There's something wrong with the Tagging system...

[Knucklehead]

I would just like to point out that I too have seen this happen numerous times, and my game is also 100% legit. (It was a freebie for participating in a playability study at MS a couple years ago.)

From what I have observed, the glitch occurs most often when I have been in space for a while and when someone comes onto the scanners who has no affiliation. I have seen any number of tags, but most often from the most recent hostile group I had encountered.

I think it might be related to the bug that will sometimes briefly show a player's name when a selected NPC goes through a jumpgate.

Unfortunately, unless someone has access to the source code for the game, I doubt there is any way to fix either of these.

As for completely ignoring tags, I don't think it's a good idea. Tags, when functioning properly, can greatly help identify who is who and how they might act. Obviously there are problems with the tags, and they should never take a back seat to the ID's, but ignoring them completely is not an option I'd consider.

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It's official, I have too few ships now...