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Why does the markov-chain tag get changed automatically to markov-process? I had an answer addressing the difference between these two things here.

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    $\begingroup$ Even where tags are not quite exactly-exact synonyms, the point of tags is to help you find related information. This means tag categories should not be overly "fine" $\endgroup$
    – Glen_b Mod
    Commented Mar 25, 2017 at 3:53

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It's called a "synonym." They are listed at https://stats.stackexchange.com/tags/synonyms.

When it's discovered that two tags mean the same thing, one (usually the less popular and less descriptive) is mapped to the other. The mapping can cause the synonym to be replaced by its alias. All synonyms are supposed to perform as alternative names for the same functional tag, which means it shouldn't have an effect on counting answers for tag badges, etc.

People with sufficiently high reputation (either overall or in one of the tags) may propose synonyms and vote to approve them. Many of these meta pages are also devoted to public discussion of possible synonyms.

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    $\begingroup$ And all good/stable synonyms should be eventually merged. $\endgroup$
    – Andre Silva
    Commented Mar 25, 2017 at 0:53
  • $\begingroup$ @AndreSilva Why don't you post a slightly expanded version of the above comment as an answer to stats.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2790 ? $\endgroup$
    – amoeba
    Commented Mar 27, 2017 at 13:44
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    $\begingroup$ @AndreSilva I was not aware of the badge issue. I think it's better if somebody else answers the question even if the answer is basically "Yes, it's a good idea", because this allows other people to vote for it more explicitly (upvoting the question can sometimes mean that the topic is worth discussing, not necessarily an agreement with the specific proposal). $\endgroup$
    – amoeba
    Commented Mar 27, 2017 at 14:06
  • $\begingroup$ whuber, can you kindly visit the dilemma if we ought to create tag "dummy-variables" and leave there a comment either con or pro? $\endgroup$
    – ttnphns
    Commented Jul 28, 2017 at 9:35
  • $\begingroup$ @ttnphns There's too much for me to follow there, but even in the subset of comments I have read I see much agreement and sensible proposals. It's simple to create synonyms for tags, so why not first agree on the categories the tags are intended to delimit (which seems close to being accomplished), then choose a set of names for each category and create sets of synonyms corresponding to them? $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Commented Jul 28, 2017 at 13:29
  • $\begingroup$ whuber, maybe you did not understand me. I'm inviting top people there to that question to say, in a comment there whether they (1) stand for me "we do need a separate tag dummy-variables (I've put some reasons for), or (2) stand for amoeba "we should make that tag a synonym to categorical-encoding", or (3) no opinion. $\endgroup$
    – ttnphns
    Commented Jul 28, 2017 at 13:41

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