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Following the discussion in Should [public-opinion] be made a synonym of [polling], or vice-versa (or neither)?, it seems like the best suggestion is to redefine to refer to the technical aspect of polling, while should be used on questions asking about the results of specific polls, or polling data in general.

The best method to proceed, as far as I'm aware at least, would be as follows:

  1. Produce a list of questions currently tagged with which should remain as such
  2. Moderator-merge the tag into , retagging all questions with the tag
  3. Remove the synonym between and , so that questions can once again be tagged with
  4. Go through the list of questions previously identified, manually adding the tag.

The tag wikis also need looking at to reflect the new usage, and the current synonyms pointing to (, , and ) also need to be looked at. I suggest that the first two should remain synonymised with , while the last two should be synonyms of .

Please weigh in with your thoughts!

Below is a list of questions which I think should remain tagged with . Feel free to improve the formatting on this or edit the list if you think I've missed any (or misjudged any).

Added later:

Removed from the old list:

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    I went through the whole list as well, I think we're good to go.
    – JJJ Mod
    Jul 19, 2021 at 0:34
  • What should we be doing with the questions on that list? Should we edit and add [polling] to them if we think it's appropriate?
    – divibisan
    Jul 21, 2021 at 16:14
  • @divibisan yes, please feel free! Those in the list are those I think need the public opinion tag removed and the polling tag added, but obviously given our site’s low-ish activity we don’t want to spam up the active questions feed too much. Plus if there’s any other issues with the questions it would be good to fix them at the same time :)
    – CDJB Mod
    Jul 21, 2021 at 17:46
  • When I encountered Why are there no polls of Tom Steyer yet?, I saw "will have to have at least 2% in 4 polls" as a question about [public-opinion]; that is, "how the public views" Tom Steyer's candidacy, rather than "general and technical aspects of polling". But, then I see "they don't seem to be asking his name" which could be a [polling] question. The final question "Is his candidacy real or not?" suggests it's not about either. In any case, it's not about [debate] which is only mentioned. For your consideration.
    – Rick Smith
    Oct 4, 2021 at 3:56

2 Answers 2

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I agree with the tag synonyms as you divided them. So we get:

Main tag: [polling]

This should have the following tag synonyms: , , ...

Proposed tag description:

Questions about general and technical aspects of polling: sampling of opinions on a subject. Questions about SPECIFIC POLLING RESULTS should use [public-opinion] instead.

Edit: broadened this description a bit to include 'general aspects of polling' as well.

Main tag: [public-opinion]

This should have the following tag synonyms: , , ...

Proposed tag description:

Questions asking how the public views certain issues, for example based on opinion poll results. Questions about TECHNICAL ASPECTS of opinion polling should use [polling] instead.

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    Upvote this comment if you think the all CAPS in the proposed tag descriptions is too much.
    – JJJ Mod
    Jul 9, 2021 at 21:14
  • I'd say bold rather than caps?
    – Bobson
    Jul 13, 2021 at 17:24
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    @Bobson bold (or any other markup) can't be used in the tag excerpt. It's only allowed in the wiki.
    – JJJ Mod
    Jul 13, 2021 at 17:50
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I almost completely agree with JJJs current answer, except for one thing

JJJ thinks the public opinion tag wiki should be

Questions asking how the public views certain issues, for example based on opinion poll results. Questions about TECHNICAL ASPECTS of opinion polling should use [polling] instead.

I believe that the only way that public opinion can be gauged (with any accuracy) is by polling, so I propose the following change

Questions asking how the public views certain issue BASED ON POLL RESULTS. Questions about TECHNICAL ASPECTS of opinion polling should use [polling] instead.

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    What about focus groups? I'd say that's different from a poll and the results are qualitative rather than quantitative (e.g. less participants but more opportunity to ask follow-up questions, consider body language, etc.).
    – JJJ Mod
    Jul 10, 2021 at 13:24
  • @JJJ didn’t know those were a thing, consider my proposal withdrawn. Jul 10, 2021 at 13:34
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    Yea, I'm not sure if many of the results of such studies are public. You raise an interesting point though. For example, if someone wants to ask about technical aspects of focus groups in a political setting, how should that be tagged? I'm not sure if the [polling] description (because we had our eye on that for technical questions) makes much sense then. Edit: nvm, then they can just create a new tag [focus-groups].
    – JJJ Mod
    Jul 10, 2021 at 13:37

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