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Welcome to the second structured tag cleanup!

Based on the voting in the call for proposals, the second round goes to the tag, with 84 current questions.

The tag has been renamed to stci-software-engineering, which should prevent people from adding any more questions to it.

Ground rules

The goal of this cleanup is to systematically clean up the software engineering tag without causing disruption to the rest of the site. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is:

  • Review the deletion candidates below and see if there's a way to save any of the questions before they go gently into that good night through heroic edits. At the end of the clean up period, any questions not sufficiently improved will be deleted.

  • Review the merge candidates to see if can be merged into one question. If they shouldn't be, revise the questions to demonstrate how it's not in any way like the question it's been duplicated to.

  • Review the closure candidates list to see if you agree with what others have identified as being out of the site's scope. If you agree, vote to close. If you don't agree, use heroic edits to address the problems the question has and bring it back into scope.

  • Review the currently open questions and see which ones do not fit our site scope. Vote to close them and add them to the closure candidates list.

  • Improve the leftover questions by copyediting, fixing spelling, flow, adding clearer titles, etc. while replacing the stci-software-engineering tag with something more meaningful:

    • for questions relating to system level architecture, documenting architecture, view models, architectural quality, and product line development.
    • for questions relating to software design.
    • for questions about documentation.
    • for questions about requirements engineering and documenting requirements.
    • for questions about unit, integration, smoke, and system testing using white box or black box techniques.
    • for questions about maintaining legacy software systems.
    • for questions about process quality, product quality, code quality, or measuring the quality of any of these.
    • for questions about formal education, self-teaching, and self-improvement as a software developer.
    • for questions about software metrics.
    • for questions on design patterns.
    • for questions on agile methodologies.
    • for questions on project management.

    ...and other, more specific tags as needed.

  • Finally, and this is perhaps the most important of all the rules: do not just remove the stci-software-engineering tag without improving the question and its answers.

End date

This round of cleanups will end on Wednesday, March 21th at 04:00 UTC. At that time, all the default actions will be done: deletions, merges, closures, and such. If is not empty by then, it'll be renamed back to and be saved for later rounds of cleanups.

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  • Question about "the most important rule": If we get through all of the tagged questions (there are only 84 now), how do we know if any remaining ones just need the tag nuked? I suspect that there are more than a handful of questions that are good questions, but just need the tag deleted.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 11:08
  • @ThomasOwens Retagging a question will bump it in the front page. It's a great opportunity to edit and correct even the most minor mistakes in the question and all it's answers (spelling, grammar, formatting, removing "thanks" and taglines, etc). But I imagine there will be some that don't need any editing at all, mostly because it's a tag frequented by some of our most active editors.
    – yannis Mod
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 11:15
  • I'm just thinking if we need a list of "I looked at it, it's good, but only the tag needs to be removed" so if all of the open and unedited posts end up in that list at the end, we can just nuke the tag without concern?
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 11:49
  • @ThomasOwens If you looked at it, and it's good, it only takes a second to remove the tag by hand. Others will notice the question in the front page and edit, if they feel like it.
    – yannis Mod
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 11:55
  • While I voted for the software-engineering tag cleanup proposal, my understanding was that the tag itself was too broad and the proposal was to refine the tags on these questions, not close/delete these questions. I'm sure some of these questions could be off-topic, but just glancing at some titles in the closure list, I disagree with closing many of them. I thought this site welcomed architecture/SDLC questions, so it doesn't make sense to close some of these just because they are tagged with "software-engineering".
    – Rachel
    Commented Mar 8, 2012 at 15:24
  • @Rachel Just looking on the titles won't tell you much. Go through each question and try to improve it. If you don't see anything wrong with it, ping me in chat and ask me about it. For more details please read: Request for comment: structured tag cleanups.
    – yannis Mod
    Commented Mar 8, 2012 at 15:29
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    @YannisRizos The question in the call for proposals was asking for both tags suggestions and solutions, and the tag and it's solution was what got the upvotes. I do not think you should only take the tag only and apply your own solution, which is very different than the proposed solution.
    – Rachel
    Commented Mar 8, 2012 at 16:03
  • @Rachel There are three possible solutions to a STCI: Delete the tag, delete the tag and replace it with more specific tags, or do nothing with the tag and only clean up questions. Under all three, questions are reviewed for topicality, constructiveness, and formatting Since I'm the one who proposed the cleanup, I can say with 100% certainty that what is happening is exactly what I intended to happen - all questions tagged would be reviewed and either closed/deleted or retagged with the appropriate more specific tag.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 18:31
  • @ThomasOwens Thanks, I understand that now. I was thinking the plan was to ditch most of the questions in this tag as off-topic like the careers tag, since this question and it's answers look the same as the careers proposal did and some of the question titles made sense even if their actual content makes them worth closing.
    – Rachel
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 18:36
  • @Rachel I'm thinking of setting up a chat event near the end of the cleanup period (perhaps the last couple of days), so we can discuss all close candidates.
    – yannis Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 18:39
  • @YannisRizos It would be nice if the discussion about specific questions were more transparent to the users. I don't like feeling that the ultimate decision rests with a moderator's opinion.
    – Rachel
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 18:40
  • @Rachel Ahem, that would be the point of the chat event, getting more people to participate and speak their mind.
    – yannis Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 18:57
  • @YannisRizos I forgot the prefix to my last comment which would have been I agree with that idea :)
    – Rachel
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 18:59
  • @Rachel The friendly stab at the mods in the second sentence didn't help convey the message you were actually agreeing with the idea ;)
    – yannis Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 19:05
  • @YannisRizos Bah you read far too much into things. Let me rephrase it another way just for you: I like the chat suggestion because the way things went with the careers tag made me feel like I didn't know what moderators were using to determine if a question would get reopened or not, and that the ultimate decision was based on moderator opinion. I appreciate the attempt to bring more transparency to the process this time around, so thank you
    – Rachel
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 19:11

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Deletion candidates

Please review these questions to see which can be saved through heroic edits and reopened. If no improvement would make them on topic, vote to delete if you have the reputation.

  • Add questions here
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Merge candidates

Please review these questions closed as duplicates to see if they can be merged. If they shouldn't be merged, please use heroic edits to clarify why the questions aren't duplicates of each other and vote to reopen.

  • Add questions here
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Closure candidates

Add any question you find while combing the [stci-software-engineering] tag that does not meet the site's scope and fell through the cracks. Review any existing question to see if it does need to be closed or can be saved by a heroic edit.

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    @maple_shaft - I saw you remove the stci-software-engineering tag from some of the questions. If you are just closing them, please don't - it floods the homepage with closed questions. Only remove the tag on questions that are staying on the site past the 21st.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 15:22
  • Finished editing and retagging my section
    – maple_shaft Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 15:53
  • @ThomasOwens My apologies, I will keep this in mind
    – maple_shaft Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 15:54
  • Every time you guys comment here I get an inbox notification (having posted the answer)... Please use chat ;P
    – yannis Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 16:00
  • @YannisRizos Can't use chat at work - it's blocked by Web(non)Sense. Known issue on MSO, no resolution at this time. And I'm in the middle of a long-running test. Sorry about that.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 16:01
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    @maple_shaft I've rollbacked the answer to it's original version. Please only add new questions to it, it would be quite impractical to discuss each question here. Let's use chat instead, we can set up a chat event near the end of the cleanup period and we can discuss every question.
    – yannis Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 17:53

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