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I found the tag and I think it needs some hyphens, i.e. should it not be instead? I wanted to edit it manually as there were only five questions tagged with it. I though I would create a new tag with the hyphens, copy the tag info from the original tag to the new one, and retag all the five questions. However, the system did not allow me to create the new tag and suggested I post a question about it here. This is what I just did.

Should there be hyphens in the tag name, and how do I (or someone else) put them there?

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    $\begingroup$ A convenient way to make such requests is to suggest a tag synonym. Because this is so rarely done, it wouldn't be a bad idea to alert a moderator in addition (or instead) of doing this. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Nov 15, 2017 at 15:22
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    $\begingroup$ @whuber, sufficiently high reputation in the particular tag is needed for suggesting a synonym, and this gets really hard for rarely-used tags such as the current one... $\endgroup$
    – Richard Hardy
    Nov 15, 2017 at 15:32
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for pointing that out. That leaves only my second suggestion: flagging a tag for moderator attention. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Nov 15, 2017 at 15:38
  • $\begingroup$ "the system did not allow me to create the new tag" - interesting. I did not know that it works like that. $\endgroup$
    – amoeba
    Nov 15, 2017 at 18:43
  • $\begingroup$ @amoeba, apparently, it does. It also suggested me to post on Meta! $\endgroup$
    – Richard Hardy
    Nov 15, 2017 at 19:36

1 Answer 1

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OK, done. To do this you need to create synonym and then merge the tags, this can be done by few clicks by a moderator.

If you are not a moderator, then you should suggest a tag synonym and wait for approval from the community, or moderator. To suggest a synonym you need to have a sufficient reputation for answering questions within the tag of interest. Often this may be problematic, especially since we often want to "do something" with esoteric, uncommon tags, in such case you may (a) open a thread on wiki, or (b) contact the moderator on chat, or by flagging one of the threads for a moderators attention with asking for such actions. With minor problems, as in this case, the (b) option seems more reasonable since there is nothing to discuss on Meta, it is just a "cosmetic" change.

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  • $\begingroup$ I would suggest not merging the tags, at least not at first, because it's difficult to reverse in case any problem is later noted. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Nov 15, 2017 at 15:39
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    $\begingroup$ @whuber agree, but in this case it is just transforming to "nicer looking" name, links between the tags work, so nothing seems to be lost. $\endgroup$
    – Tim Mod
    Nov 15, 2017 at 15:40
  • $\begingroup$ @Tim, thanks for such fast reaction! In the answer, could you also discuss the case where a user cannot propose synonyms as described in the comments to the OP? Thanks. $\endgroup$
    – Richard Hardy
    Nov 15, 2017 at 15:44
  • $\begingroup$ "If you are not a moderator, then you should suggest a tag synonym and wait for approval from the community, or moderator." -- this cannot really work for tag renaming because even if such a synonym goes through, the old tag will stay the master tag (and a synonym will be added). $\endgroup$
    – amoeba
    Nov 16, 2017 at 10:07
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    $\begingroup$ Also, one cannot suggest a synonym before a synonym tag is created, and @RichardHardy said that he was not able to create a hyphenated version of the tag at all, presumably because the system does not allow very similar tag names. The bottomline is that if one wants to add hyphens to an existing tag, one should either post on Meta or reach out to the mods directly. $\endgroup$
    – amoeba
    Nov 16, 2017 at 10:09
  • $\begingroup$ @amoeba yes, but this is actually a good thing since it doesn't crash anything associated to the old tag. $\endgroup$
    – Tim Mod
    Nov 16, 2017 at 10:09
  • $\begingroup$ @amoeba Maybe you could provide your own answer since with mod tools few things work slightly different so I may be wrong. $\endgroup$
    – Tim Mod
    Nov 16, 2017 at 10:12
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    $\begingroup$ Perhaps with so few tags the OP could create a new dummy tag (perhaps richard-hardy) re-tag everything, let the old one disappear, re-tag all of richard=hardy manually to small-area-estimation? $\endgroup$
    – mdewey
    Nov 16, 2017 at 13:48

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