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There are two questions tagged : One question is about the comparative, for which is already used, and the other one is about the differences between "more than," and "more than what."

Considering there are already , and , are there cases where would be a better tag?

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    I'd just as soon see comparative-degree go away and keep comparison, which is applicable to constructions as well as just adjectives and adverbs: as...as,just...as,Xer than, and so forth.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Feb 16, 2013 at 20:15
  • Would not comparison be understood as the tag to use every time a question compare two words/phrases?
    – apaderno
    Feb 16, 2013 at 20:16
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    Of course: Anything which can be misunderstood will be. But that's a meta-tag use and should be quashed anyway; the question should be retagged.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Feb 16, 2013 at 20:20
  • I don't follow: Which one would be a meta tag?
    – apaderno
    Feb 16, 2013 at 20:22
  • Use to tag a question comparing two words/phrases. That tells you the form or motive of the question, nothing about its topic or content.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Feb 16, 2013 at 20:23
  • Meta tags would be tags like beginner, homework, or non-native-speaker which don't give any information about the question, but who asks it. comparison is bad because (generally speaking) there are many questions that are asking for a comparison; even in my question about using never with the past tense I am making a comparison. (I was asking which tag you were calling meta tag, not what meta tag means.)
    – apaderno
    Feb 16, 2013 at 20:39
  • Quite so. Tagging your question as negation or tense-distinction or something of that sort tells us what the question is about. Tagging it comparison tells us only the shape of the question, which is quite as useless as who asks it or why. That would be a meta-tag.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Feb 16, 2013 at 20:57
  • From the original announcement of The Death of Meta Tags: The reason meta-tags are a problem is that they do not describe the content of the question. They describe some other aspect of the question, like the author’s skill level, or the author’s motivation for asking it, or generally what “kind” of question it is (poll, how-to, etc.).
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Feb 16, 2013 at 21:03
  • If we were to choose between comparative-degree and comparison I’d prefer the former, to avoid ambiguity (and therefore risk of misuse).
    – Franklin Yu
    Jul 22, 2021 at 2:48

1 Answer 1

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As I understand it, we can't actually delete tags - all we can do is remove any links to an unwanted tag, and wait for the system to remove it as "unused".

I suggest we re-tag the existing questions linked to comparison, and hope it goes away. If not, we can try to make it a synonym of comparative-degree. But from what I recall, your options re voting on synonyms are severely restricted by the need to have upvotes in the tag(s) you're trying to change. So it might need a mod to deal with the matter.

My position, obviously, is that comparison is at best only useful as a synonym of comparative-degree, and I personally would like to see it disappear completely. We should use tags like metaphor, figurative, simile for "comparisons" that don't fall within comparative-degree.

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  • How then would you tag discussion of constructions like as __ as __ or more __ than __ or in comparison to __?
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Feb 17, 2013 at 0:30
  • @StoneyB: Wot? As warm as toast? More Catholic than the Pope? Why would they not be fine filed under metaphor, simile?
    – FumbleFingers
    Feb 17, 2013 at 2:10
  • As much as you want. More trouble than it's worth
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Feb 17, 2013 at 2:16
  • @StoneyB: I can't see there could ever be enough non-trivial things to ask about in such constructions, to be honest. The general principle is it's better to have too many tags than not enough, but do you want to wade through a few thousand old questions to see if any could usefully be tagged? Of course, you might as well include the couple of examples I gave, if they happen to have been asked. Unless you define the "comparisons" tag as excluding figurative usages. I don't know - use it if you want, but it seems pointless to me.
    – FumbleFingers
    Feb 17, 2013 at 2:33
  • Me, I'm personally indifferent. The only use I've ever found for tags was to screen out single-word-requests.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Feb 17, 2013 at 2:36
  • @StoneyB: Hmm. Well, if you don't care anyway, what's the point in nitpicking over my justifications for binning it?
    – FumbleFingers
    Feb 17, 2013 at 2:55
  • Economy. One tag embracing those matters and comparative-degree and superlative-degree.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Feb 17, 2013 at 12:41

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