What are tag synonyms?
Tag synonyms allow us to fix incorrect tags by substituting them with the correct tags.
When should I propose a tag synonym?
Whenever you see questions being repeatedly tagged with the wrong or incorrect tag -- or multiple tags that mean the same thing -- it's a good idea to propose a tag synonym. The goal is to avoid manually editing the tags on every post by making the retagging automatic for common tag mistakes.
How do I propose or vote on tag synonyms?
Users with this privilege and a total answer score (total upvotes minus total downvotes) of 5 or more on the tag, can suggest tag synonyms. Users with a total answer score of 5 or more on the tag, can vote for tag synonyms.
When viewing a tag, look for the box at the top of the page which contains information about the tag with links below it. The last one in that list will be a link to the synonyms page. If there are already synonyms that exist for the tag, the number of synonyms will be shown there as well.
This page will list out all existing synonyms for the tag. Any suggested synonyms for the tag will appear below that with up and down arrows so that eligible users can vote on whether it is valid or invalid. Below that, there is also a box to suggest an additional synonym for that tag.
How do synonyms get approved?
When a tag synonym proposal reaches a score of 4, it is accepted and becomes active. If a proposed tag synonym reaches a score of -2 it is deleted.
What happens when a question is asked using a synonym?
Any tags that match active synonyms will be automatically and silently changed from their original as-entered form to the tag that the synonym points to.
This also increments a synonym counter, which you can view at /tags/synonyms to evaluate the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of the synonyms that are in place.