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Currently 19 questions have the tag.

I think we should get rid of this tag. Whenever a plugin (or extension, or add-on, …) for a specific software is needed, the question should be tagged with a tag for this specific software.

So when a question has the tags and , the tag alone already implies that a plugin (or maybe a compatible software) for Eclipse is needed. The question title/body can/should make this clear explicitly.

(If we agree, I could retag those questions.)

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    Checking questions currently using it, this sounds reasonable to me.
    – Izzy Mod
    Jun 5, 2014 at 14:26
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    see also That early meta-topic on a tagging guide (@unor I know you know about it but for others I figured it might give some background)
    – Nick Dickinson-Wilde
    Jun 7, 2014 at 5:30
  • Maybe the only acceptable use of "plugin" would be for questions that ask for a plugin architecture: I want to allow people to write plugins for my app, what library/framework would help me do this?
    – Nicolas Raoul Mod
    Aug 15, 2014 at 4:58

3 Answers 3

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I agree, and more generally, I think we should rename all the -plugin(s) tags into their parent name. A tag like means “I'm looking for a Wordpress plugin that …” — but really the question is “I'm trying to accomplish … with Wordpress”. Even if the answers are expected to be “use this plugin”, the question is not really about plugins, it's about Wordpress.

And if you assume that everything about Wordpress is about plugins, then the -plugin part of the tag is redundant and should be removed. Either way, -plugin is pure noise.

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  • I'm going to have to disagree with you here. This is Software Recommendations, and the only WordPress questions that would be on-topic are questions looking for a plugin recommendation. Questions about how to accomplish a particular task in WordPress without a plugin are for Wordpress.SE.
    – Ben Miller - Remember Monica
    Jun 8, 2014 at 2:39
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    @BenMiller But the software that solves the problem is not necessarily a WordPress plugin!
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jun 8, 2014 at 2:58
  • Sorry, I'm confused. What other software would it be? If it isn't a WordPress plugin, then the question wouldn't be tagged with the "wordpress" tag. The question "How do I do X in WordPress?" is off-topic here. The question "Which plugin should I use to do X in WordPress?" is off-topic at WordPress.SE and on-topic here. Can you give an example of a WordPress software recommendation question that is on-topic here and not about a plugin?
    – Ben Miller - Remember Monica
    Jun 8, 2014 at 3:54
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    @BenMiller Q: I need a WordPress plugin to prevent DoS… A: You can't do that with a plugin, you need a proxy. Or Q: I need a WordPress plugin to display pink text. A: You don't need a plugin for that, set text_color=pink in the configuration. It's not all about plugins. Even if it was, having -plugin in the tag name is just noise — if “If it isn't a WordPress plugin, then the question wouldn't be tagged with the "wordpress" tag” then the right tag name is “wordpress” and not “wordpress-plugin” since the -plugin part carries no useful information.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jun 8, 2014 at 10:45
  • hmm I can definitely see this argument however... if you follow it logically wouldn't the same argument apply to chrome-extensions too? Which I don't think it should so considering that I do prefer with the wordpress-plugin tag if the question is looking for a plugin for wordpress.
    – Nick Dickinson-Wilde
    Jun 9, 2014 at 5:10
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    @NickWilde Sure, that tag should be chrome. Again, what matters is that you want to interact with Chrome, and if the answer is a plugin or a bookmarklet instead of an extension, that doesn't change the question.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jun 9, 2014 at 7:40
  • @Gilles Both of your examples are plugin questions. The fact that the best answer might be recommending a solution other than a plugin is not relevant to the tags. If you prefer not to see "-plugin" in the tag name, that is fine (I prefer to see it.) But the argument that we need to remove it to allow for non-plugin questions is not valid on this site.
    – Ben Miller - Remember Monica
    Jun 9, 2014 at 18:04
  • @BenMiller: See, for example, the question Offline WordPress post editor/creator. The OP is looking for a solution that works with WordPress (it needs to upload posts into the WordPress installation), but it can’t be a plugin (hence I created the wordpress tag because wordpress-plugin would be misleading).
    – unor
    Jun 21, 2014 at 18:06
  • @unor That is a good example; another would be a question about mobile apps interfacing with the Wordpress admin. However, you could argue that these questions are really a separate class of questions from the plugin questions, deserving their own tag. And for other "-plugin" tags it might be harder to come up with examples like these.
    – Ben Miller - Remember Monica
    Jun 22, 2014 at 0:42
  • I created a discussion: “-plugin” suffix for specific-software tags?
    – unor
    Jul 16, 2014 at 14:54
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All questions that had the tag are now retagged.

If tags for specific softwares should or should not have a "-plugin" suffix, can be discussed separately:
“-plugin” suffix for specific-software tags?

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I agree that the tag is not very helpful. Instead, I propose that the questions be tagged with a tag named "software-plugin". For example, all of the WordPress plugin questions are currently tagged with . The tag should get renamed .

Using this naming convention, we would eliminate an unnecessary tag (there is no reason that all plugin questions for any platform need to be grouped together), and yet it will still be obvious to anyone looking at the tags that the question is looking for a plugin.

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    It should be the other way round: we should rename wordpress-plugin to wordpress. At best the -plugin part doesn't convey any useful information; at worst it leads the answers into recommending a plugin rather than some other solution (some problems may be better solved with a different configuration, a proxy, …).
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jun 8, 2014 at 0:32
  • @Gilles Non-plugin WordPress questions are for WordPress.SE.
    – Ben Miller - Remember Monica
    Jun 8, 2014 at 2:41
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    Of course, but that has nothing to do with what I wrote.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jun 8, 2014 at 2:58

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