We've used IATA codes for airport tags since forever, but is it time to re-examine the policy and see if a change is warranted?
@Gilles argued previously and also recently to adopt a [city-iatacode]
naming convention.
Arguments FOR change:
- Discoverability: By far, the most important argument. Searching for a city in a tag field will display tags for airports in the vicinity -- something that's valuable and is not possible with the current naming scheme.
Arguments AGAINST change:
- Potential for ambiguity: Some airports serve more than one city or region, and can have conflicting names. Nothing that can't be solved with tag synonyms where necessary.
- Weird/redundant tag names: For example, sofia-sof looks strange and somewhat redundant.
As for how the transition will take place: moderators can gradually rename the tags using synonyms, keeping the original tags which will point to the new ones. Such renames will not flood the front page with old questions as would be the case if the tag is changed for each question individually.
I'm pretty much convinced that the scheme proposed above is superior to what we have now, but since the change will be significant, I'd rather hear other opinions (or support) before taking any action.