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has 3.7k questions. Its tag guidance says: “Keyboard shortcuts are combinations and oft-struck keys that help you work faster, or do more with less typing.”

has 626 questions. Its tag guidance is: “A hotkey is a keyboard key or a set of keys that, when pressed simultaneously, cause the operating system or a program to execute a specific and pre-configured action.”

From what I understand these are two names for functionally the same thing: a key or key combination that perform a function when pressed. It looks like it's not just me either though, sources I dig up also treat them as functionally the same:

The Wikipedia article mentions some sources like Windows would prefer to say hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts are different things, but I think that's splitting hairs for our purposes.

I believe we should make one of these tags a synonym of the other. We should probably keep as the main tag since it's six times more commonly used; would be the synonym.

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    I agree with the need for action, but suggest that [hotkeys] be synonymized with [keyboard-shortcuts], after which merging is optional. We want to retain the ability of users to be able to easily find the tag via their term of choice.
    – fixer1234
    Sep 10, 2018 at 20:37
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    Way off topic, but... SE: "doppelgreener is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct." Also SE: "Member for 7 years, 11 months" I guess a 'new' contributor to Meta SU gets the label even if parent user is not new. Therefore: welcome to Meta Super User, dg! :-P
    – bertieb
    Sep 10, 2018 at 20:56
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    @bertieb Thank you very much! :) Yeah, new meta contributors get the welcome bar—I've asked for a small update there. ;D Sep 10, 2018 at 22:08
  • @fixer1234 I completely agree we should make one a synonym of the other. Does merging imply something else here? Do you think I should reword to say make them synonyms intead of (or in addition to) saying we should merge them? Sep 10, 2018 at 22:09
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    Yeah, synonymizing keeps both tags and links them, so people can search for, or enter, either one, but the primary tag is what shows on the post. Merging replaces the secondary tag with the primary one. If you just merge, the secondary tag disappears but could be recreated as a new tag. If you synonymize then merge, I think use of the secondary tag produces the primary. There's an explanation here: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/70710/….
    – fixer1234
    Sep 10, 2018 at 22:25
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    @fixer1234 Thanks, I've rephrased this to a synonym request. Sep 10, 2018 at 22:32
  • What is the status of this request?
    – Vylix
    Dec 5, 2018 at 6:31

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