Seeing a bad tag, shall I retag or ask for a synonym?

Question

I just saw the regexp tag in this question. When I clicked on it I expected to be redirected to the regular-expression tag but it was not the case.

I could just edit the question and add the correct tag to it. But then a new question could use the same regexp tag in the future, and someone would need to edit that one as well. What is the best practice in this case?

I'd argue that if the tag is a typo it should be edited. But if the tag is a valid name for an existing tag (like regexp for regular-expression in this case). I shall ask for a synonym. Is that correct?

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Note 1: regex (without the p) is already a synonym of regular-expression.

Note 2: When I argue about asking for a synonym, I'm thinking about going to the :chat! and see if a moderator (or a user with enough reputation) is around.

Answer 1

I could just edit the question and add the correct tag to it. But then a new question could use the same regexp tag in the future, and someone would need to edit that one as well. What is the best practice in this case?

Well, that is (or was) the only usage of regexp. If you removed it from that post, and nobody added a tag wiki, the roomba would have wiped it the next day. Then somebody would have to create it all over again if they wanted to use it.

Personally, I would have just retagged to regular-expression, but since DJ McMayhem suggested a synonym, I have approved it.

Answer 2

I'd say in general, if there are many questions tagged with a bad tag, it should be made a synonym (Assuming there is a good tag to make it a synonym of). However, right now there is only one question with the tag "regexp", so it would be really easy to edit it out. Yes, someone could use this tag again in the future, but it's more likely they will pick the tag that has more uses, and if not, we can handle that when it comes up. Also, IIRC, if a tag is used zero times it will eventually be autoremoved.

Also, as a side note, I have enough points in "regular expression" so I've voted make it a synonym. You can vote on that or see the progress here.