If a project changes its name, should the tag change?

Question

Should I continue to tag questions with a product's old name or start using a new tag, if the product name changes?

The product in question is ScalaQuery which is changing to SLICK.

Arguably, I could just tag the questions at a higher level, say Scala, and leave out the product name completely, but it would me meaningful to get the opinion of people who not only uses Scala, but actually has experience with that library.

In a recent question I used both names (ScalaQuery and SLICK) and tagged it with Scala and ScalaQuery, but this doesn't feel right... or maybe it is?

Answer 1

It's as simple as writing a question here on Meta. A moderator can easily rename the entire tag to its new name so it keeps all the old questions and, if necessary, re-add the old name as a synonym of the new one (usually if the old name is already well-known and would cause confusion with people who might not be aware of the name change).

So, do both. Write the question and continue tagging as normal. It should all automatically transfer over whenever a moderator handles the request (which hopefully one will do here).

Answer 2

It depends:

• will the old versions be available under the old name (in repositories, on product pages)?
• does old version substantially differ from new version?
• are there many existing books/tutorials, in which the old name will remain?
• is there a reasonably big group of developers that would continue to use the older versions (maintanance)?

If the the answer to the above questions is 'yes', it is quite likely that people will look for answers using the old name, so renaming the tag could cause consternation and it's better to use old tag for questions about older versions, and new tag for newer ones.