5

Seems like one would be plenty:

8
  • 2
    Aren't they technically two different things? Mar 16, 2012 at 4:10
  • @SimonSheehan I'm sure one can define a difference, I doubt people do. And if they do, I doubt everyone shares the same definition. Yet, I think, both terms are so closely related, that a synonym would be appropriate. Mar 16, 2012 at 4:12
  • I figure weboage would be to do with the actual pages, while website has to do with apache and SQL and such, the back ends Mar 16, 2012 at 4:18
  • Oh, I was thinking in a completely different direction. Somewhat proving my point there... Mar 16, 2012 at 4:19
  • 5
    I define a webpage as a single document on the web and a website as a collection of documents and associated services (think RSS).
    – kotekzot
    Mar 16, 2012 at 5:02
  • @kotekzot That's more of the direction I was thinking in. I still think it's too ambiguous. Mar 16, 2012 at 5:04
  • @OliverSalzburg I'd be interested in hearing what you define them as. Having read through some of the questions tagged [webpage] and [website], I believe the distinction they provide is a useful one.
    – kotekzot
    Mar 16, 2012 at 5:10
  • @kotekzot I would have thought that there is a slight difference to be made between a single .html page (webpage) and the content presented to you when you enter a given URL into your browser (website). But I would have assumed that this distinction varies between people. Mar 16, 2012 at 5:13

1 Answer 1

3

Similar as to what kotekzot said in the comments above, you can simply see it as:

A webpage is a page on the web. A website is a site hosting pages on the web.

A webpage is not really ambiguous, you're watching one right now. A website can be interpreted somewhat ambiguous; in fact, look at the interesting different results Google provides us:

Excuse me for no freehand circles and guiding text, there isn't much place for that.

So, according to the dictionary a website is a computer. However, this is really incorrect as a computer can host multiple websites. If you also look at the other result, you get something more serious; but it's still loaded with stuffing words like set and related.

Putting that detail aside, we can at least assume two approaches:

  • Hosting a website

  • Browsing a website

Thus the tag could be ambiguous because you can approach a website in (at least?) two ways.

From a slant look through that tag, I see questions about...

  • ... uploading something to a website. (browsing / hosting)

  • ... getting a website working. (browsing)

  • ... website framework / system recommendations. (hosting)

  • ... hosting a website in a certain way. (hosting)

  • ... downloading / blocking / translation / ... (browsing)

  • ... programming / design of a webiste. (programmer / designer)

So yeah, the tag is indeed used in a somewhat ambiguous way. However, it doesn't look bad to have this tag to me on the other hand; because introducing more tags like this wouldn't be a good idea.

Looking at , these all seem indeed related to one webpage but I feel like they fit under the getting a website working type of questions (and similar) from the above list.

So, there is indeed the tricky question whether we would need this specific tag.

These are the options here:

  1. We merge into .

  2. We keep them both, making sure that is applied to questions regarding a single page. Because I think there are questions in which could also be tagged .

  3. We throw both of them away and use better tags like for example and .

However, this leaves me undecided. The first one breaks the usefulness of having them separated, the second could be kinda annoying to follow-up on and the third one takes categorization into account but would require thinking out in which tags we divide them in (and get rid of the off-topic stuff).

Thinking out the third point could lead to something, unless someone feels convinced by #1 or #2...

5
  • 2
    I don't see the usefulness in having them separated if the meaning is not clear. Therefore, 1 seems reasonable. I like 3, but people won't use "browsing" when they ask a question about a random "website" (i.e. that probably won't occur to them when tagging).
    – slhck
    Mar 16, 2012 at 15:01
  • @slhck: If you set up a synonym from website to a more general tag like browsing (just an example, perhaps better tags exist?) it would show up to them. #1 could be a solution as the separation isn't really that important, but is it on the other hand important to have one tag instead of two... Mar 16, 2012 at 15:05
  • Yeah, but then website → hosting wouldn't exist too.
    – slhck
    Mar 16, 2012 at 15:06
  • @slhck: If only meta.stackexchange.com/questions/125234/… existed. :( Mar 16, 2012 at 15:08
  • 1
    I think [webpage] is a valid tag, especially if you are talking about "save as webpage" or working with a web file (e.g. HTML). I think [website] is too vague and something like [browsing] or [server] would be better.
    – iglvzx
    Mar 16, 2012 at 22:52

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