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Meta has recently seen an increase in posts concerning the renaming of tags in response to tag names supporting more characters.

Most requests are being made by the same couple of users in any case. Can we have a single post rather than individual posts across meta?

Much like with this post:

Top tags requiring a tag wiki


Benefits:
1. Coordinated effort in one place;
2. Streamline straight forward cases;
3. Remove unnecessary discussions (see #2);
4. Allow mods to make sweeping changes from one source (meta) rather than across multiple metas.

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    Could you please clarify the reason you are concerned about having multiple tag rename questions from the same few users? Would adding [tag-rename-request] to your ignored tag list solve the problem for you or is there a reason that's insufficient? Jan 12, 2018 at 20:38
  • @Thunderforge - done
    – user101016
    Jan 15, 2018 at 17:01
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    Who are the benefits targeted towards? If general users, then I don't see how the ones you listed are any different than having users add [tag-rename-request] to the ignored list. If it's the mods, thus far it seems like they're okay with the current process. Jan 16, 2018 at 22:21
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    As one of the more prolific editors of the 'Tags requiring Tag Wiki' post I feel I can say that the singular meta doesn't make it easy to keep a record of changes or really show any sort of progress (the revision history kinda works but is clunky for this purpose). That's why for these renames I personally prefer individual metas - as well as making it easier to search/track changes that have been made previously, it also makes it easier for community members to see/discuss/oppose any proposed changes on tags that they care about, which is the most important factor IMO.
    – Robotnik Mod
    Jan 17, 2018 at 2:19
  • @Thunderforge - I think you are reading this as a complaint rather than a suggestion to improve the effort
    – user101016
    Jan 17, 2018 at 21:17

1 Answer 1

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Previously, we were told to create separate questions

There was a community wiki during the time we were testing the increase to 35 characters, but it clearly says that now you should raise a separate meta question for future requests.

These tags were raised as examples and have now been changed as a result of this meta post. If you want a particular tag lengthened, please raise it as a separate meta question so the community can vote on it.

I had interpreted this as meaning separate for each group of related tags, that way they could be independently voted on. Some renames have been fairly uncontroversial, others require some discussion, and some are such a mess because the game names are so convoluted. If we lumped them all into a single community wiki, that would make it more difficult to handle the latter two cases.

That said, if mods want to switch back to a community wiki or whatever, I'm okay with that. They should just let us know.

The root cause of so many meta posts is that we need tag synonyms

...and only mods can make them in a timely fashion.

The tag synonym suggestion process does not work at all. To get it approved on this site, you must have:

  • 2500 rep (500 more than than that required to unilaterally edit questions and answers)
  • 5 upvotes on answers (not questions) in the tag you want to synonymize
  • The cooperation of three other people with the same privileges, all of whom must be aware that there is a suggested synonym in the queue (because the site won't notify you).

Suffice it to say, this doesn't work, especially on Arqade since the tags that are in most need of synonyms have only a handful of questions that almost never have 5 answer upvotes for a single user, much less four. Even on Stack Overflow, the average length of synonym creation was a year and a half! In fact, virtually every synonym ever created on SE sites was created by a mod.*

Thus, the only way to get a synonym in a timely fashion, or at all, is to get a mod's attention via a meta question and have them cut through the red tape.

Now if the mods want to have a community wiki or a chat room or whatever instead of individual meta topics, that's cool, we'll start following that. But the ideal solution would be for Stack Exchange to improve the tag synonymization process so that they don't need to get mods involved every time.

* Someone with more familiarity on how to use the Stack Exchange Data Explorer should run the queries on Arqade to see how many tag synonyms were created by mods and how many, if any, were created through the tag synonym suggestion process.

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    I was going to write an answer but it's pretty much exactly this from the mod team's side.
    – Robotnik Mod
    Jan 13, 2018 at 6:34
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    I might be partially at fault for this. I created a fairly extensive Google Doc of potential tag renames that myself and Thunderforge have been working on.
    – Stevoisiak
    Jan 15, 2018 at 1:30
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    I just want to say keep up the good work guys. This is not a quick task and it really helps with keeping Arqade looking good. Your efforts are not going unnoticed.
    – FoxMcCloud
    Jan 16, 2018 at 19:02

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