While in beta, why does my reputation need to be so high to suggest tag synonyms?

Question

I have been working on cleaning up the tags on the main freelancing site by suggesting tag wiki entries. I then came across two tags that were obviously synonyms - but I do not have a high enough reputation to suggest it (need 1250).

It seems that in its current state, anyone can create a new tag, but very few of us (if any) have the ability to suggest synonyms and clean up tags.

I suggest we allow current (invite-only) members more moderation privileges, for things like this (keeping the site clean and un-cluttered).

1. Is there a reason why we don't allow this (is vandalism an issue for invitees)?
2. How can we go about making this change?

Answer 1

Tag synonyms used to be something that only developers on Stack Exchange could put in place. When it was given to the community, the high rep-barrier was to discourage vandalism or incorrect tag synonyms.

It is higher still on established sites; the lowered reputation barriers are already present on beta sites (in private beta, you need 2999 less rep to cast close votes, for example)

We don't have any moderators pro tem yet, by the way. These would be the people given moderator privileges "for the time being" later into the beta when we go public.