How do tags and their synonyms work and when should we add synonyms?

Question

So I was browsing through the tags and tried myself on the first tag edit :) (which failed miserably because links shouldn't be in there)

I stumbled upon glue and gluing. While admittedly they could/should be different tags, the glue tag has been used for gluing relevant questions while the gluing tag hasn't been used much at all.

Same goes for tags and tagging and probably a few more. One of those has been handled in a separate question 'Do we have to make more [cuts] or just keep [cutting]'

My first thought was to merge tags, but I haven't found the option anywhere. Then i discovered the tag synonyms page which @rob and @bowlturner already used. IMO the glue/gluing thing is not exactly a candidate for a synonym, but as gluing isn't really used except in one question, one could argue that the majority here uses glue anyway and we should drop gluing to keep the tags clear and easier to use.

Some of this my have already been answered in Tag Guidelines Meta question. Given the rising number of tags i think this topic merits its own discussion though.

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This might expand the context of one meta discussion a bit too far and based on the feedback i will create new questions based upon it.

Can/Should the tag creation process become more restricted so not every newbie (like myself) can add tags that are maybe out of scope/topic. I'm thinking in the terms of tag-review where a moderator can approve/deny the creation of a new tag. But after some investigating i found out that that's technically not possible.

In Stack Overflow users must have a rep of 1.5k to add tags whereas here, you only need 150. Is this because we're still in beta or could a moderator configure that limit?

Answer 1

Given this sites age most tag discussions should have their own individual questions. That way the community can judge the answers on an individual basis. I will try to keep this broad but use your examples. There is, in a general sense, no one answer to these kinds of questions.

Synonyms

Not the only reason but easy justification for synonyms should be used for tags that are similar but have very different names but for the same thing. Simple example would be band-aid and adhesive-bandage. Most people asking about BandAids are actually asking about the generic product adhesive-bandage. So perhaps one should be a synonym of the other.

When it comes to glue and gluing I would say that we do not need the synonym. People seem to favour glue anyway. Unless there is a good reason for it I would just retag that one question and let roomba remove the tag (tags with no questions attached are automatically removed every night). Like you say though

Given the rising number of tags i think this topic merits its own discussion though.

Merges

I think merges are only done when two tags have too many questions and retagging is not a realistic option. That is also not an issue for the site right now.

New tags

We want people to have the ability to make new tags so that they can ask questions for which we don't already have the tags for. We have a good base of tags now and this does not come up too much. I have to brush up on how the privileges work but I know the rep limits for these are lower in our beta to allow more self moderation.

We are not drowning in review questions so us taking care of these is not a big issue.

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Like I started.... If you have tagging concerns I would bring each one into it's own Meta.