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Wikipedia:Tag updating

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When considering adding new tags to an article that already has tags it can be hard to tell if you need to add more tags and what should done with tags that already there. How do you decide what tags should be kept and what tags should be removed as redundant? Here's some factors to consider when making that choice.

What the tags want you to do?

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Tags should communicate different actions to be taken. Tags such as {{Citation needed}} and {{More references needed}} direct that the same action be taken, add more references to article. Tags like {{Misplaced footnote}} and {{Bare URL inline}} direct different actions to be taken. Even though both may be referring to the same references, they point out different problems with the references.

You cannot solely rely on the tags themselves, the article content itself is relevant. If both {{Independent sources}} and {{Primary sources}} refer to the same non-independent sources, then both are not needed. In such a scenario, both want the same sources to be replaced with better sources. {{Independent sources}} would be preferred, as it generally seen as more specific. But if the article inappropriately refers to non-independent sources, but also over relies on other independent primary sources, both tags could be warranted.

Would communicating the issue differently be better?

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Templates are not the only way to communicate an issue. You also have comments and the talk page. You also generally have templates for the article/section, but inline templates as well. Instead of having 4 or 5 templates at the top of an article, you may want to keep the most important there, and replace the rest with inline templates (but, also see WP:Tag bombing), comments or a talk page section. {{Multiple issues}} links to the talk page, so even it is not included in that template, if it is on the talk page, it will still link to that issue.

There's not always 1 right answer

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Different editors have different views and preferences when it comes to communicating issues with articles and how to improve them. You can always choose to communicate the issues communicated by any template in a different way later. That's not to say there isn't a wrong answer, see § Also see.

Also see

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