user8134: Should we allow genre meta tags, and if so, should they be applicable to any series within that genre so that fans of that genre can more easily find those questions in order to answer them/learn more, or only to questions inquiring about the genre itself?
For example, we currently have genre questions such as the following, which have a smattering of varied tags attached to them, such as anime-production japanese-language terminology tropes and others, but some of the tags chosen weren't applicable to the question (the OP might not have been able to select a more appropriate tag).

Where did the mecha genre originate from in Japan?
Who is the main target audience of yuri titles?
What is the opposite of “seme” according to otakus?
In yaoi anime, why does the uke always say 'senpai'?
Why are the male love-interests of shoujo often portrayed to be top scorers?
Have the creators of Tokyo Mew Mew or Sailor Moon commented on the similarities?
What does 'moe' mean?
What would the list of manga genres in Japan be, based on bookstore labeling schemes?
What is the difference between yuri and shoujo-ai, yaoi and shounen-ai and ecchi and hentai anime genre?
Is there a difference in drawing style between different anime for different demographics?
What is the target demographic of Yuki Yuna is a Hero?

I would propose that 

A "genre" tag could be useful for people to use when asking a question about differences between or about similarities between genres and demographics. It would be nice if questions like those above could be located in an easy-to-find location for users interested in answering and reading questions about genre.
Anime/manga-specific genre tags (such as "shoujo," "mahou shoujo", "yuri," yaoi," "moe," "nichijou," "seinen," etc.) could be useful so that, for example, someone who is an expert in "josei" could easily find questions about their area of speciality to answer, and to find answers of interest to read, without having to wade through many questions searching by series title. I, for one, would use such tags to periodically check for questions I could likely answer.
Although previous discussion posited that "a genre-based tag could work, but it would need to be used on questions about the genre itself (e.g. production, tropes, etc.) and not questions about individual series," and that "Tagging series questions with genre tags would make the series tags redundant and the genre tags bloated," I would suggest that the series tags would not become redundant, because a user who can generally answer "shoujo" questions and is interested in reading their answers is not likely to search title by title just to check for them, especially since the OP might not know the title (for identification-request) or the user might not remember the title off-hand in order to search for it but would recognize it if seen within that tag.
Some of the previous reasons given for not creating a "hentai" tag were variations on being age-appropriate for a 13+ age, which is not applicable regarding genre tags other than "hentai" and possibly "yaoi" and "yuri."
Genre tags that are not specific to anime/manga (such as "sci-fi," "romance," "comedy") would be less useful than those for genres which have originated in anime/manga. I would make a motion that only genres which have developed through anime/manga mediums get tags. I don't think there are so many anime/manga-specific genres that the number of genre tags would be too unwieldy, nor that frequent users would try to pile a ton of genre tags all onto one question.
Meta tags which were previously voted against were "characters," "character-abilities," "variations," and "plot-explanation," which I heartily agree with as 1) not helping users to find questions and answers of interest via searching by tag, 2) "don't add much to the question," and 3) "hurt search engine visibility." Anime/manga-specific genre tags would contribute to search engine optimization rather than detract from it.


user1530: I don't know if they're a good thing. I feel that they could keep expanding until they're unmaintainably large:
What is this anime? romance yuri shoujo-ai shounen seinen identification-request 
I read a lot of shoujo, and I do see that having the tag would be useful if you wanted to only answer shoujo questions (or similar) - but a search for the word shoujo or finding particular series seems sufficient to me. Tags seem more to indicate what the post is about rather than a description of the contents. 
Example: The question is about looking for an id for an anime. The question is not about shoujo anime. (rather it is a description of the id-request)
One thing I would recommend regardless is setting up your favourite tags so that those questions are hilighted for you.

I might expand on this later, but I'm currently at work - so I'm making it community wiki if other people want to tag onto this side of the argument

user1398: 

Anime/manga-specific genre tags (such as "shoujo," "mahou shoujo", "yuri," yaoi," "moe," "nichijou," "seinen," etc.) could be useful so that, for example, someone who is an expert in "josei" could easily find questions about their area of speciality to answer, and to find answers of interest to read, without having to wade through many questions searching by series title. I, for one, would use such tags to periodically check for questions I could likely answer.





Meta tags which were previously voted against were "characters," "character-abilities," "variations," and "plot-explanation," which I heartily agree with as 1) not helping users to find questions and answers of interest via searching by tag, 2) "don't add much to the question," and 3) "hurt search engine visibility." Anime/manga-specific genre tags would contribute to search engine optimization rather than detract from it.


I disagree with tagging a question with genre tag in addition to the series title for the following reasons:

Without exception, the genre tags will end up having more question than the rest of the series tag. For the same reason as why the rest of the meta tags are frowned upon, it will hurt search engine visibility. Note that this refers to ranking of our pages on external search engines -- like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. -- not the search engine on SE.
Since the genre tag, which has the highest count of questions, will be placed in the title of the HTML page, as the search engine gives more weight to matches in the page title over the matches in the page body, questions from our site will rank lower.
Do note that it's natural to search for the name of the series rather than the genre of the series on search engines.
Even if the problem above is resolved, as the number of genre tags expands, so is the amount of effort to keep the tags consistent over all questions of a series, for existing questions and incoming questions.
This is not yet mentioning all the potential meta issues that come with the introduction of genre tags (e.g. Which genre tags should series X have? How should we add genre tags for questions with 2 series tags? Question ABC will exceed the 5-tag limit - which genre tag should be removed?).
When a question is tagged with series tag, the genre is mostly not relevant to the subject-matter in the question. It only serves to describe the series tag.

While I agree that the current system is not ideal for users to look for and answer questions by genre, I don't think tagging every question with its genres is a good solution.
Maybe a better solution is a tagging system for tags, where series tags are tagged with their genres (since the main purpose here is to look for series by genre), though the chances that it's implemented here at SE is small, since it will introduce significant changes to the existing system.

8134: <p>Should we allow genre meta tags, and if so, should they be applicable to any series within that genre so that fans of that genre can more easily find those questions in order to answer them/learn more, or only to questions inquiring about the genre itself?</p>

<p>For example, we currently have genre questions such as the following, which have a smattering of varied tags attached to them, such as <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/anime-production" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;anime-production&#39;" rel="tag">anime-production</a> <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/japanese-language" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;japanese-language&#39;" rel="tag">japanese-language</a> <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/terminology" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;terminology&#39;" rel="tag">terminology</a> <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/tropes" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;tropes&#39;" rel="tag">tropes</a> and others, but some of the tags chosen weren't applicable to the question (the OP might not have been able to select a more appropriate tag).</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/3629/where-did-the-mecha-genre-originate-from-in-japan">Where did the mecha genre originate from in Japan?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/13482/who-is-the-main-target-audience-of-yuri-titles">Who is the main target audience of yuri titles?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/14364/what-is-the-opposite-of-seme-according-to-otakus">What is the opposite of “seme” according to otakus?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/13325/in-yaoi-anime-why-does-the-uke-always-say-senpai">In yaoi anime, why does the uke always say 'senpai'?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/2420/why-are-the-male-love-interests-of-shoujo-often-portrayed-to-be-top-scorers">Why are the male love-interests of shoujo often portrayed to be top scorers?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/3646/have-the-creators-of-tokyo-mew-mew-or-sailor-moon-commented-on-the-similarities">Have the creators of Tokyo Mew Mew or Sailor Moon commented on the similarities?</a></li>
<li><p><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/894/what-does-moe-mean">What does 'moe' mean?</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/19480/what-would-the-list-of-manga-genres-in-japan-be-based-on-bookstore-labeling-sch">What would the list of manga genres in Japan be, based on bookstore labeling schemes?</a></p></li>
<li><a href="http://%20https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/2681/what-is-the-difference-between-yuri-and-shoujo-ai-yaoi-and-shounen-ai-and-ecchi" rel="nofollow noreferrer">What is the difference between yuri and shoujo-ai, yaoi and shounen-ai and ecchi and hentai anime genre?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/3477/is-there-a-difference-in-drawing-style-between-different-anime-for-different-dem/3483#3483">Is there a difference in drawing style between different anime for different demographics?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/15533/what-is-the-target-demographic-of-yuki-yuna-is-a-hero">What is the target demographic of Yuki Yuna is a Hero?</a></li>
</ul>

<p>I would propose that </p>

<ol>
<li>A "genre" tag could be useful for people to use when asking a question about <strong>differences between or about similarities between genres and demographics</strong>. It would be nice if questions like those above could be located in an easy-to-find location for users interested in answering and reading questions about genre.</li>
<li>Anime/manga-specific genre tags (such as "shoujo," "mahou shoujo", "yuri," yaoi," "moe," "nichijou," "seinen," etc.) could be useful so that, for example, someone who is <strong>an expert in "josei" could easily find questions about their area of speciality to answer, and to find answers of interest to read</strong>, without having to wade through many questions searching by series title. I, for one, would use such tags to periodically check for questions I could likely answer.</li>
<li>Although <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2239/8134">previous discussion</a> posited that "a genre-based tag <em>could</em> work, but it would need to be used on questions about the genre itself (e.g. production, tropes, etc.) and not questions about individual series," and that "Tagging series questions with genre tags would make the series tags redundant and the genre tags bloated," I would suggest that the <strong>series tags would not become redundant</strong>, because a user who can generally answer "shoujo" questions and is interested in reading their answers is <strong>not likely to search title by title just to check for them</strong>, especially since the OP might not know the title (for <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/identification-request" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;identification-request&#39;" rel="tag">identification-request</a>) or the user might not remember the title off-hand in order to search for it but would recognize it if seen within that tag.</li>
<li>Some of the <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2238/8134">previous reasons</a> given for not creating a "hentai" tag were variations on being age-appropriate for a 13+ age, which is <strong>not applicable</strong> regarding genre tags other than "hentai" and possibly "yaoi" and "yuri."</li>
<li>Genre tags that are not specific to anime/manga (such as "sci-fi," "romance," "comedy") would be less useful than those for genres which have originated in anime/manga. I would make a motion that <strong>only genres which have developed through anime/manga mediums</strong> get tags. I don't think there are so many anime/manga-specific genres that the number of genre tags would be too unwieldy, nor that frequent users would try to pile a ton of genre tags all onto one question.</li>
<li>Meta tags which were <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/a/402/8134">previously voted against</a> were "characters," "character-abilities," "variations," and "plot-explanation," which I heartily agree with as 1) not helping users to find questions and answers of interest via searching by tag, 2) "don't add much to the question," and 3) "hurt search engine visibility." Anime/manga-specific genre tags would contribute to <strong>search engine optimization</strong> rather than detract from it.</li>
</ol>
 1530: <p>I don't know if they're a good thing. I feel that they could keep expanding until they're unmaintainably large:</p>

<p>What is this anime? <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/romance" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;romance&#39;" rel="tag">romance</a> <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/yuri" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;yuri&#39;" rel="tag">yuri</a> <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shoujo-ai" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;shoujo-ai&#39;" rel="tag">shoujo-ai</a> <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shounen" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;shounen&#39;" rel="tag">shounen</a> <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/seinen" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;seinen&#39;" rel="tag">seinen</a> <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/identification-request" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;identification-request&#39;" rel="tag">identification-request</a> </p>

<p>I read a lot of shoujo, and I do see that having the tag would be useful if you wanted to only answer shoujo questions (or similar) - but a search for the word <em>shoujo</em> or finding particular series seems sufficient to me. <strong>Tags seem more to indicate what the post is <em>about</em> rather than a description of the contents.</strong> </p>

<p>Example: The question is about looking for an id for an anime. The question is not about shoujo anime. (rather it is a description of the id-request)</p>

<p>One thing I would recommend regardless is setting up your favourite tags so that those questions are hilighted for you.</p>

<hr>

<p>I might expand on this later, but I'm currently at work - so I'm making it community wiki if other people want to tag onto this side of the argument</p>
 1398: <blockquote>
  <ol start="2">
  <li>Anime/manga-specific genre tags (such as "shoujo," "mahou shoujo", "yuri," yaoi," "moe," "nichijou," "seinen," etc.) could be useful so that, for example, someone who is <strong>an expert in "josei" could easily find questions about their area of speciality to answer, and to find answers of interest to read,</strong> without having to wade through many questions searching by series title. I, for one, would use such tags to periodically check for questions I could likely answer.</li>
  </ol>
</blockquote>

<p></p>

<blockquote>
  <ol start="6">
  <li>Meta tags which were previously voted against were "characters," "character-abilities," "variations," and "plot-explanation," which I heartily agree with as 1) not helping users to find questions and answers of interest via searching by tag, 2) "don't add much to the question," and 3) "hurt search engine visibility." Anime/manga-specific genre tags would contribute to <strong>search engine optimization</strong> rather than detract from it.</li>
  </ol>
</blockquote>

<p>I disagree with <strong>tagging a question with genre tag in addition to the series title</strong> for the following reasons:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Without exception, the genre tags will end up having more question than the rest of the series tag. For the same reason as why the rest of the meta tags are frowned upon, it will hurt search engine visibility. Note that this refers to ranking of our pages on external search engines -- like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. -- not the search engine on SE.</p>

<p>Since the genre tag, which has the highest count of questions, will be placed in the title of the HTML page, as the search engine gives more weight to matches in the page title over the matches in the page body, questions from our site will rank lower.</p>

<p>Do note that it's natural to search for the name of the series rather than the genre of the series on search engines.</p></li>
<li><p>Even if the problem above is resolved, as the number of genre tags expands, so is the amount of effort to keep the tags consistent over all questions of a series, for existing questions and incoming questions.</p>

<p>This is not yet mentioning all the potential meta issues that come with the introduction of genre tags (e.g. Which genre tags should series X have? How should we add genre tags for questions with 2 series tags? Question ABC will exceed the 5-tag limit - which genre tag should be removed?).</p></li>
<li><p>When a question is tagged with series tag, the genre is mostly not relevant to the subject-matter in the question. It only serves to describe the series tag.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>While I agree that the current system is not ideal for users to look for and answer questions by genre, I don't think tagging every question with its genres is a good solution.</p>

<p>Maybe a better solution is a tagging system for tags, where series tags are tagged with their genres (since the main purpose here is to look for series by genre), though the chances that it's implemented here at SE is small, since it will introduce significant changes to the existing system.</p>
