Tags | SME | Subject matter expert |

Subject matter experts (SMEs) are users that demonstrate exceptional knowledge on a certain topic. You can learn more about SMEs in the Subject Matter Experts article.

Administrators and moderators can designate certain users as SMEs. With Stack Overflow for Teams Business and Enterprise, an automated process can also designate a user an SME when they achieve enough reputation in a given tag.

NOTE: This article is for site administrators and moderators.

To view all subject matter experts, click Users in your site's left-hand menu. Click subject matter experts at the top of the page. The Subject matter experts (SMEs) page will appear.

You can sort the list of SMEs by date by clicking on the Date assigned header. You can also click on any user name to go directly to their profile page.

As an admin, you can click SME Settings at the top of the page to access the SME settings page described later in this article.

Stack Overflow for Teams assigns SMEs at the tag level, so most SME management functions appear on the Tags page. To access the Tags page, click Tags in your site's left-hand menu.

The Tags table has the following columns: Name, Usage Guidance (description), number of Posts that use the tag, number of Watchers of the tag, number of subject matter experts (SMEs) assigned to the tag, and Date created. You can sort the Tags table by clicking the Name, Posts, or Date created heading.

Use the buttons above the Tags table to select between two different views. Click All to view all tags, or No SME assigned to view those tags with no SMEs.

NOTE: Viewing tags with no SMEs and sorting by Posts is an effective way to identify tags that have high usage but no subject matter experts. Finding and assigning SMEs for those tags will help drive engagement and improve the quality of your content.

To manage the SMEs assigned to a tag, click SMEs in the tag's row. You can also click the three dots button on any row and select Manage SMEs. The "Manage subject matter experts" box appears, listing the existing SMEs for that tag (if any).

To add an SME, start typing the name of the individual user or user group. When the user or group appears in the search results lists, click it to assign it as an SME to the tag. To delete an SME, click the X next to the user or group name.

NOTE: SOE will also search for users by email address and external ID.

Stack Overflow for Teams Business and Enterprise offer automation to make the assignment of SME status easier and more consistent. Rather than waiting for an admin or moderator to recognize a user's contributions, the site will automatically assign SME status when a user passes a reputation threshold for a given tag.

NOTE: SME Auto-Assign looks only at reputation earned through questions answered and Articles written, not the user's overall reputation for the tag.

To control this feature, site admins can click Admin settings then Subject matter experts. The Subject matter experts (SMEs) settings page will appear. By default, SME Auto-Assign is off. Set Enable SME auto-assign to On to enable and configure the feature.

When enabled, SME Auto-Assign offers three additional settings:

When you click Save settings, you'll see an alert at the top of the page that summarizes the resulting changes to SME assignments on your site.

If your new settings (for example: raising the reputation threshold) will result in users losing their auto-assigned SME status, the site will ask if you wish to keep the existing SMEs.

To preserve SME status for users in spite of the new settings, click Keep existing SMEs. To remove SME status based on the new settings, click Remove SMEs.

Additional details regarding SME Auto-Assign:

When a user becomes an SME, whether by manual assignment or SME Auto-Assign, they'll see a message on their Stack Overflow for Teams Home page, Questions page, or Articles page. They'll also receive a confirmation to their For You inbox and email (if enabled).

Users can view their SME status by clicking the gear button at the top of their homepage's Tags box, then SME tags. They'll see a list of the tags they are an SME for.

For SME tags assigned by automation, they can decline the assignment by clicking Subject matter expert for the tag and selecting None. Users cannot decline SME status assigned by an admin or moderator.

The SME Auto-Assign feature will remove SME status from users who've been inactive for a specified period of time. When the automation removes a user's SME status, they'll see an alert on their home page.

Teams Enterprise admins can use the Stack Overflow for Teams API /tags endpoints to manage SMEs on their site. For more information on the API, check out our API v3 for Teams Enterprise article.

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