Should we pipe [MangoDB] to /dev/null?

Question

I propose we burninate the mangodb tag. Users have been confusing it for the mongodb tag, as it's only one letter different. There are now 33 questions remaining on the tag after I went through and re-tagged the ~60 questions which were clearly typos of mongodb

Edit: After a community cleanup we're now down to just 3 questions in the mangodb tag, all relating to Kohana's MangoDB ORM

The most well known MangoDB is a joke database server written in 2012:

MangoDB is one of the fastest databases in existence. It allows you to store ANY KIND OF DATA you want without any IO bottleneck. You're only limited by the size of your pipe.

The secret to its O(1) efficiency is that all input is piped to /dev/null

Does it describe the contents of the questions to which it is applied? and is it unambiguous?

The tag wiki for mangodb reads:

MangoDB is an ORM for MongoDB, used with the Kohana PHP framework.

Only 5 questions tagged with mangodb mention Kohana, a deprecated framework which ceased development in 2016.

Most questions with the mangodb tag don't have anything to do with Kohana's MangoDB ORM.

So no, it doesn't describe the contents of the questions to which it is applied. Yes, the tag is currently unambiguous.

Is the concept described even on-topic for the site?

Yes.

Does the tag add any meaningful information to the post?

Currently no, because it's hugely misapplied. It more often removes meaningful information as it makes it less clear which possible database-related Mango/Mongo software the user is asking about.

See this question. It's not a good question by degrees, but it's asking about discord.js, which is built on node.js. Node.js and MongoDB are a common combo, but the tag suggests the user is trying to connect to something else.

Does it mean the same thing in all common contexts?

No.

The tag is currently used to refer to:

MongoDB (when misspelled)
The Mango Query Language used by Apache CouchDB
The MangoDB Kohana

As blacktide pointed out, there is also the possibility the tag could be used to refer to the old name of Ferret DB

I think the best solution is to remove the MangoDB tag entirely, create a new tag kohana-mangodb for the old Kohana questions and re-tag the CouchDB questions couchdb-mango

As of 27 December, it looks like we're still getting MongoDB questions mistakenly tagged as MangoDB

@SurajRao It's definitely on a similar vein. So many misspellings and so much incorrect usage that it's difficult to justify even renaming the tag. — Joundill, Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 7:22
I think we need to retag the incorrect ones. Maybe create kohana-mangodb and synonymize mangodb to kohana-mangodb ? — Suraj Rao, Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 7:25
@SurajRao I've only done that for mongodb, as I'm familiar enough with it to confidently say which ones deserve a re-tag. I don't think we should synonymize mangodb to kohana-mangodb, I've seen enough questions where people mistakenly call MongoDB MangoDB through their whole post. — Joundill, Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 7:27
I will leave it to the regulars of the tag if any to decide... I am not too familiar with it — Suraj Rao, Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 7:31
Is there already a "I stored my bitcoins in mangoDB - how do I retrieve them again" question? — Patrick Artner, Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 15:39
There was another (non-joke) MangoDB that is a direct substitute for MongoDB. They renamed to FerretDB about two weeks ago. — blacktide, Commented Dec 15, 2021 at 2:39

Joundill · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-20 23:03:52Z

I've been watching the mangodb tag for a few months now.

We removed mangodb from all questions except those which refer to Kohana's MangoDB ORM in December.

Since then, there have been a slow, but steady trickle of questions mistakenly tagged MangoDB instead of MongoDB. There have been 0 new questions about the Kohana ORM and, consistent with the history of the tag, every single new question on the mangodb tag has been a spelling mistake.

The solution

I propose renaming mangodb to kohana-mangodb and blacklisting the mangodb tag with the following note:

The 'mangodb' tag is not allowed.

'MangoDB' is a common misspelling of 'MongoDB', a document-oriented database. If your question is about this, please use the 'mongodb' tag.

If your question is about Apache CouchDB's query language named Mango, please instead use the tag 'couchdb-mango'

Or, if your question is about the Kohana PHP framework's ORM named MangoDB, please use the tag 'kohana-mangodb'

For more details, please visit meta.

The only real downside to blacklisting the tag is that it would prevent the mangodb tag from being re-created if one of the existing technologies took off again, or a new library/service/platform was named MangoDB. In the unlikely event that that happens, we can discuss it again on Meta and change our minds about the blacklist.

FWIW, I think this incorporates the spirit of the two other answers too. My blacklist suggestion is like a stronger tag warning, and the suggestion of renaming the existing tag then blacklisting the old name is similar to @TylerH's suggestion, but without the issue of synonymisation allowing users to continue to mis-tag their questions with typos. — Joundill, Commented Feb 20, 2022 at 23:07

cocomac · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-14 19:36:35Z

-9

Instead of removing it, I think the mangodb tag should get a tag warning*, which would say something like this:

MangoDB is a database that passes all queries to /dev/null to make it fast. Are you sure you didn't mean mongodb?

MangoDB is on-topic, so it seems reasonable to have a tag for it. At the same time, adding a warning allows it to be used, while deterring people from mis-spelling it.

*See this for what a tag warning is

answered Dec 14, 2021 at 19:36

cocomac

6742 gold badges27 silver badges68 bronze badges

17

It's a good suggestion, but I don't think a tag warning would remedy the issue of people misspelling MongoDB. From what I've seen, most users who tag their question mangodb are inexperienced. It's less likely that someone experienced with MongoDB would get the name wrong. These inexperienced users are also less likely to pay attention to a tag warning.
– Joundill
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 21:16
1

No one reads tag warnings.
– EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
Commented Dec 16, 2021 at 19:25
@Joundill You could post an answer if you have an idea. Maybe it, unlike these two answers, won't get downvoted to oblivion :) (yes, I know votes on Meta are different, but still)
– cocomac
Commented Dec 17, 2021 at 4:14
@cocomac Not too sure what my answer would be, to be fair.
– Joundill
Commented Dec 17, 2021 at 4:21

Add a comment |

TylerH · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-14 17:09:14Z

-11

A low-use tag by itself is not reason enough to remove it... there is an on-topic programming tool or product called MangoDB, so it stands to reason we should allow such questions here. It would be much simpler to rename mangodb to something less conflicting, like mangodb-orm or kohana-mangodb, etc., and synonymize mangodb to it.

edited Dec 14, 2021 at 17:09

user17242583

answered Dec 14, 2021 at 14:20

TylerH

21.1k22 gold badges239 silver badges344 bronze badges

21

The problem with synonyms is that the replacement is silent, so someone who mistypes "mongodb" as "mangodb" will end up with their question tagged "mangodb-orm" when they click save, and probably not notice; and then probably nobody will see it, because nobody watches that tag. Renaming without a synonym is probably the better idea in this case.
– IMSoP
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 15:21
2

@IMSoP Yes and no. People who don't read excerpts will pick whatever tags they want. I've seen people blindly tag things before. But sane renames with synonyms are helpful because it makes it harder to misuse the tag
– Machavity Mod
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 15:30
26

I'd suggest renaming it to kohana-mangodb, since that prevents it being confused with any other ORM library for MongoDB that there might be.
– kaya3
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 15:31
3

@Machavity In this case, we're not talking about people actively misusing the tag; we're talking about people making a typo. They might notice the "-orm" appearing on the end of their tag, and spell it right on the second attempt; but I'm willing to bet that a lot wouldn't. (Also, "people who don't read excerpts" is probably 99% of users, because the UI does a really poor job of encouraging you to read them.)
– IMSoP
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 15:50
2

@IMSoP Fair enough. I would say that makes for a better case for [konoha-mangodb].
– Machavity Mod
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 15:56
@IMSoP Yes, synonyms are mostly silent (you can see top synonyms underneath the wiki excerpts when typing in/selecting a tag), and hopefully users see that they picked the wrong thing when they ask a mongodb question and see their question tagged suddenly with mangdb-orm or something clearly not about mongodb. But do keep in mind that downvoting for lack of effort in asking is a valid action, and 'not paying attention to what tags you use' certainly qualifies as a lack of effort.
– TylerH
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 17:07
@TylerH To be honest, I think the tagging UI is badly broken, so tend not to downvote users for failing to understand its subtleties. I'm less tolerant of people leaving text in their questions saying "Insert image description here", though.
– IMSoP
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 17:50
It's worth noting that the Kohana MangoDB ORM is dead. There hasn't been a question about it for 5 years now. A mangodb -> kohana-mangodb synonym might cause a user to pick up that they'd made a mistake, but it also wouldn't help anyone actually asking about the Kohana library, because nobody asks about it any more.
– Joundill
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 21:21
@Joundill The tech itself is dead or activity on SO is dead?
– TylerH
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 21:23
it not being updated, doesn't mean noone is using it... unless it relied on an api-of sorts that is simply no longer available, ofc
– Kevin B
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 21:23
@TylerH both. Kohana hasn't been developed since 2016, and no questions have been asked about its MangoDB ORM since 2016.
– Joundill
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 21:24
1

@TylerH Have a look here
– Joundill
Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 21:25
I think a complete merge/rename to kohana-mangodb will be more suitable as the name [mangodb] will not show up in tag suggestions.
– TheMaster
Commented Dec 15, 2021 at 19:59
@TheMaster Hmm, what if someone wants to ask a question about mangodb, types that in, and submits their question? Now the tag exists again.
– TylerH
Commented Dec 15, 2021 at 20:47
1

@TylerH If someone types in [mangodb], wouldn't [kohana-mangodb] show up in list of suggestions? Wouldn't the user choose that? Also there's a rep limit to creating tags preventing inexperienced users from creating tags.
– TheMaster
Commented Dec 15, 2021 at 20:50

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