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It is recommended to tag every question with at least one in the (vaguely recognized) set of tags that represent the subject areas of questions. These tags are sometimes referred to as “top-level tags,” but I would like to change this name if there is a better name.

The word “top-level” implies existence of a hierarchical structure. Since most tags are not part of any hierarchical structure, the word “top-level” does not make much sense.

Does anyone have an idea what they should be called?

Update: Let’s call them “area tags.” (Thanks to Kaveh for proposing this name.) It is a concise name which describes their nature pretty accurately.

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  • $\begingroup$ super-tag, main-tag, area-tag, subject-classification-tag, primary-tag, primary-subject-classification-tag, ... $\endgroup$
    – Kaveh
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 5:01
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    $\begingroup$ "Required tag"? $\endgroup$
    – Jukka Suomela
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 9:47
  • $\begingroup$ @Kaveh: Some of the suggestions are good, others are too long. $\endgroup$
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 13:38
  • $\begingroup$ @Jukka: “Required tag” is not a very good name, because it is the official term to refer to a tag on meta that is really required by the system (a question cannot be posted on meta if it does not have any required tag), namely one of the tags [discussion], [bug], [support] and [feature-request]. See the legend on the tags page on meta. “Recommended tag” may be better. $\endgroup$
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 13:41
  • $\begingroup$ @Tsuyoshi: Well, we can decide that they are required. And we can pretend that the fact that the system doesn't actually enforce it is just a fairly harmless bug. $\endgroup$
    – Jukka Suomela
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 14:00
  • $\begingroup$ @Jukka: The point is that we may have to distinguish these tags from the tags required by the system, especially when we talk about the system. I would not like a feature request titled “Make required tags really required.” $\endgroup$
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 14:06
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    $\begingroup$ Yet another suggestion (similar to @Kaveh's area-tag): "subfield tag". $\endgroup$
    – Jukka Suomela
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 14:09

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Kaveh and Jukka posted several suggestions as comments (why not answers?). Among them, I like “area tag” the best because it is concise and describes what it is about. “Subfield tag” is another good name.

Unless a much better name comes up later, I propose to call these tags “area tags.”

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    $\begingroup$ "why not answers?" – Answers can be down-voted, but comments can be only up-voted! You cannot lose! $\endgroup$
    – Jukka Suomela
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 22:18
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    $\begingroup$ I second "area tag" $\endgroup$
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 23:22
  • $\begingroup$ I posted them in a comment because it was quicker and they were just suggestions that came to my mind when I read your question, I also would need to post them separately if I wanted to post them as answers. $\endgroup$
    – Kaveh
    Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 3:43

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