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[windows-server-2008] body:r2 yields a large number of results for questions about 2008 R2 that are tagged 2008. They're, obviously, very different operating systems. I don't see a way to fix this other than retagging. I've already put a snippet in the except for asking people to be cautious of this in the future.

Just to clarify, I am NOT suggesting that we:

  • Blindly retag everything.

  • Retag questions that involve both 2008 and 2008 R2 (though the addition of is probably appropriate).

  • Guess at what tag should be there if it's ambiguous

What I am suggesting is that we retag the ones that are blatantly wrong. Whether the answer is the same for 2008 or 2008 R2 is immaterial, in my opinion. I favorite but not for example.

On top of that, there are tag badges that exist for these, so accuracy does have an impact on some things other than searches.

I don't disagree that many things in 2008 are similar in 2008 R2, but many things aren't. On top of that, it's an entirely different operating system, not a minor feature update like 2003 R2 was to Server 2003. If we don't care about the accuracy of OS specific tags, why do we even have them?

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With 1500+ you will be better off emailing the team to do it, like we did with vmware.

I'm not really up to date with the differences between vanilla 2k8 and 2k8r2. Would just adding the 2k8r2 tag to anything mentioning r2 in the body make sense or does it need someone to cast an eye over it to make the call?

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    They're entirely different NT kernel code bases. 2008 shares a code base with Vista and 2008 R2 shares a codebase with Windows 7. Mixing those tags is akin to tagging a question about Windows 7 with [Windows-Vista]. Will the team be able to do anything without needing a complete mass-retagging? Not every single question in that list needs to be retagged, but a lot do.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Jan 21, 2012 at 17:49
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    @MDMarra if you can come up with some heuristics which say r2 + h1 = change to 2k8r2 or r2 + h2 do not change etc then that will really help whittle them down. Manually retaging 1500 questions is an immense task. Bear in mind also that if it's really bad now then anything you do will improve it and a few incorrect retags using heuristics will still be a win
    – user9517
    Commented Jan 21, 2012 at 18:53
  • I might not be the best person to do this, I don't know the SE search syntax that well.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Jan 21, 2012 at 22:57
  • I wouldn't call them different code bases. BSD and Linux have different code bases. NT4, and Windows 95 have different code bases. 2008, and 2008R2 are simply different releases. A large number of questions I have seen asked on superuser apply equally as much to Windows 7, Vista, and XP, but they have an specific tag. I don't see how that is helpful.
    – Zoredache
    Commented Jan 22, 2012 at 22:25
  • Because they're tagged incorrectly, which impacts things like tag favorites, hidden tags, tag badges, etc.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Jan 22, 2012 at 22:26
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I wonder how many of these questions really are specific to any particular version of Windows Server.

While I agree there is some difference between 2008 and 2008R2, there really is an extremely huge amount of similarity. I am not sure it is worth spending lots of time to re-tag questions where the line is almost certainly blured anyway.

I see a have seen a large number of questions asking about really basic features that would apply to any version of Windows from 2000 up to the current release. If we are going to do some kind of mass re-tag, I think it would be important to go to the least specific tag that the question implies.

I also have answered and seen many questions about mixed domains or about upgrading. So it isn't surprising that you might see both versions of Windows mentioned.

I don't see any problem fixing the problems when you see them, but I am not sure that it is worth going out of your way to fix them.

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  • I disagree for the reasons I listed above on a comment to Iain's answer.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Jan 22, 2012 at 22:28
  • @MDMarra, I agree with Zoredache. Regardless of the kernel code base difference, which really isn't that big a deal because it's seldom noticed at the application level, most questions referring to one variant apply equally to the other. To me it seems like you're being excessively pedantic on this issue.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Jan 22, 2012 at 22:40
  • @JohnGardeniers have you used them? Sure third-party apps behave the same, but many MS roles/features are different between the two versions. Sorry if you feel I'm being pedantic, but they're two entirely different operating systems. If you don't think it's a problem, perhaps you would prefer a generic [windows-server] tag instead?
    – MDMarra
    Commented Jan 22, 2012 at 22:47
  • Just to be clear, I am not saying that I am against fixing questions where there is a real difference, and reviewing questions isn't a bad thing. I don't think you should just blindly mass-retag things. I just don't think the problem is very big, and so I am probably not going to personally put much effort myself into such a project.
    – Zoredache
    Commented Jan 23, 2012 at 3:14
  • @Zoredache I agree, which is why I'm calling for manual review of the questions in the query. That said, I retagged at least 20 without making a dent early Saturday morning. There are a lot more mis-tagged questions in there than you think.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Jan 23, 2012 at 3:23
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Is it possible to put a Supercollider notification in place for those questions?

That may shift some of the burden to the asker of the question. Even if just helps on a few hundred, that would be a benefit!

"Your question 'How do I set up my free porn site on Windows 2008?' needs retagging. Please change to or as appropriate. <link>Further information on this change is available.</link>"

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