user354: I am aware that many people who do not know (much) about buddhism usually refer to Gautama/Shakyamuni when simply saying "Buddha" or "the Buddha" but is this reason enough to have a the-buddha tag?
Originally coming from a Pure Land/Mahāyāna tradition I learned much more about Amitābha than Gautama and so the latter was way less important to me and calling him "the buddha" would have confused and mislead me.
So why not have a proper gautama tag that is used for him?
The only "downside" I see would be that people don't properly tag (let's say they would otherwise...) , but retagging is imo the simplest form of editing and least work. So even this argument won't really hold.
It is rather an argument for changing. Imagine someone using the-buddha and then seeing that it was changed to gautama. When wondering why that happens OP will probably educate him/herself a bit more on why there isn't "one Buddha".

user104: I would suggest to use a tag historical-buddha. It would still have Buddha word in it, but it would also imply that we mean a real person rather than a Buddhahood or some specific Buddha form. 

user43: Personally, first time I saw the-buddha it was not immediately apparent to me what it was referring to. In this sense, gautama-buddha or historical-buddha would be more obvious, except I would flip the two parts, to help the autocomplete function as the user types the tag: buddha-gautama. The other buddhas and buddha in general could be tagged as buddha-a or buddhas or buddhas-of-the-three-times or buddha-eternal.

user18: I don't think it is terribly misleading - Wikipedia notes that the historical Buddha is generally understood to be "The Buddha"; Straight Dope says the two terms are synonymous, etc.
I wouldn't think gautama appropriate, since that is a clan name. 
historic-buddha might work, but it's still a bit confusing, since there have been lots of Buddhas in the past. 
Maybe gautama-buddha would work in cases where the asker is specifically talking about that particular Buddha, but I think for most people the tag the-buddha simply means Buddha, in a general sense, rather than specifying one. For example, what should we tag a question about why all Buddhas are born with 32 characteristics of a great man, besides the-buddha?

354: <p>I am aware that many people who do not know (much) about buddhism usually refer to Gautama/Shakyamuni when simply saying "<em>Buddha</em>" or "<em>the Buddha</em>" but is this reason enough to have a <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/the-buddha" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;the-buddha&#39;" rel="tag">the-buddha</a> tag?</p>

<p>Originally coming from a Pure Land/Mahāyāna tradition I learned much more about Amitābha than Gautama and so the latter was way less important to me and calling him "the buddha" would have confused and mislead me.</p>

<p>So why not have a proper <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/gautama" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;gautama&#39;" rel="tag">gautama</a> tag that is used for him?</p>

<p>The only "downside" I see would be that people don't properly tag (let's say they would otherwise...) , but retagging is imo the simplest form of editing and least work. So even this argument won't really hold.</p>

<p>It is rather an argument for changing. Imagine someone using <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/the-buddha" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;the-buddha&#39;" rel="tag">the-buddha</a> and then seeing that it was changed to <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/gautama" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;gautama&#39;" rel="tag">gautama</a>. When wondering why that happens OP will probably educate him/herself a bit more on why there isn't "one Buddha".</p>
 104: <p>I would suggest to use a tag <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/historical-buddha" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;historical-buddha&#39;" rel="tag">historical-buddha</a>. It would still have <em>Buddha</em> word in it, but it would also imply that we mean a real person rather than a Buddhahood or some specific Buddha form. </p>
 43: <p>Personally, first time I saw <code>the-buddha</code> it was not immediately apparent to me what it was referring to. In this sense, <code>gautama-buddha</code> or <code>historical-buddha</code> would be more obvious, except I would flip the two parts, to help the autocomplete function as the user types the tag: <code>buddha-gautama</code>. The other buddhas and buddha in general could be tagged as <code>buddha-a</code> or <code>buddhas</code> or <code>buddhas-of-the-three-times</code> or <code>buddha-eternal</code>.</p>
 18: <p>I don't think it is terribly misleading - Wikipedia notes that the historical Buddha is generally understood to be "The Buddha"; Straight Dope says the two terms are synonymous, etc.</p>

<p>I wouldn't think <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/gautama" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;gautama&#39;" rel="tag">gautama</a> appropriate, since that is a clan name. </p>

<p><a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/historic-buddha" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;historic-buddha&#39;" rel="tag">historic-buddha</a> might work, but it's still a bit confusing, since there have been lots of Buddhas in the past. </p>

<p>Maybe <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/gautama-buddha" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;gautama-buddha&#39;" rel="tag">gautama-buddha</a> would work in cases where the asker is specifically talking about that particular Buddha, but I think for most people the tag <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/the-buddha" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;the-buddha&#39;" rel="tag">the-buddha</a> simply means Buddha, in a general sense, rather than specifying one. For example, what should we tag a question about why all Buddhas are born with 32 characteristics of a great man, besides <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/the-buddha" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;the-buddha&#39;" rel="tag">the-buddha</a>?</p>
