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We just did a tag synonym reversal for and . The move was technically correct, but it's creating an unanticipated problem (at least for me, I'm just assuming some others are similarly affected).

couldn't be confused with anything else. The official names of the OS that contain "mac" have all been recognizable by capitalization and/or spacing: Mac OS, Mac OS X, macOS.

Both capitalization and spacing are lost in the tag. I keep misreading it as "macros". I just spent several minutes unsuccessfully trying to add what I thought was a missing OS tag on a question. has been synonomized, but the system wouldn't add it because was already there and I was misreading it as (which was also relevant to the question).

A tag label doesn't need to be the official name, especially when there have been a lot of similar official names. It can be an easily understandable placeholder label. Since macOS has gone through so many name changes, people still think of it with various terms. I'd like to suggest renaming the primary tag with a less mistakable label. A few suggestions:

Of course the wiki excerpt can clarify that the tag applies to any name version of the OS.

Note that people would not be expected to enter the full tag text of either suggestion. In the second case, typing either of the familiar "macos" or "osx" would display the tag because each is a fragment. The first suggestion would have the existing and synonomized, so typing the familiar tag name would produce the displayed tag.

It would be useful for people to weigh in on what the tag text should be. My own thoughts are that while the addition of "osx" will add useful context, any version containing "macos" will be prone to misreading. So would be the least mistakable. It would refer generically to any Mac operating system rather than a specific OS name.

Edit: Just remembered that is an existing tag, which originally referred to the then-current OS name. Suggestion: Use that tag as the primary to generically represent the various Mac OSes, and resysnonomize the other tags to it (, , ).

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I have run into the same thing myself. I inadvertently clicked on the [macros] tag when I wanted [macos] only to wonder why all the questions weren't related to Apple.

Taking the OP's step a bit further, perhaps there could be a tag that had a synonymous, reciprocal tag that would clearly differentiate [macos] from [macros]

For example: [osx-macos] <--> [macos-osx]

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    Glad to see I'm not alone. :-) Just FYI, when you start to enter a tag, tags containing that fragment are shown. I doubt anyone will type full tag text of either [osx-macos] or [macos-osx]. Typing either macos or osx would bring up either tag.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 20:04
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    @fixer1234 - I see what you are getting at... I guess I am just look at it from the perspective of "what do I click on" that would make sense....
    – Allan
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 20:10
  • Note: If you enter [tag:tagname], it comes up as a clickable link.
    – TRiG
    Commented Jan 19, 2017 at 10:02

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