We give an example of how conventional gauging methods obstruct a systematic
analysis of gauged supergravities. We discuss how the embedding tensor
formalism deals with these problems and argue that the gauge algebra related to
the embedding tensor formalism is soft, open and reducible. We connect the
embedding tensor formalism to the field-antifield (or Batalin-Vilkovisky)
formalism, which is the most general formulation known for gauge theories.Comment: Contribution to the Proceedings of the XVIth European Workshop on
String Theory in Madrid (June 14-18, 2010), 10 page
