How to handle acronym tags, especially if not unique?

Question

This question uses the adb tag as an example, but it applies to any acronym tag that doesn't have a universal and common usage (like, say, pdf).

adb is a new tag. I drafted a wiki and excerpt for it based on the usage so far (which refers to Android Debug Bridge). ADB already has multiple computer-related uses (as DavidPostill points out in a comment, also Advanced Debugger, and user2943160 mentions Apple Desktop Bus), so an acronym tag is just asking for misuse.

Based on adb already referring to multiple things, the logical approach is to have spelled-out tags for each use and an adb tag that advises users to pick the appropriate one.

• I could create a new android-debug-bridge tag, move the adb wiki contents to it, and retag the couple of existing questions.
• We don't yet have any questions about Advanced Debugger, so we can't create a tag for that. Apple Desktop Bus hasn't been in use for awhile, so we may not get new questions for that particular use at this point.
• Rather than synonomizing adb with a specific use, it should be turned into a "do not use" tag that guides readers to the appropriate choices. Right now, there's only one choice, so this would imply editing the wiki excerpt as other adb-related tags are created.
• As Ben N points out in his answer, more users think in terms of "adb" than "Android Debug Bridge", so simply deleting the adb tag may complicate tagging for users.
• I'm not aware of a way to link a tag to more than one other tag to preserve it, and I don't think synonomizing allows you to have a different wiki. It would also automatically link new question with the synonomized tag, which might be the wrong one.

What's the best general solution for acronym tags, especially when they are known, or likely, to refer to multiple things?

• One thought: incorporate the acronym into the spelled-out tag. I don't know the limits on tag text (max characters, number of hyphenated terms, acceptable non-letter characters other than hyphen and I think period).

  If each spelled out tag includes "adb", something like: android-debug-bridge...adb, they could potentially show up for selection when the user enters adb. That isn't guaranteed, though. A maximum of 6 candidate tags are displayed when the user starts typing a tag, and I believe the displayed subset is based on popularity. There are currently 6 in addition to adb that contain that letter combination.

• Other ideas?

Answer 1

A standalone "Do not use" tag for the acronym, that guides users to the spelled out tags, would seem to be the best solution within SE's current features and limitations. The main problem with that is that it needs to be tied to a question (actually two questions, since new tags are deleted by the system if they don't get a second question within six months, I believe it is; I'm not sure whether a question being locked would affect this).

A "thinking outside the box" idea: tie the acronym tag to two placeholder questions. The gist of how it might work:

• The questions could be community wikis. One could be made a duplicate of the other.
• We do have single-question tags, so it isn't clear if these pre-date the two question rule, or once a tag has two or more questions, it is not deleted if it later goes down to a single question. If it is the latter, we could eliminate or merge the second question at some point.
• We would probably want to at least protect these questions to minimize fly-by "answers". They could be locked, but that could require moderator intervention if we want to maintain the question (see below). Even so, this would be an infrequent occurrence.
• We're approaching 1/3 million questions and there are a limited number of non-unique acronym tags. The number of placeholder questions would be insignificant in the scheme of things and would simply disappear into the woodwork.
• There are some complex rules for questions being automatically deleted by the system (How does deleting work?). Locking will protect it. Otherwise, various combinations of answers, votes, closure, views, etc. could allow the placeholder questions to be deleted by the system, and we would need to ensure that the questions don't fall into those criteria.

• Options:

  • Just a placeholder question with the acronym tag. The title could be something like What is ADB?.

    Either the title or the body would include an indicator that it is just a placeholder question (perhaps "[system placeholder question]" in the title so the user can ignore it in search results?).

    The body would explain that it's an internal placeholder, and not to mess with it or try to post answers to it (other than the "system" answers described below).

    It can also include guidance on use of the spelled out tags (what would go in the acronym tag's wiki excerpt, but without the length limitation).

  • Add the spelled out tags. As new tags are added (assuming we don't exceed four different uses), add these to the question. That's one more place to quickly see the available tags. If the question is locked, it would need to be temporarily unlocked to added the tag if this option is used.

  • Add the spelled out tags as answers. Each spelled out tag could be added as an answer. The spelled-out use would be a bold heading in the answer. The answer could contain the wiki for that tag. The presence of answers overcomes one of the automatic deletion criteria. If the question is locked, it would need to be temporarily unlocked to add the answer.

Answer 2

I just did a Google search for adb, and the first results I got that were at all relevant to computers were about the Android Debug Bridge. As DavidPostill notes in the comments, though, there's also a Unix debugger by that name.

Clearly, a tag shouldn't refer to multiple things, and it doesn't seem fair to assign the acronym tag to one of the several possible meanings, so having the acronym around at all seems less than ideal. That said, I'm sure somebody will create the acronym tag again if we remove it, and then we'll have to fix that mess. Therefore, while not ideal at all, creating a synonym to one of the possible meanings would work around that problem. Since the wiki excerpt shows up after a tag is typed but before it's added, users of other meanings should notice that the tag they tried isn't what they're after.

A "do not use" excerpt for the acronym tag would be great if we didn't have to apply it to one question. It would be really neat if we could set excerpts for nonexistent tags, then people would still get the warning when trying to create it. Otherwise, people would surely apply it anyway.

From an aesthetic standpoint, I'm not really a fan of having the acronym bolted on to every spelled-out tag. It looks a little weird to me, and it's inconsistent with how our tags normally look. (Unlike on Math Overflow, where all their math-related tags start with an acronym.) Unfortunately, it seems that having text in the excerpt doesn't have any effect on the tag's placement in the tag suggestions area.

Again, while not the best of all worlds, it looks like synonymizing the acronym to the most common spelled-out tag would be the most expedient option, provided that we wrote a very obvious and concise tag wiki excerpt.