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I just came across the tag, which I hadn't noticed before. Based on the tag wiki it would have been almost perfect for my question How can I make humans NOT WANT to investigate how a supernatural ability works in an intelligent, non-human creature? (in fact, I'm going to edit it in after posting this, despite that question having had its fifteen minutes of shame fame) but the name does not, in my opinion, make the tag particularly discoverable. The tag wiki states that the tag is...

For questions about differing intelligent species that are co-existing.

"Races" could also at the very least mean different forms of competitive racing, which seems like it could be a reasonable subject in matters of worldbuilding (we also have the sports tag, which has seen some use).

Tags should generally be named such as typing keywords relevant to the question into the tag box yields reasonable tag suggestions based on substring matching in both the primary tag name as well as any synonyms.

Given the above, is the races tag appropriately named, or should it be renamed? If it should be renamed, then what should it be renamed to?

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  • $\begingroup$ Perhaps "Inter-racial x" where x is a word about living together. Maybe x ∈ Y where Y = {'Co' + y where y is any word}, for example 'Cooperation' or 'Cohabitation'. $\endgroup$
    – DaaaahWhoosh
    May 29, 2015 at 14:15
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    $\begingroup$ I like 'cohabitation', but 'inter-racial' doesn't really capture the key points of 'differing intelligent species'. Maybe 'inter-sophont cohabitation'? Does anyone else use the word 'sophont'? $\endgroup$
    – evankh
    May 30, 2015 at 4:07
  • $\begingroup$ @knave no, I assure you they don't. Though I agree 'inter-racial' doesn't really work. Why not just 'interspecies'? $\endgroup$
    – DaaaahWhoosh
    Jun 2, 2015 at 13:16
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, wait, there's already a interspecies-relations tag, should we just combine them? $\endgroup$
    – DaaaahWhoosh
    Jun 2, 2015 at 13:17
  • $\begingroup$ @DaaaahWhoosh Sounds like a reasonable idea to me. Perhaps amending the interspecies-relations tag wiki to mention that it is about interspecies relations/coexistence between multiple intelligent species. Why don't you post that as an answer, and we'll see if it flies? $\endgroup$
    – user
    Jun 2, 2015 at 13:34
  • $\begingroup$ I suspect that the tag description was meant to emphasize the differing intelligent species rather than the relations between them. It sounds like a clumsy attempt to describe typical fantasy/SF races in a generic way. $\endgroup$
    – Bradd Szonye
    Jun 9, 2015 at 1:02
  • $\begingroup$ Not to mention people might have a question about "races" that belong to the same biological species. $\endgroup$
    – zeta
    Jun 12, 2015 at 4:15

2 Answers 2

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As discussed in the comments, it would appear that we have a tag that is very similar to the tag:

For questions about the interactions and relationships between two different species.

For questions about differing intelligent species that are co-existing.

I suggest we combine them. As Michael Kjorling suggested, the only problem is that the tag is about different intelligent species, whereas is more general. However, I think a tag for interactions between species of variable intelligence is fine; after all, intelligence is more of a subjective quality.

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  • $\begingroup$ Heh. I created interspecies-relations to replace human-animal-interaction, which someone created but sounded too long-winded to me. Now you mention it, they are pretty similar. $\endgroup$
    – ArtOfCode
    Jun 2, 2015 at 14:22
  • $\begingroup$ @ArtOfCode I agree with the creation, it does fill a niche, but now that it exists I don't think we need races. It's just too limiting. $\endgroup$
    – DaaaahWhoosh
    Jun 2, 2015 at 14:25
  • $\begingroup$ I agree. Combining them does seem an appropriate action here. $\endgroup$
    – ArtOfCode
    Jun 2, 2015 at 14:28
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    $\begingroup$ .... well.... I could just have a question about several species that exist, but don't necessarily interact at all (maybe in the parallel universe -type questions). Hmm. $\endgroup$
    – Mikey
    Jun 3, 2015 at 22:42
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The tag description sounds like an attempt to describe typical fantasy/SF races in a generic way. I doubt that it was meant to imply race relationships specifically, so I would not combine it with other tags about relations. Instead, it might just need to be more obvious that it’s about or or instead of race in the everyday sense of the word.

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