Who wants tags/tagging?
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Okay, since tagging and folksonomies seem to be all the rage lately, I thought I'd check here and see who would like to have it available on the website? I'm eyeing up a couple of modules which would: - Let you tag posts, whether they are yours or another user's - View a "tag cloud". Here is an example of a tag cloud. I'm hoping that such a system could prove to be beneficial by users marking tags with what tags they think are appropriate, and let others find things more efficiently. For example, if several posts are tagged "newbie question", someone could click on that tag to see all of the posts with questions from newbies. And this sort of thing would be entirely user driven, without manually having to set up new user items. Please let me know your thoughts, pro or con on this. Thanks, -- Giza |
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Location: So Cal, California, USA
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Interesting idea, dunno if tag clouds would interest me much, I like lists for popularity, but the other thing might be good.
BTW, when I saw tagging, I first though of ear tags =P
Tiger kitty ready for AC, at your service,
Verdauga
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permalinkLocation: Syracuse, NY
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What would be useful would be to use tags as filters to suppress seeing messages I don't want. It's hard enough keeping up with the messages here without wading through the umpteenth "I'm going to AC for the first time, can anyone give me some advice" query.
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permalinkLocation: So Cal, California, USA
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Ah seconded.
As an aside, is there and easy way to mark all topics as read? Right now I just open them all in tabs then close the browser. If not its not a problem, I'll just keep doing it =P
Tiger kitty ready for AC, at your service,
Verdauga
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permalinkLocation: Ardmore, PA
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> As an aside, is there and easy way to mark all topics as read?
Sadly, no. Or at least, not yet.
You're not the first person who has asked for this, so I did do some Googling. It looks like many other people on drupal.org have asked for the same feature. I have no clue why it hasn't been implemented yet. If such a feature becomes available, I'll put it on this site right away.
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permalinkLocation: UK
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To be honest on the question of tag clouds - I really wouldn't bother. Gimmick for gimmicks' sakes often lead to just too much confusion - I think the site is already over complicated in the menu/linking format - but thats the danger of CMS systems like Drupal.
KISS - Keep it Simple Sir
!
Darkclaw T Wolf Esq.
AC Staffer 7 Years
Internet Room
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permalinkLocation: Ardmore, PA
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Tagging is so not a gimmick. It's a system for letting users classify content as they see fit so that they can browse pages based on terms that they choose.
Also, by looking at what tags have been applied to what documents, that data can be mined to see what users associate certain tags with. For example, if we see "fursuit" associated with "games", this could tell us that many people are interested in fursuit games, or at least have it on their minds.
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permalinkLocation: UK
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*chuckles* But Giza, read your own post! That will just go over the head of most users - no offense intended you know!!
I suppose if it was carefully limited, it could be of use - but I'd also thought by now we know what information people are looking for on a con website - and anything above that (ie. topics on the forum) Users can search themselves to their heart's content.
Darkclaw T Wolf Esq.
AC Staffer 7 Years
Internet Room
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permalinkLocation: Philadelphia area, PA
Speaking as part of those unwashed masses, none taken. *grin*
It sounds like tagging has the potential to open up some new ways of approaching our beloved forum, as well as some new ways to explore the information that AC staff take from observing it. For us folks who are less technically proficient than Giza, though, some sort of guide to usage would be good. I confess i've run into tag clouds before and haven't found a good way to make use of them. So are the advantages afforded by tagging worth the learning curve that comes with it?
If the software is really just going to check the incidence of words in a post, i'm less interested, personally. In a context like this, i find that less useful. If the software allows us to give one of a series of preset tags to individual posts (and replies!), thus allowing us to tie our posts the the gaming and first timers and fursuit programming concerns (for instance) and to flow from one matter to another more transparently, then i could see it really broadening the forum, instead of just complicating it.
But of course much of this depends on how much time and energy the kitty cat has for integrating a tagging system into the forum. *grin*
--dester'edra
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permalinkLocation: Ardmore, PA
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Actually, neither. The tagging modules that I looked at would display a text box beneath each post, where users can enter in their own words to describe the post. No preset tags here, you could enter whatever you liked.
For an example of such a system, I'd recommend signing up for an account on del.icio.us. Feel free to browse my rather large tag collection, at http://del.icio.us/dmuth.
Install two modules and check two boxes... not a whole lot of time required, really.
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permalinkLocation: Philadelphia area, PA
I tried employing firefox's plugin for delicious once, and was...underwhelmed. I'd had all of my bookmarks very carefully filed in a series of folders, and was just looking for a way to allow for bookmarks that fit in more than one folder. Instead, it pulled all of my bookmarks out of their folders, destroyed the folders, and left my bookmarks in such a horrendous quagmire of repeated links and tags that i could never find anything again. I got so frustrated with it that i turned that plugin off...and lost all of my bookmarks in the process, from what i can tell.
I probably could have fixed the problem, had i been more proficient with its system of tagging, but... *shrugs* Sooner or later, i'll rebuild my bookmark collection.
If that's what it'd do to the forum, i'll stick to the current folders; they're much tidier.
Drupal wouldn't set up an organization system that messy, tho, would they? Do we know of a forum that's currently running with tags that we could look at for reference, or would that be too nosy of us?
--dester'edra, still miffed at not getting the snow she was promised for last night. Darn you, weatherppl, stop taunting us!
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permalinkLocation: Ardmore, PA
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Odd, I never had that problem with FireFox's plugin. In fact, it didn't touch my bookmarks. I just began adding new bookmarks once I installed it and went from there.
Drupal isn't going to mess with your bookmarks, if that's what you're asking.
I don't off the top of my head of any forums which have a tagging system enabled, sorry. If you find one, please let me know.
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permalinkLocation: Philadelphia area, PA
>Drupal isn't going to mess with your bookmarks, if that's what you're asking.
*balls up a clean paper napkin and throws it at the kitty*
No, i'm quite aware that message boards do not (as a general rule) reorganize their users' bookmarks. *grin*
What i meant was, Drupal wouldn't design a tagging system that got rid of any pre-existing system of organization, would they? Or are the tagging and our system of organization (sections, subsections, blah blah blah) mutually exclusive? If tagging doesn't change the overall structure of the board significantly, then it may not matter whether everyone can make good use of it; those who can't handle tags can simply ignore them and have more or less the same board as before.
dester'edra
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permalinkLocation: Ardmore, PA
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Oh no, it doesn't remove anything, it just adds to it.
What the tagging system actually does (on the back end), is just adds to the taxonomy system. Taxonomy is is a core part of Drupal and is already in use on many sites, including this one. If you look at the top of each page, you'll see one or more categories just to the right of the date. Those would be the taxonomy terms. Tagging would just add more terms to that list.
On a related note, you can see the list of all taxonomy terms and pages under them on our sitemap.
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permalinkLocation: Philadelphia area, PA
A-ahh. OK; that sounds much more discreet and unobtrusive than i feared, and pretty easy for less forum-savvy posters to ignore.
Under those circumstances... I suppose we could try adding the tagging component and see how it goes. Very worst thing that happens is that it messes some stuff up, and you use the backup to rebuild. And i wouldn't expect anything that dramatic.
--dester'edra
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permalinkLocation: Ardmore, PA
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The tagging module I have in mind would not do that, I'm afraid. Most tagging systems I've seem are more about matching than excluding. Sorry.
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