on moving tags

[John Yates]

On May 17 2005 Aaron Bentley wrote:

> 'Tag' connotes something added to an object to describe it, while
> 'name' connotes something permanent and integral, so I think tag is the
> better term (and less confusable with the permanent 'revision id').

I would claim that you are actually supporting my position.

To the extent that one would like to encourage users to think of "tags"
as stable references arguing that the term "tag" is to be preferred
because it emphasizes the volatile nature of the association seems a bit
perverse.  That "name" connotes greater permanence is exactly the effect
we should be seeking.  Further I think common experience is that not all
names are "permanent and integral".  Conference of reassignalbe roles is
regularly expressed using the verb "to name": e.g. he was named Bachelor
of the Year.

/john