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I know there is no official transliteration scheme for questions and answers, but I noticed we are inconsistent in our tags. Consider the tags and . Now it's true that and both map to those as tag synonyms, but shouldn't we be consistent in choosing the default view of the tag? It is my impression that most of our tags' default views are in SepharadiT. Should we keep it that way?

For other examples see and (that last one is kind of ironic...)

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    What would be the advantage of maintaining such consistency?
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Jan 11, 2012 at 5:37
  • I suppose I just like consistency :) I could argue that maybe it will make the site easier to use for newcomers searching for tags or something but that's not what's really motivating me.
    – Double AA Mod
    Commented Jan 11, 2012 at 5:41
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    Yeah, synonyms work nicely for that purpose. I think there's actually some value in inconsistency, too, as it signifies that we have a diverse user base. Given that keeping things consistent would take effort, my inclination would be to leave things as they are.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Jan 11, 2012 at 15:03
  • If we want the site to be user friendly, then consistency is very important. Remember tags get suggested based on how you start to spell them.
    – avi
    Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 10:53
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    @avi Synonyms get suggested, too, so if there are multiple popular ways to spell something, they can all be on the suggestion list, regardless of which one's the main one.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 11:42
  • More specific similar question: meta.judaism.stackexchange.com/q/1857
    – msh210 Mod
    Commented Dec 5, 2013 at 18:18
  • Related: meta.judaism.stackexchange.com/q/2110
    – msh210 Mod
    Commented Jul 23, 2014 at 5:33

3 Answers 3

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The only advantage to such a rule that you suggested in the comments is that you like consistency. I think there's actually some value in inconsistency, too, as it signifies that we have a diverse user base. Given that keeping things consistent would take effort, my inclination would be to leave things as they are.

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    Don't you think this makes it harder to search for tags?
    – Daniel
    Commented Nov 2, 2014 at 16:55
  • @Daniel, a bit, perhaps. Most Hebrew tag names have the same first few letters regardless of pronunciation scheme.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Nov 2, 2014 at 17:18
  • It's a huge לפני עוור!
    – Al Berko
    Commented Apr 29, 2019 at 11:47
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    @AlBerko For what sin?
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Apr 29, 2019 at 14:25
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While consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, it is also the most important feature for Usability and user experience.

Consistent tagging however should go beyond just tags and be used in spelling throughout the site. Especially if we want to get search results for related questions, or show up in google suggestions.

If it's worth the effort or not is a separate question.

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    Likelihood of popping up on search results may actually be enhanced by having a diversity of spellings, since people may search using all different transliteration schemes. This advantage is related to the general advantage of having questions reflect the word choice of the asker.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 11:45
  • Thats not the way google works though. If google sees that a term is used one way in most cases, it will just redirect the user to that more popular use case. However if our content is diverse it will not even find it.
    – avi
    Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 12:59
  • From my experience on another site (different audience and authorship group, so YMMV here), I doubt we will come to an agreement on a sitewide transliteration scheme.
    – msh210 Mod
    Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 16:45
  • @avi, try a few searches on <topic> questions. We do pretty well for various transliterations.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 19:53
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    I believe that should be "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds"
    – HodofHod
    Commented Dec 27, 2012 at 6:23
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This policy must be adopted and implemented in full, because it causes numerous failures for users, such as Bitul Torah Time, wasting valuable time in vain, לפני עוור misleading some and more. Those blunders seriously diminish the value of the site and the information.

I would propose differentiation between the content and the structure - while the questions and the answers may use any accent or pronunciation, the structure of the site, which are the titles and the tags, must be standardized.

I would also propose that the standard Israeli (aka Sefardi) pronunciation be adopted for the tags as we follow the majority and the majority of Am Israel speaks the Israeli accent. Additionally, Everyone who keeps Shabbos keeps Shabbat, but some who keep Shabbat don't know what Shabbos is at all (think of Kidish of Ksivah).

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