The Value of Topic Tagging

Yeah, with a near infinity of tags, the system becomes almost useless. Still, some have value. 'Community' is one.

Might be better to go back to the old way, though. Just have predefined forums, and make what we used to call 'Tags' conform to the new forum system.

It used to be a useful and functional feature, but by the time I had it figured out, it was being abused beyond recognition.

Good point.

Robert --- We need a drip down list of possible choices.

it is not possible to find threads by topic unless they are properly tagged. the insult tags are intended to make sure that the threads are buried. i have noticed lately the the hamsters are sometimes removing the good tags from my threads in order to bury my threads.

not. cool.

also not cool is hamsters voting down threads that have never been viewed by membership...i have been watching them do this as well.

edit: at one point robert said that hamsters would start removing bad tags because abuse of the system makes content impossible to find...this might happen but it has not happened on my threads for months. now the hamsters are participants in the abuse.

I doubt it is a hamster doing that.

I often search by tag, it's simple.
I also search by the search word in the upper right, usually find what I am looking for.
I also sometimes try to get rid of insult tags by putting in one or more useful ones. Did that on one of yours today, hawkeye, got rid of it.

I don't think it's hamsters.

I don't remember details so don't quote me on this, but I remember Robert talking about future uses for the forum tags in addition to what we can currently do with them.

For example, if you dislike the Lovatt's topics you could choose to ignore topics tagged with "Lovatt's." If you dislike politics you could choose to ignore that. Etc.

Another way to customize how you use the site.

I usually operate out of "new posts," but I occasionally find the tags useful.

Meanwhile, it's not that hard to bump out jackass-y tags. Adding some more on-topic tags (especially repeating ones that are already there) usually does the trick.

i only use new posts and my posts to find topics, i never use or search for tags

I think you're confused about "hamsters."

What has been said about this site and its design, repeatedly, is that as much of the moderation is intended to be handed to the community as possible.

So in terms of removing "bad" tags, for example, that's you, me, us. Community. The more people bump out problematic tags, the less of a problem it is.

It's not something that "hamsters" need to do in any sense, whether automated software or the volunteer moderators. Finn, Hawkeye, roger, sozobe, we can handle that. So if it bothers you, hop to it, ya know?

Typical Finn logic. "I don't know how to make it useful so it isn't useful to anyone."

I tend to go with this - esp. if the thread-starter has commented that their original tags were overridden.

i've done that if i'm asked

When I start a thread, I tag my own thread while creating it. I've successfully searched on tags before and I've used tags to decide I shouldn't open a tag about some sort of puzzle or another. I don't see the burn here. I agree it would be better if you had a choice of pre-defined tags in addition to adding your own.

"Good" is a value judgement, and a tag that you think is "good" may not be a tag that I think is "good."

For me, "good" includes entertainment value.

Whackeye's paranoia knows no bounds. As has been pointed out, using existing tags is the best way to push the unwanted tags out of view.

Agreed - I do that and may add new. In fact I got rid of one on this thread.

You can tag threads with your own tags, Finn. You can then retrieve them, in a manner of speaking, by clicking on "My Tags".

For example, I tagged this already fully tagged thread of yours with "Finn tag comments". The thread hadn't shown up in "My Posts" because, until this post, I hadn't posted to this, your thread, but it did show up in "My Tags".

You can also do a Ctrl "F" search on your own tags on your profile page.

I ignored everything tagged with Lovatt's, but it didn't work. You also have to ignore every thing tagged lovatts, crosswords, word games, tigers, lions, and bears - with all possible varieties of capitalization.

I think that how it would work -- future tense, not now -- is that if a thread is tagged with Lovatt's, it would be collapsed for you. And I think that most Lovatt's threads are tagged with "Lovatt's," so it wouldn't really matter what else it's tagged with.

But I'm not sure if I have that all right. At any rate, it's future tense and would probably be explained when it does arrive.

Maybe a better description would be "with a future meaning", Soz.