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I noticed that we have both and

has the following tag wiki excerpt, my boldface:

Writing for children to read, or questions about children who write.

has the following tag wiki excerpt, again my boldface:

For questions about issues specifically encountered by young authors. Don't use this just because you're young; only use this if your question is specific to young authors. If you are asking about the young adult genre, use [young-adult] instead.

Do we really want both? There seems to be considerable overlap between the two, especially given that the boundary between "children" and "young" isn't clear.

Might we want to rename the tag to, say, , restrict it to questions about writings for children to read, and fold the other half of the tag into ?

If we want to keep both as they are, how can we clarify the difference between the two? (When would I use and when would I use on a question?)

How does the community feel?

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    Your proposed solution makes sense.
    – Cyn
    Commented Nov 13, 2018 at 17:28

2 Answers 2

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I agree there's a bit of an overlap.

I'd go with your solution:

...rename the children tag to, say, childrens-stories, restrict it to questions about writings for children to read, and fold the other half of the tag into young-author?

since it seems the most logical thing to do.

Maybe the sentence "children who write" in refers to childrens who are taking writing as an hobby, whereas is targeted against actually published young people. Yet I don't know if its an usual distinction to make. Probably could be extended to became a synonim of "young-writer", for that matter.

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    +1, but I think "young-author" is directed at non-adults that are writing stories, like adults, they HOPE to publish, not necessarily published authors.
    – Amadeus
    Commented Nov 13, 2018 at 19:33
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I would not rename "children" as "children-stories", I would take out the "questions about children who write". I might add the obvious, "questions about children [care, behavior, understanding of issues, attitudes, problems, mistakes]", which might be useful for authors that don't have any children of their own but have to write something for a story with modern children (as opposed to their own decades-old memories), and would like to hear from active parents (or grandparents).

Like, "How expert is a modern 9yo on an iPhone? Could they take a surreptitious video of a crime and email it to their father?"

Conclusion: after reading comments below, I think we should rename children" to "childrens-stories", keep the "young-author" tag for any under-age aspiring authors, and use the "child-characters" tag for questions about realistic child behavior, attitudes, problems, etc.

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  • We also have child-characters. I think it would apply better to your last question - is it feasible for a child character to do X.
    – Galastel supports GoFundMonica
    Commented Nov 13, 2018 at 19:54
  • Adding to what @Galastel said, this seems to teeter on the brink of making the questions not about writing at all. I imagine a lot of those questions would be better fits for Parenting, for example (if suitably worded, of course).
    – user Mod
    Commented Nov 13, 2018 at 20:14
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    @aCVn As my example question illustrates, this is entirely about writing and fiction. Parenting is about solving real-world problems with children, not fictional problems with fictional children. Galastel is right, there is overlap with child-characters, but the range of things we might wish to ask about fictional children in fictional situations could easily stray off-topic in Parenting. Like "If a kid has been kidnapped, do they know enough to do X?"
    – Amadeus
    Commented Nov 13, 2018 at 20:21
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    @aCVn But, that said, Parenting might be worth reading/lurking to sample actual parenting and child problems or issues, for the purpose of improving realism in fiction.
    – Amadeus
    Commented Nov 13, 2018 at 20:30
  • @Amadeus Yes; I'm not saying categorically that all such questions would by definition be off topic. I can definitely see a lot of that type of questions falling into the "what to write" or "not about writing at all" categories, though. That said, and I have argued this elsewhere also: each question should ideally be judged on its own merits. Applies here, too.
    – user Mod
    Commented Nov 13, 2018 at 20:47

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