User:Martynas Patasius/Tags are useful
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Tags are useful. There are some users who think that tags pointing out problems with articles are not useful and should be removed. That is a wrong opinion.
Reasons for usefulness[edit]
Clarification for readers[edit]
First of all, the tags point out the problems with the article to the readers. That decreases the danger of disinformation.
Education of writers[edit]
Tags also help the writers (both the ones who wrote that specific article and others) to improve. Tags, pointing out the problems with existing articles, draw the attention of writers to potential problems. For example, the tags pointing out lack of sources help the writers to understand that sources are necessary.
Attracting improvements[edit]
Tags can attract the users that can correct the problems that have been pointed out. To make that work better, the tags generally add the article to a category. They also help the user who has improved the article that it was in such a category.
Test of feasibility of improvements[edit]
Tags also help to find out is improvements of the article are likely. If the article has been tagged for a long time and the problem hasn't been solved, this fact can be used to support an opinion that simple corrections are unlikely and more drastic approach is necessary.
Provoking a discussion[edit]
The tags can also provoke a discussion about problems with the article. Such discussion can lead to consensus concerning the ways to solve those problems.
Possible objections[edit]
Replacement of work[edit]
Sometimes it is claimed that adding tags is used as a replacement for work and it is better to improve the article at once.
Unfortunately, improving the article is not always easy. It requires sources, time, competence. Thus the choice is generally not between tagging the article or improvement, but between tagging the article and doing nothing. Doing nothing is a worse option. Insistence to choose the "perfect" but unrealistic option can illustrate the saying "Perfect is the enemy of good".
Finally, the removal of tags can also be seen as the "replacement for work".
Tags do not work[edit]
Sometimes it is claimed that tags "do not work", as the problems stay unsolved.
This objection concentrates on just one aspect of usefulness of tags (attracting improvements), but ignores other aspects.
Tags hurt feelings[edit]
Sometimes it is claimed that tags hurt feelings of authors.
But adding the tag is only a criticism of the work, not an insult. Users whose feelings get hurt because of that should stay away from Wikipedia.
Tags are ugly[edit]
Sometimes it is claimed that tags are undesirable, as they are ugly.
That is effectively an argument in favour of making the tags more beautiful, rather than in favour of removing them.