BUR #5406 has been approved by @evazion.
create alias spaulders -> pauldrons
On a very technical level, I know that they are two different pieces of shoulder armor. However, the difference between them is extremely minuscule and largely not known by taggers. The bulk definition text for both tags is a copy/paste of their respective Wikipedia articles and does nothing to curb frequent misuse of both tags. They're used almost interchangeably based on the tagger's vocabulary rather than actual knowledge. There're nearly 100 images tagged both.
Currently, it's 13k tag vs. a 2k tag where gardening would likely result in a nerd debate about the specifics of medieval armor and I just don't think it would be a worthwhile debate to have on danbooru. Especially when the tag counts would likely end up flipped.
Ultimately, pauldron results in more than 16 times the google results as spaulder. Popular media and most people who don't specifically look into the distinction probably won't even know that spaulder is even a word.