Are more question tags better than fewer?

Question

When you create a question you can 'tag' it with... tags. This is supposed to make it easier for people searching to find the question because your question will be in the results if they search for one of your tags.

Most people tend to put 2 -3 tags, but I tend to put more because it will help people with similar questions find mine.

Is there a reason to use fewer tags? What are your opinions on the amount of tags a question should have?

Answer 1

I think, more important than the actual number is that they really fit.

A lot of people here ask a Python question and put 'Java' in their tags or nonsense like that.

So I'd say, as long as all your tags make sense, have at it.

Answer 2

Complement:
I think you have to ask yourself, who would use this tag in the search? Or does my tag prevent a search for this tag?
Normally you want to find posts where the tag fits to 90% - 100% and not the other posts that appear only because people thought that the tag could fit.

Answer 3

I agree with HonFu, how relevant the words in tags matter more than how many words that are tagged. If you are sure that your question can be searched by a few words than that's fine. But if you think more words are needed to really clarify the question subject, then perhaps use of extra (still related) words wouldn't hurt.

I have a doubt about tags too actually. Since I'm not seeing any clear guidance as to how people should tag their questions. How should it be done correctly (in SoloLearn) for when two or more words could be chained and bears a different meaning, for example:

- web development
- list comprehension
- vector iterator
- etc.

Do we chain them with hyphens, or underscore or we don't chain them at all? though as I understand it (with my minimum vocabulary - without chaining the words), meaning may differ, and noting how SoloLearn commonly shuffles the tags, the words as individual can be misinterpreted.

Answer 4

I prefer as less as possible. For me it is important that they really fits.
In your question I would only use "sololearn" and "tags".