# Why isn't the book-recommendations tag a synonym for reference-request?

I recently noticed the tag and I've been wondering why it isn't a synonym for the tag. All I could find here on Meta is that it used to be so when it was created, but I couldn't find why it was made separate from .

Edit: I agree with Martin Sleziak, so I'm leaving this question open to allow further discussion. I posted a proposal to merge and with here, though.

Edit2: A quick search shows that only about two thirds of the questions currently tagged are about books. Therefore I'm dropping the proposal for merging with it and I'm accepting AlexR's answer.

• Re: it used to be so. No. The thread you linked to is precisely the thread which lead to creating (book-recommendation). (You may notice that in the answers there users voted whether this tag should be created. So it was created after that question was posted.) Both (books) and (textbooks) were already synonyms of (reference-request) at the time. Mar 31 '15 at 10:59
• @MartinSleziak The first comment to the question I linked to, posted 9 minutes after the question itself, is "It already exists, but is a synonym for reference-request". Did I misunderstand this and it was actually referred to books?
– A.P.
Mar 31 '15 at 11:05
• Yes, that particular comment refers to the (books) tag. You can see from this comment when (book-recommendation) tag was created. Mar 31 '15 at 11:07
• Shouldn't this be part of the tag management post? Mar 31 '15 at 16:59
• meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/19037/tag-management-2015 Mar 31 '15 at 17:09
• @dustin I think it's ok to have a separate post about a tag. The post you linked says: "Of course if a proposal requires an extended discussion you can post it as a separate question." Mar 31 '15 at 17:18
• @MartinSleziak It would be better to first post there and then ask a separate discussion question if the need for such arises. Mar 31 '15 at 17:48

Note that a is a recommendation of material, usually for learning about a particular subject while a may ask for a source where theorem $X$ is proved. So there is a difference between their meaning.