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We have two tags, one being and the other being . I recognize there are other types of hockey (well, I can only think of two: one where you play with roller blades, and the other where you play on your feet) but is it common enough that "hockey" means "ice hockey" to the average person that we would make them synonyms?

It would seem the one side of it would be "What if people want a question that applies to ice hockey but not to other forms of hockey, and yet would not be categorized as ice skating?" The other side of the coin would be "How often are people going to ask such a question, and is the benefit gained from such questions better for the community than what is lost in the confusion between the two tags?"

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I've undone the merger I had previously done. This is indeed a US-centric view (I blame living in the US for that), so while I'll leave it around for decision on whether we'll still go that route, don't necessarily consider that we're done quite yet.

I don't think it will be a large contention point to just use "hockey".

Let me rephrase this a bit based on how I elaborated in a short discussion on chat.

My thought pattern is, that questions about things like ice hockey or street hockey, which are matching on an extremely large number of patterns, don't need to be distinguished on the tag level. These are the sports which you'd just call "hockey" while you're playing it - the style is based more on what resources you have available. As such, we can just use to cover them. While there are some distinctions, I don't think it's enough to warrant that we need to separate, on the tag level, and . People looking for those are probably going to look for Hockey, and if they're using a narrower net than just the tag, then the presence of the other variants should not impact them negatively.

Games that deviate much more from the ice hockey formula, they don't tend to be called just "hockey". For example, has a lot of differences, and most people and players tend to call themselves "Field Hockey Players", and not merely "Hockey Players". So they'd look for "field hockey" in the first place.

That's why I imagine that we should stick with just , and probably not even need to create subtags or anything like that.

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    "players tend to call themselves "Field Hockey Players", and not merely "Hockey Players". So they'd look for "field hockey" in the first place" - that's a very US-centric view of the world. In the UK, for example, it's the polar opposite. A hockey player is a 'field' hockey player, an ice hockey player would not call themselves 'just' a hockey player. Indeed, even the term 'field hockey' is not one that most non-US folks would readily recognise.
    – Unsliced
    Commented Feb 9, 2012 at 21:15
  • @Unsliced I'm willing to accept that I'm narrow in my perceptions. If you disagree and think we should change the setup for tags, then I'm open to hear your preference.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Feb 9, 2012 at 21:17
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    Agree with @Unsliced here. Saying hockey and ice-hockey are synonymous is a very US-centric view. I suggest, hockey and field hockey be made synonymous. After all, International Hockey Federation is the governing body for field hockey, while the one for ice hockey calls themselves International Ice Hockey Federation.
    – rest_day
    Commented Feb 17, 2012 at 20:23
  • I'd say it's a North American-centric (and possibly northern European?) view as opposed to US only. For example, in Canada, hockey is linked at the hip to the ice version, while field hockey is almost unheard of
    – canadiancreed
    Commented Feb 26, 2012 at 16:37
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No, hockey and ice hockey should not be synonyms. The international standard is to call field hockey as Hockey and ice hockey as Ice Hockey and this is how it is known to vast majority of people outside North America.

  1. The governing body of field hockey is called International Hockey Federation, while that of ice hockey is called International Ice Hockey Federation.

  2. Olympics, which is as international as they come, identifies hockey as Field Hockey while ice hockey is specifically mentioned as Ice Hockey. (Hockey, Ice Hockey)

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I think the current tag should be split and appropriately tagged into and . There are enough differences that warrant such a change.

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and should be synonyms and merged into . Any other type of hockey should get their own tag like

OK maybe that last one is off topic, but point stands.

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    I think that last one might be the most played sport in the world ;).
    – Shane
    Commented Feb 9, 2012 at 19:39
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    Totally disagree here - while north America may have ice-hockey as the most common use, everywhere else in the world hockey means field hockey, and whenever anyone means ice-hockey, they say ice-hockey.
    – Rory Alsop
    Commented Feb 29, 2012 at 10:21

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