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For example and seem to be synonyms of (which is a synonym of ) but they don't redirect to either one.

screenshot

The problem isn't these tags, but the fact that the remapping (synonyms > synonym > tag) doesn't work.
For example, try replacing with on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10209064/rails-3-2-3-whitelist-attribute-generator What you get is what follows.

screenshot

The expected result would be the following.

screenshot

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11
  • And what exactly is considered valid usage of such a tag? All it means is that there is a bug in the code... Isn't that true for most posts on Stack Overflow?? [code-is-not-working] would essentially say the same thing... IMO - its a very uninformative tag...
    – Lix
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 9:08
  • @Lix Bug and bugs are observed problems. Bugfix and bug-fixes are remedies to correct problems caused by bugs.
    – Ellie K
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 9:13
  • 2
    @fer - kind of insulting that you'd think to say that... I know what bugs are. What information (other than the fact that the code is not working as expected) do those tags provide?
    – Lix
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 9:17
  • @Lix Although... you have a point, that everything is a problem in some way or other on SO! Well, not everything is a [code-is-not-working]. There are also lots of "How do I do X?" questions. Those don't actually return syntax errors or cause abends, so there does seem room for a "bug" tag, I think?
    – Ellie K
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 9:17
  • 1
    IMO - absolutely not.. It would be just as useful as an [assistance-required] tag... It provides no additional information about the problem - only that one exists...
    – Lix
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 9:19
  • @fer - hehe... we don't want SO becoming a social network :P
    – Lix
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 9:44
  • 3
    Um, isn't the problem here the fact that synonyms aren't correctly redirected, not whether or not you like the bugs tag? That's a bug in tag synonyms, not a problem with any particular tag.
    – Zelda
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 17:09
  • The real problem is that this C -> B -> A relationship exists to begin with, since the system tries to guard against chaining for reasons such as this. I guess the discussion about the merits of the tags are relevant insomuch that killing one or more of them off is probably the recommended solution to this problem.
    – Tim Stone
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 17:28
  • @tim what do you do with synonyms set before this change?
    – Knu
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 17:31
  • Well, this particularly situation was partially created after that was put into place, so clearly things didn't work out quite right. Anyway, either some of the tags involved need to die, or the chained synonyms broken and the tail tags resynonymed to the current master (assuming moderators can do that in this case).
    – Tim Stone
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 17:34
  • @TimStone, no they're different discussions. If there's a problem with the tag synonym system then that should be fixed. In this particular example, and taking into account the nature of the tags, the best thing to do, in my opinion, is just to trash the lot.
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 19:15

2 Answers 2

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2

I'm against having a at all. It seems rather pointless and has been used gratuitously 1,005 times. Who really cares whether a questioner has a bug in their code?

There are a few occasions where it might be relevant and there is a bug with the language or compiler; this tag is obviously not being used for that.

My vote is trash the lot.

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4
  • 2
    The answer to "synonyms of synonyms don't map properly" shouldn't be "just delete the tags in question"! The point here is that there's a problem with the tag mapping system, and the fact that it affects the 'bugs' tag is just a nicely ironic coincidence.
    – Caleb
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 17:31
  • 1
    @Caleb, I'm completely unqualified to talk about fixing a problem with the tag mapping system. In this particular example, however, just deleting the tags in question is a valid response. They seem to be a meta-tag that lends nothing to the question so why not get rid of it?
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 19:13
  • Removing these particular tags might (or might not) be a good idea, but that's not the issue here.
    – Caleb
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 19:17
  • 1
    If :-) it is a good idea does the fact it's not exactly what the question asked mean that they shouldn't be removed?
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 19:18
1

The tag bugs has two synonyms: bug and bug-fixing. Both redirect to bugs. However, neither bugfix nor bug-fixes have synonyms.

  1. bug should continue to be classified as a synonym of bugs
  2. bugfix should be classified as a synonym of bug-fixes
  3. bug-fixing should be changed from a synonym for bug, and reclassified as a synonym for bug-fixes

EDIT Merge them into one tag.

Are users actually differentiating between a bug and a bug fix? This might be an unnecessarily "granular" distinction. It would be better to roll all five tags- bug, bugs, bugfix, bug-fixes and bug-fixing, into a single bugs tag.

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2
  • "However, neither bugfix nor bug-fixes" Did you understand what I explained? bugfix and bug-fixes were synonyms of bug-fixing: the problem isn't these tags but the fact that synonyms of synonym aren't remapped.
    – Knu
    Commented Apr 29, 2012 at 16:48
  • Yes, yes, I understand your point, or rather, I do now. Regardless, both @Ben and I did NOT understand your point initially, else we would not have both responded specifically to the bugs v.s. bug fixes tag issue. It is not coincidental though, given the cleanup effort in progress on ad hoc tag synonyms. My answer and Ben's are probably not relevant to answering your more generalized question in any way whatsoever, certainly mine is not, I will not presume to speak for Ben. I'm going to delete this answer, and just copy it over to my entry on that other related post, okay? Your point is valid!
    – Ellie K
    Commented Apr 30, 2012 at 20:51

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