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I just asked a question which I tagged with , and was then referred to a possible duplicate which is tagged with .

My first thought was that is probably about all forms of wireless technology, including wifi, bluetooth, proprietary wireless USB devices, etc, but the tag wikis seems to suggest the tags may actually be duplicates, in which case I suggest they ought to be merged:

  • For questions about wireless networking on Linux or other UNIX systems. Be sure to specify all relevant details (hardware model, operating system etc...).

  • WiFi is a networking technology permitting the exchange of information through wireless (radio) connections.

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The tag has now been merged with and a synonym created.

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Examining the 50 most recent questions, all were about wifi. Braiam previously fixed one that was also tagged Bluetooth (one out of all 317 tagged wireless).

So wireless is overwhelmingly about wifi.

Indeed, that's how people use the term. If someone worries about using too much data on their phone plan because his/her smartphone isn't on wireless at work, that makes perfect sense. Wireless means WiFi. You don't become confused because cell data is wireless. Similarly, if someone suggests turning wireless off on your phone to troubleshoot something, you don't put in in airplane mode.

So just merge it all to wifi, and put a synonym in place. The synonym will help people asking questions, and also anyone trying to search by tag.

If at some point people start using wireless to mean AM radio again, a mod can undo the synonym.

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    I agree with that. The name wireless always bothered me — I think I remember seeing one or two questions about radio mixed into the questions about wifi. Since people tend to use the term “wireless” to mean wifi, I think we should keep the synonym. Alternatively, we can remove wireless and see if it comes back.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jun 26, 2014 at 0:19
  • This seems like the best solution to me. Tag alias suggestion here
    – Caleb
    Jun 26, 2014 at 7:28
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Since wireless can be loosely interpreted as anything that transmit data using non-wired medium (RF, wifi, et al) I suggest just renaming wireless to wifi and done. No synonym. Of course it will be helpful to have a list of the questions that were affected so we can review calmly.

Summary:

  • merge wireless into wifi.
  • remove any synonymization that puts wireless and wifi to mean the same

This will be in line with our stances of creating technically correct tags without ambiguous meanings, ane synonymizing a ambiguous tag (wireless) with a clear tag (wifi) is not the way to go.

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  • And then work vigorously to re-tag any new questions with wireless to wifi when that's what they really mean? Or blacklist wireless as being inherently ambiguous?
    – Flimzy
    Jun 25, 2014 at 22:05
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    @Flimzy First, see if wireless comes back. If it does, decide whether to merge or blacklist — probably merge since it's pretty much never used to mean anything else.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jun 26, 2014 at 0:20
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After the discussion in chat, my suggestion is that we:

  1. Merge all existing questions into

  2. Blacklist , and offer the following suggestions when someone attempts to tag their question with :

    In the future, perhaps other wireless technologies (Wireless USB?) will be ubiquitous enough to warrant their own tag suggestion as well.

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