Lower or remove the tag synonym upvote restriction

Question

I tried to create tag synonym today for iphone -> ios, since there is an obvious split on these kind of questions. Although true that iOS encompasses the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, software that can be run on the iPhone can also run on any of these devices.

However, apparently it requires me to have 5 upvotes on that specific tag. Since we have so many diverse tags as each game gets its own tag, and games that aren't super popular at the moment probably only have one or two questions about them; this means only mods would be able to make the bulk of tag synonyms (as witnessed here).

I thus propose that, at least for gaming, the 5 upvote requirement for creating tag synonyms be removed. Since you already need 2500 reputation to create tag synonyms and there is a voting system in place already - I feel that requiring 5 upvotes seems redundant, or at the very least difficult to achieve at gaming.se.

Answer 1

The restrictions on synonym voting are certainly too strict for most smaller sites, making it impossible to create synonyms by voting. The proposed synonyms are also not very visible, making it even more unlikely that another user that is eligible for voting will see the proposed synonym.

But I think it doesn't matter, except for the very simple cases like plural/singular, synonym proposals really benefit from being made in public and discussed. Proposing it on meta means that more people take a look at the proposal and point out edge-cases and problems with the synonym.

Proposing the synonyms on the meta here and letting a moderator create them after the details are hashed out is in my opinion the best way to create synonyms. We have a pretty small volume of tag synonyms, so I don't see it as a problem that only moderators can effectively create them.