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I've had to reject and roll back a lot of tag wiki entries, and I'd like to explain what we are looking for.

See Improved Tagging.

Tag wikis are about why you would use a tag. Tag wikis are not to define the term being used. Avoid generically defining the concept behind a tag, unless it is highly specialized.

This tag wiki except doesn't work…

Resume
A résumé is a list of credentials given to a prospective employer that clearly lays out your education, skills and abilities.

This is better…

Career Development
For questions about advancing one's career as a whole rather than working in a specific job function or company.

The “resume” tag does not need to explain what a resume is. I think we can safely assume most users of this site know what a resume is; there’s no value in a boilerplate explanation. Add, instead, why a user would use this tag.

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    This makes sense, and I apologize for writing a couple tag wikis in the wrong format. Although I would point out that this is different than other sites handle tags. E.g., some of the top tags from StackOverflow (say c#, java, android or python) are basically just descriptions and have little to do with what the tag means to the community. I would not consider c# a "highly specialized" tag, yet its wiki pretty much "generically defines the concept." I like the points made in Improved Tagging, but some popular examples don't follow that. Apr 11, 2012 at 17:39
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    @root45 lots of sites have this problem, but that doesn't mean we should let it settle in on this site, especially since almost all of our tags are common knowledge regardless of profession. Explaining when to use the tag is more important
    – Rarity
    Apr 11, 2012 at 18:16

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You make an excellent point here.

For obvious tags where supposedly the user should know the definition (i.e. resume), the textual definition should be suppressed and the when-to-apply-tag text should be developed.

However this should not be a rule of thumb. Looking into tag definitions in other Stack Exchange sites (specially StackOverflow), I believe there might come some work related tags that need both the definition and the application.

Industry specific tags such as TPS-Report or scrum should have a brief definition, so that people from other areas would know what it is about and would better decide when to use it.

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In addition to what Robert pointed out, here is some more information on what should be included in Tag Wikis:

What are Tag Wikis?

The tag wiki excerpt is a brief plain text introduction to the topic that the tag represents. It is shown at the top of tag question lists, and as a tooltip wherever the tag appears. Complete this first!

The full tag wiki is a detailed introduction to the topic, suitable as a destination for those curious about it:

► what questions should have this tag?

► some basic definitions

► brief introduction to the subject

► important links for learning more

► one reasonably sized page

There is also a blog post on writing great tag wikis.

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Is it still an issue where the text in the field is not the exerpt, but the first part of the tag wiki? Because that used to be a problem. What you list as a bad example is perfectly fine introduction for a tag wiki, however it does make a poor tag exerpt.

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  • Tag excepts describe why you would use a tag. The full tag wikis are free to later go into much greater detail and are often used to greatly expound on the subject and point out other resources for those interested in the subject. See: stackoverflow.com/tags/android/info Apr 12, 2012 at 16:33
  • @RobertCartaino That makes sense. However, in some places, the exerpt is displayed, while in others, the first so many characters of the tag wiki is displayed. That's ultimately the problem - the tag exerpt should be what's displayed on the post screen and when hovering over the tag. Apr 12, 2012 at 17:01

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