How To Propose a New Category or Tag

To propose a new category or tag, users should make a new topic in the Meta category that is titled “Proposed New Category/Tag: [Name]”, and include the details described below.

All proposals for a new category should provide the following.
Name: Descriptive, but as short as possible.
Motivation: Describe why the new category is needed.
’About’ Text: Please write the text for the default “About the [Name] category” topic that is pinned in all categories. Community administrators will put your text in this topic when they create the category.

The default security settings for categories are that all posts are visible to anyone without login, and that all logged-in users may post topics and replies in the category. If the new category requires more restrictive permissions (e.g., to allow only a small group of users to create new topics, or limit all posting and viewing to a group of users), please describe and motivate what is needed, and the administrators will help to figure out which security settings are appropriate.

See this Meta topic proposal as an example of how this Photometric Redshifts category was created.

All proposals for a new tag only need the name and a motivation. See this post for more information about tagging. Users at Level 3+ have the ability to create new tags (just write it into the tag box when creating a topic). A list of all tags is available here.

Meta topics that propose new categories will remain open for community feedback for ~2 weeks (and tags for a much shorter window, a few days should suffice). Community Forum administrators will review the proposal and the feedback, and post a decision after that time window. The goal is to accommodate as many requests as possible while maintaining forum usability and avoiding over-categorization.

Feedback about this proposal process is welcome.

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