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The tag is mostly used on questions dealing with URL routing in web frameworks. I tried to estimate this, excluding many common web tags that I saw, and that reduced it from 3800 to 1400 questions remaining, of which many still deal with URL routing. So, mostly that.

The tag wiki however says "DO NOT USE THIS TAG FOR" URL routing etc.

The tag wiki then talks about routers as IP-layer network devices. That's networking. That is usually off-topic for Stack Overflow (configuration, operation, ...), unless you want to discuss it in a programming context. I'm taking bets on how many of these questions do that.

What to do?

  • Re-dedicate to URL routing and wade through 3800 questions to find those that deal with routing that isn't URL routing?
  • Double down, shoo away all the web dev people (and their questions) who will surely continue to use it for URL routing, since the tag wiki didn't work at all to dissuade them from using the tag?
  • Give up, treat as multi-use/generic tag, change tag wiki to reflect reality?
  • Wipe it from existence?
  • None of the above?
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    We also have routing/routes, with another 33k questions. (that would also in general should be tagged with the specific routing framework, instead of that crappy tag... but not having crappy tags is generally a lost battle, we just need to clean when encountering the evidence). Commented Apr 2, 2025 at 8:23
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    I'd say this is the same argument for my request for [httpclient] a few weeks ago meta.stackoverflow.com/q/433048/7147233 Commented Apr 2, 2025 at 8:24
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    Yes, let's uprout it. Commented Apr 2, 2025 at 8:43
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    Route [router] to Trogdor Commented Apr 2, 2025 at 14:32
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    Title suggestion: the [router] tag has taken the wrong path. Commented Apr 3, 2025 at 16:59

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Wipe it from existence, or if there is a legitimate reason for this tag double-down.

I don't see a question about networking hardware being on-topic on this site unless maybe someone is working on embedded software/firmware. Most any frontend client-side (SPAs) and SSR (MPAs) routing frameworks/libraries will surely already have established tags. I always remove or re-tag when I come across it.

We're kind of already saturated with router tags.

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    3,800 questions to clean up seems like a big lift Commented Apr 2, 2025 at 19:21
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    Embedded software is still important. Commented Apr 2, 2025 at 19:52
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    @WorstCoder4Ever I know, which is why I suspect there's a legitimate reason for the tag and why I think the "double-down" option to micro-manage/shoo web-devs away is fine. We've a ton of more appropriate frontend/UI-specific router tags. Commented Apr 2, 2025 at 20:17
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    @DrewReese Embedded is important, but since 2011 two people used both tags in combination, amassing a stunning 900 views combined (that's ~0.2 views/day). It seems to me, people capable of programming a router are also able to choose more specific tags for their questions. For a well-asked embedded question that's reduced to an MWE, it's most often irrelevant if the code is running on a router or some other device. Commented Apr 3, 2025 at 6:08
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    More interesting are questions with [router] and [openwrt], but there it's kind of redundant. The key information being the specific router software (i.e. openwrt). Going for [router] [c] -[openwrt] there are 8 questions left (2 of them closed), which are only loosely connected. So although there are some people asking about routers and embedded, I don't see much value in having a tag for it. Commented Apr 3, 2025 at 6:16
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I vote

  1. Re-purpose router for URL routers
  2. Fix the info page to indicate this
  3. Create a new tag network-router or possibly router-device
  4. Sift through the existing questions tagged router and move only the ones talking about devices over to the new tag
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    If you want to repurpose the tag, it should be synonymised to web-router or url-routing Commented Apr 2, 2025 at 8:01
  • another synonym: [routes] Commented Apr 3, 2025 at 19:03
  • @ChristophRackwitz routes is almost as problematic as router is for web-dev guys since all UI routers inevitably include route elements/components. It's another tag I often remove from frontend/UI posts in tags I watch. I don't necessarily agree routes is a suitable synonym for router though. Commented Apr 3, 2025 at 19:35
  • I thought I should mention [routes] because I just found an actual question dealing with configuring a VPN (off-topic) that had the [routes] tag on it. I don't know if that was the only question on [routes] that doesn't follow the usage guideline. Commented Apr 3, 2025 at 19:46

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