Tag name conventions: to the or not to the?

Question

We had a question earlier about the tags lord-of-the-rings and the-lord-of-the-rings. While that issue has now been resolved by Robert Cartaino, I thought it'd be worth trying to establish a consensus for some more general conventions on tag naming.

When the name of a work begins with an article ("the", "a", or "an"), should we include the article in the name of the tag for that work?

On the one hand, the article would lengthen the tag name without adding anything to the meaning. On the other hand, it might be nice to use the 'official' name of the work.

Any more pros and cons?

_{Assume that including the articles won't make the tag go over the 25-character limit. We can't use the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner, because it's too long; that decision isn't in our hands.}

Answer 1

Be consistent. Use the full tag name where practical

The reason to use the full title as a tag (where practical) is that's how (some) people are going to search/enter it.

If the tag does not include the full title (for example, lord-of-the-rings shortened for convenience), when people type out the full name, the-lord-of-the-rings, they are not going to find it. You are only creating a maintenance issue when folks think they are creating a new tag.

But if you err with using the proper title, the tag will come up even if they enter the shorter version:

lord → the-lord-of-the-rings

Being consistent also makes the site generally easier to use. Following a consistent naming convention will help users anticipate what the tag would likely be (assuming it exists at all).

Answer 2

Omit them where possible

I don't see anything wrong in tagging "The Lord of the Rings" as lord-of-the-rings. For one thing, this is fairly common practice, and also, it helps to shorten long titles where possible. However, I wouldn't want to see "The Prestige" tagged as prestige, since the meaning becomes ambiguous. In such cases, we need the full title, i.e. the-prestige, especially since tag names are all lower case. Where there can be little cause for confusion, e.g. pickwick-papers, then dropping the leading article would be workable, and perhaps preferable.

If we decide to drop leading articles in some cases, and retain them in others, then we are inevitably going to have edge cases. For example, do we use suitable-boy or a-suitable-boy? I was unsure before I typed them, but I think that suitable-boy is clearer.

In any case, what will inevitably cause us problems is the 25-character limit on tag names. If we take a strict approach and retain complete titles, we will simply encounter the hard limit more often.

Answer 3

NO*

We should not use "the", "a" or "an" as the first word in our tag titles for the same reason it is not used in any cataloging system... alphabetical ordering. There would simply be too many entries starting with that word, and at the end of the day it has descriptive bearing on the title/tag.

*_{I say this is the standard we should follow, and have possible rare exceptions if for some reason leading with an article is critical...}