Can we let moderators add topic tags (and maybe required and mod-only tags)?

[cellio]

Topic tags, required tags, and moderator-only tags are part of the category definition, which is editable only by admins. Can we give moderators the ability to add to this list (at minimum), or perhaps to edit it (except not removing seeds)?

Languages & Linguistics is currently discussing making tags for specific languages topic tags. Somewhere Else, the workplace site once discussed special styling for location tags, and I've heard rumors that their travel site did as well. What all of these have in common is that they're larger sets and new tags could pop up all the time. We don't want mods to have to ask admins to add these as they come up.

Further, if categories share tag sets, like Q&A and a Resources category, this edit has to be done on each category. I don't know if we want to say categorically that tag status should instead bind to the tag set -- maybe it should, but for now it's category-based.

Won't do this part, per comments: We do not want mods to remove the seeded tags on meta, because network staff use those to track issues that are brought up on individual metas. We need to be able to scan metas without having to remember that on this community "support" got downgraded or the status tags got changed or whatever.

Putting all of this together, I propose a new page on Moderator Tools, called "tag management" or "tags", with an interface that looks something like this:

I can't think of other tag-management tools right now that belong here rather than on the individual tag pages, but the general name ("tag management" or "tags") allows us to add them here if they come up.

[ArtOfCode-]

Complexity depends on how closely to this suggestion this should be implemented...

• Allowing moderators to change tags within the special sets (required, topic, moderator) is easy.
• Allowing moderators to add but not remove (which includes not removing even those tags that moderators have added) is also easy.
• Allowing moderators to add and remove except the pre-seeded tags is hard. There's no way to distinguish between the pre-seeded tags and those that moderators have added.

[cellio]

Ah, ok. In that case let's do #1 (allow changes) and add text like "Please do not change [list of 4 tags]" in required tags and "Please do not change status tags" in the mod tags.