Puzzling has various tag synonyms (e.g. 2048 is a synonym of 2048-game). No new questions can be made using a synonym; any attempts are auto-mapped to the parent. But some questions may be grandfathered in if the synonym was never merged:
All good tag synonyms should eventually be merged (source). This retags all non-deleted questions tagged with another tag – which is not automatically done when a synonym is created. As merging is not (easily) reversible, it should be done with caution. Only moderators can perform a merge, and only if there are not a large number of questions using the tag to be merged.
Un-merged synonyms are unnecessarily confusing. Someone clicking on a since-synonymized tag will be auto-redirected without warning. Nor will they be able to use this tag that they see on another question. The problem automatically fixes itself if someone edits the old question. The tag swaps even if not intentionally edited. But why bump that many old posts?
Extant tag synonyms* include:
| Synonym | Number of extant questions | Main tag |
|---|---|---|
| mystery | 153 | situation |
| counting | 9 | combinatorics |
| haiku | 30 | poetry |
| encoded-message | 5 | cipher |
| code | 5 | cipher |
| geared-puzzles | 3 | twisty-puzzles |
* besides christmas, where a synonym was intentionally used.
Any objections to these synonyms being merged into their parent tags?
