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I frequently search SO by the "Java" tag, since that's the language I use every day, and that's my primary interest for the site. It frustrates me when people ask questions "How do I write XXX in C#?" and they include the Java tag because they include how they would have done it in Java. In my opinion, this question has nothing to do with Java, and isn't going to interest Java programmers at all.

Has a general consensus of the community been defined here? Is there a preference for the community to always include the Java tag also for questions like this?

If not, I think I'll start retagging these questions to remove the Java tag.

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If it's language agnostic, it should have no language tags. If it's about C#, then it shouldn't have Java tags. Do you have many examples of C# questions tagged Java? –  XMLbog Oct 22 '10 at 15:33

2 Answers 2

Can you just add [c#] to your ignored tags list? This will at least highlight those questions with both tags differently than questions with just your interesting tags.

I agree that questions like that probably wouldn't interest a Java programmer, but they might interest someone who knows both languages. The reason I suggest this as an alternative to retagging is that I think some people might search for questions with both tags (for whatever reason).

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The problem is - if I add C# to my list of ignored tags, then I won't be able to see the questions that are opposite - when they are asking "How do I do XXX in Java?" and they provide an example in C#. (although I think this is a lot less common) –  Erick Robertson Oct 22 '10 at 16:01

I think removing tag for the "from language" (Java) is the correct action.

For me, it helps to think of the tags as belonging to the answers instead of the question. "I want a solution in C#" is important information for answerers and future readers. "I happened to reference some Java in this question" seems much more incidental.

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