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I just realized that on meta, we have lots of tags about asking questions, and very few tags about challenges. For example:

And on the "Challenge" side, we only have:

Now, I realize we've already talked about changing "Question" to "Challenge" before. You might want to close this question as a duplicate of We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?.

However, that question is about things that we would like changed, but can't do anything about without help from SE. The nice thing about this is that changing these tags is completely within our power to do. We don't need help or approval from SE to do this. Really, we don't even need moderator help to make this happen (although it would certainly help). The only thing we need to change this is consensus from the community, which it seems like we already have.

So should we change these tags? And more importantly, is it worth the effort? (Since it might take a lot of work to rename/synonymize these tags)

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    \$\begingroup\$ I don't think this would be a lot of effort. As mods we can just set up the relevant synonyms if we decide to do this. \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin Ender
    Jun 25, 2016 at 18:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ On one hand, I feel like this should wait until if/when the wording on the site is actually changed. New users may have a disconnect between "Ask a Question" and [specific-challenge], for instance. On the other, yay synonyms? \$\endgroup\$
    – Geobits
    Jun 25, 2016 at 19:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ I agree with Geobits - any action should be delayed until we get our site-specific text. After all, it's only going to be 6-8 weeks. \$\endgroup\$
    – user45941
    Jun 26, 2016 at 6:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Mego 6-8 weeks? Really? The last I've heard was 5 years. \$\endgroup\$
    – DJMcMayhem
    Jun 26, 2016 at 6:39

1 Answer 1

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  1. Using "challenge" in meta tags instead of "question" will cause confusion for some new users (even after we get the site-wide wording change to "challenge", but especially before).

  2. This is a good thing. Better to cause the confusion early and get people to understand how this site is different as soon as possible.

  3. If someone tries to type in a tag containing "question", tag synonyms can handle that. This also acts as an education process for the poster, since the "challenge" based tag will be displayed when the meta question is posted.

All uses of the synonym tag for any given master tag are automatically converted to the master tag. So, users can enter a synonym tag when writing a question, but the master tag will be displayed when the question is loaded. ... Similarly, when users search for questions tagged with a synonym, a list of questions tagged with the master will be displayed.

Not all questions on main are challenges, and someone may want to ask on meta specifically about questions (such as tips questions). However, changing "question" to "challenge" won't make this situation any worse, and whether we need a tag for can be raised separately if anyone feels strongly about it.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ any worse -> any better \$\endgroup\$
    – Erik the Outgolfer
    Jul 1, 2016 at 18:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ I mean that the separate point made in the last paragraph won't be made any worse by the main change, so it isn't a reason to avoid the main change. Discussion on the separate point can then be raised as a separate meta question if someone considers it important. \$\endgroup\$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Jul 2, 2016 at 8:35

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