I mean, I said 90% bullshit :)

The problem with making it a rule is that genres are largely variable, and there's always cross genre tracks/artists, as well as the fact that what I think is doom metal, someone else might think is sludge, or maybe even death.

Yeah, if you stick with meta-genres like rock, classical, country, you're going to be okay usually.

Like, when it's voluntary, it's all good. When it becomes a rule for a C/, you're then asking existing moderators to take on the extra work of A: verifying the presence of the tag (and without automod to make it a trivial task via flair or in title [genre] tags), and B: become the arbiter of what is and isn't within a given genre.

B is a major problem, because then they have to either wait on reports of incorrect labelling, or check out every post eventually. The first part is a lot more hassle than you think, because now you're getting reports that are based in someone else's arbitrary definition of a genre, and it isn't going to end up with everyone happy. The second part is just not realistic over time.

That's the real issue with it, not the mostly joking part of my previous comment.

I will say that I stand by the point of that jokish part. Genres are mostly bullshit, and metal genres in specific approach absurdism. Applying them to a given C/ helps if that C/ is geared to searches and focused discovery. If the C/ is more of a place to share stuff you enjoy and let the chips fall where they may, genre tagging kills the exploratory side of things.

Both approaches are valid and awesome, but they are mutually exclusive. So it really depends on if the mods have a negative preference in vibe, and their willingness to deal with the added work that is likely to come with the tagging

Also, again as a joking way to address things, have you never visited a metal forum? Endless discussions about what specific sub genre of a sub genre a band is, is the entire reason they exist lol. It's practically inevitable that if more than one metalhead is in a room, there will be war over what genre is true metal. Shit, that's barely a joke it happens so often.

That's a way to say that not being in favor of those endless discussions doesn't mean they aren't going to become a chronic occurrence.