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I have noticed that in the list of suggested synonyms there is a suggestion to synonymize and . See also here.

I am not sure this is a good idea. For example, I can imagine question tagged as + (if it is a question about a limit of the type $f(x)/g(x)$), but if the same question would be automatically retagged to +, it would look strange to me.

I would like to know the opinion of other MSE users whether they consider this tag synonym to be reasonable.

I did not find some older discussion about this on meta, but I found this discussion in chat.

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    $\begingroup$ A also oppose synonymization of these. $\endgroup$
    – GEdgar
    Dec 23, 2013 at 14:33
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    $\begingroup$ I think they should not be synonyms. Not only because of the syntax vs. semantics difference, but also because the term "fraction" is used in many other fraction fields besides $\Bbb Q$. $\endgroup$
    – Bill Dubuque
    Dec 24, 2013 at 0:01
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    $\begingroup$ I'm against this too. When a post is appropriate for the tag fraction, it usually falls into following cases: $$\begin{align} 1.& \text{elementary - i.e. for students who haven't touched the concept of rational number.}\\ 2.& \text{specific - i.e some specific subset/representation of rational numbers. e.g. Egyptian fractions.}\\ 3.& \text{others - constructs that has nothing to do with rational numbers, e.g field of fractions.}\end{align}$$ IMHO, the overlap of the applicable domain for these two tags are pretty small. $\endgroup$
    – achille hui
    Dec 26, 2013 at 12:38
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    $\begingroup$ I agree with Gerald, Bill, and Achille, and would like to add that having looked over some of the articles tagged fractions, I saw that many of them were concerned with manipulation of expressions of the form $A\over B$, and had nothing at all to do with rational numbers. $\endgroup$
    – MJD
    Dec 29, 2013 at 3:58
  • $\begingroup$ Shouldn't we remove the pending synonym proposal? $\endgroup$
    – Bart Michels
    Mar 23, 2015 at 12:07
  • $\begingroup$ @barto I am not sure whether something like that is possible. The users with score 5 or higher in (rational-numbers) tag can downvote the proposal. (I cannot vote - I do not have enough upvotes in the particular tag.) It says that: Suggestions will be automatically deleted when they reach a score of -2. (To be approved, they need score of 4.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Mar 23, 2015 at 12:41
  • $\begingroup$ Mod-votes are binding there too. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Jun 16, 2015 at 15:07
  • $\begingroup$ After the synonym between the two tags was created, a post requesting the removal of the synonym was posted in the tag-management thread. However, a separate post on this question might have more visibility. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Jun 24, 2015 at 8:26

2 Answers 2

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Since it might not be entirely clear what the votes on the question mean (e.g., some user might just vote +1 = it is a good thing to bring up), I will post a separate answer where users can vote whether they are for or against the synonym.

Vote for this answer if you think that should not be a synonym of .

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  • $\begingroup$ Does the fact only one of the answers CW mean something? $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Jun 24, 2015 at 22:26
  • $\begingroup$ I wanted to mark both of them CW. I must have forgotten to check the box. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Jun 24, 2015 at 22:48
  • $\begingroup$ Well, I hope that you didn't shoot Kevin Spacey after checking what was in the box! :-P $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Jun 24, 2015 at 22:51
  • $\begingroup$ I have marked this answer as accepted after the tag-synonym was removed by a moderator. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Jul 7, 2015 at 21:28
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Since it might not be entirely clear what the votes on the question mean (e.g., some user might just vote +1 = it is a good thing to bring up), I will post a separate answer where users can vote whether they are for or against the synonym.

Vote for this answer if you think that should be a synonym of .

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    $\begingroup$ Please don't do this, Rings of fractions exist not only for $\,\Bbb Z,\,$ so it makes no sense to restrict the meaning of fractions in this way. $\endgroup$
    – Bill Dubuque
    Jun 24, 2015 at 14:08
  • $\begingroup$ @Asaf Possibly. One should also consider the closely related (localization) tag. $\endgroup$
    – Bill Dubuque
    Jun 24, 2015 at 23:30

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