “productivity software”:

• Software that helps with personal productivity, e.g. time tracking and task scheduling.
• Software that helps with productivity in computer use, e.g. user interface enhancements.

Maybe we should define tags for these categories, blacklist productivity itself, and add a popup when someone tries to use productivity to redirect people to other tags (we can have staff set this up)?

Answer 2

There seems to be such a category called "productivity software", however besides being extremely generic, the members of that group changes with time. (Would you still consider Microsoft Powerpoint a productivity software?)

Gilles' suggestion is to divide and rename productivity into two new tags, one for each use case:

• Use case 1: Software that helps with personal productivity, e.g. time tracking and task scheduling.

• Use case 2: Software that helps with productivity in computer use, e.g. user interface enhancements.

I think that we should not create a tag for the first use case. However, a tag for the second use case might be useful for the searcher.

For example, if visitors wanted to search for Chrome addons to enhance their productivity, they can directly search for [chrome] [productivity]. Contrast that with searching for [chrome], and then manually filtering the returned list for productivity softwares.

Thus I'd suggest we keep the productivity tag as it is, but only use it for the second case.

Answer 3

I always felt "productivity" being a bad category when seeing it in software catalogues e.g. at Google Play. What should that be? In terms of SE, clearly "too broad". It might be the counter-part of "games" (i.e. the opposite of "entertainment") – but then, where does TV (and other media stuff) fit, which can serve both purposes? Especially seeing "printing" and "productivity" used on one questions makes my eye-browes raise. Having it used as the sole tag (yes, we also have that) just lets me shake my head. And it get's pretty funny with that quesion using it in conjunction with "relaxation" (let's have a productive nap, then – LOL) – raising the question what use that tag has as well.

In my opinion, it's a useless tag. We should burnitate it.