Tags

[Grehan]

Pretty clear that they're now dead in the water. My 5 tags for "French Waterways" ridiculously outweighs all others by a huge margin. It's obvious that nearly all OPs aren't using them or thinking to use them and of course no-one else can add them.
Really not possible not to have them in the madcap Lounge but have them elsewhere? Only for people who post in a thread, not lurk? Maybe even with the tag author identifiable (I'm loathe to suggest this, I like the anonymity inherent in them, but . . . )? :(

[Coaster]

I don't know what tags are. As far as I'm aware I have not come across them on the few other website fora I look at. This may apply to most other posters.

If tags are important there would need to be a big education and promotion effort, explaining their value and use. Purely for information, can someone tell us a bit about them?

[demonboy]

If tags are important there would need to be a big education and promotion effort, explaining their value and use. Purely for information, can someone tell us a bit about them?

They don't need 'a big education and promotion effort' for them to be of value. Just do a google (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=what+are+tags&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=)or wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(metadata))of 'tags' and you'll understand soon enough. It's like many things on the net, just educate yourself. It'll take 2 mins! (They have been discussed in great detail on this forum but hopefully those links should help.)

[Coaster]

Just do a google (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=what+are+tags&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=)or wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(metadata))of 'tags'...

Thanks for the links. Having looked at the Wikipedia info I'm not clear why we need tags, unless the forum search facility can't work without them.

Might it be best for the moderators to add tags as necessary?

[BrendanS]

Thanks for the links. Having looked at the Wikipedia info I'm not clear why we need tags, unless the forum search facility can't work without them.

Might it be best for the moderators to add tags as necessary?


Tags, used well, are usually added by people who understand how tags work, and how searching works, and the tags are relevant and useful. They allow you to quickly search and access relevant info and related threads. General searches because so many words appear in a thread, often throw up many irrelevant search results, unless you are extremely good at searching.

The moderators here have many other roles and responsibilities as well, and simply don't have time to even read all the threads and posts each day, never mind at weekends or at night. They probably do what most moderators do, and look at threads where users have hit the notify moderator button, or look at threads where posts are being added unusually quickly.

To expect the mods to not only read all the threads, but to add tags as well, is completely outside the time they have available, and will never happen

[demonboy]

Thanks, Brendan, you've pretty much written my response for me :D

Coaster, I hope you get your head round them eventually. They're a powerful yet useful little tool.

[lovezoo]

Unfortunately it is nothing more than wishful thinking to believe that the tags will ever be of any value whatsoever here on this amateur forum. I really don't understand why you think posters will bother to mark their posts with accurate, clear and relevant tags when they can't be bothered to do that in the posts themselves.

Just one example, people post on engine problems they are having, without actually mentioning what the engines are, let alone the year of manufacture, fuel type, outdrive type etc etc - if they can't do that in the body of the thread, why expect them to do that in the tag? Other posters can't even spell - what's the use of a misspelt tag? As Brendan says, the moderators don't have time to add/edit the tags, so I can't see them ever being anything other than a joke - except we are not allowed to joke in them....

I've just had a look through the mobo forum - and there are 2 tags in the first two hundred threads. Says it all really.

[David_Jersey]

I've just had a look through the mobo forum - and there are 2 tags in the first two hundred threads. Says it all really.

That's largely because only the OP can add Tags :p

I don't disagree with you that relatively few folk will use the tags "properly", but nonetheless I still think worthwhile having the function. If I saw a useful thread that I thought would be useful to refer to again I would add a Tag for my own benefit, the side effect being a benefit to the few others who do any sort of search :rolleyes: - albeit Tags do become more accurate the more folk that use them. But IMO does no harrm to start somewhere.

As you quite rightly suggest plenty (many? / most?!) threads are not that useful to others / to refer to again and therefore may not attract any tags / any worthwhile tags - in itself that is arguably useful, but where the majority of threads are like this is perhaps more of an overall Moderation issue than simply a Tag issue. Although a seperate thread, IMO the YBW basic approach (pun intended :p) to the Forum and the Moderation creates a limit to the potential popularity of the Forum..........but not my business, so hey ho :rolleyes:

[demonboy]

Unfortunately it is nothing more than wishful thinking to believe that the tags will ever be of any value whatsoever here on this amateur forum. I really don't understand why you think posters will bother to mark their posts with accurate, clear and relevant tags when they can't be bothered to do that in the posts themselves.

Just one example, people post on engine problems they are having, without actually mentioning what the engines are, let alone the year of manufacture, fuel type, outdrive type etc etc - if they can't do that in the body of the thread, why expect them to do that in the tag? Other posters can't even spell - what's the use of a misspelt tag? As Brendan says, the moderators don't have time to add/edit the tags, so I can't see them ever being anything other than a joke - except we are not allowed to joke in them....

I've just had a look through the mobo forum - and there are 2 tags in the first two hundred threads. Says it all really.

I find your sentiment rather negative. Why bother with anything with an attitude like that? Yes, it will take time and yes they will be abused but tags do work. Maybe with the implementation and understanding of tags people will be a bit more diligent in both tagging and describing their posts.

Tags have only really become widespread in the last couple of years and I'd suggest the average user of the YBW forum is not an early adopter of internet applications, so give it time. I'd like to remain positive on this issue and not write them off within a matter of weeks of their implementation.

[danfoley]

Really a summary of what others here have said, but the tags can potentially be very useful for search. The forum search favours tags heavily, so if used correctly they could be of great use.

I do agree that we must promote and help everyone understand their uses better if we are going to get the best out of them.

[lovezoo]

I find your sentiment rather negative. Why bother with anything with an attitude like that?

Sorry for being negative about this, but we had a feature that people were enjoying using, which was then replaced with one which no one uses (although everyone agrees it could be really really useful). What´s positive about that?