what do LQ tags mean to you?
 

What do you believe LQ tags are for? This could be the current usage, but also feel free to talk about the ideal LQ tagging use of the future.

this thread is to explore what we think tags are for, whether those ideas are radically different and possibly at cross-purposes, and what we can do about it.

titanium_geek

one use for tags I can see is to categorize things in multiple categories without double posting.

TG

I have to confess, I don't pay the slightest attention to tags...

I like the Idea of tagging as a community search tool -- I tagged about 100 threads with "choosing+a+distro" in an effort to give another search option to users coming here to ask "Which Distro?" type questions. I noticed that because that phrase was used for a lot of that kind of thread that some other people started to use the same tag.

A neat feature on another site using tagging that I frequent is that tags submitted in "double quotes" don't need things like "+" between separate words and still stay as one tag.

I voted "No, I don't use and/or ignore tags." because I haven't used tags here in a long time. I don't use them now for the same reason that a thread like this exists. The feature is still too new and unclear about its purpose.

Perhaps once their purpose has been identified the use of tags should be strictly moderated until such a time as their function is commonly known and there aren't a lot of people "incorrectly" using them.
For people who only want to use tags for personal reference perhaps the system could be modified to allow for 50 or so "personal tags" in the users profile space.

I also thing a really good idea would be for Jeremy and/or the Moderators to assemble a team of "taggers" to spend (a lot of) time specifically going through forums and tagging everything according to whatever standards get decided upon for community style tagging. That would get a great base of examples of use as well as get the system to a fairly 'complete' and useable level fairly quickly.

One nice "feature" of tags is their flexibility. They can be used for many different things, by many different people. That being said, we're interested in any feedback you may have for the implementation here at LQ. We are listening and have some tagging improvement plans for the near future.

--jeremy

Purely from my own standpoint: Right now, I'm not trying to accomplish anything much with Linux, and I've been using it for enough years that I can get by day-to-day without help. So I'm not trying to find anything out here at LQ these days.

So the only time I visit LQ right now is to read & maybe post answers to threads I've come across via RSS feeds (The "latest posts" and the "zero answers" ones).

So about the only way tags could really fit into my own usage patterns would be for them to be put into the RSS feeds. Whether that would be useful enough to anybody else to be worth doing is another question entirely. I just wanted to clarify that tags aren't failures just because I don't pay attention to them - they just don't fit in to my current site usage patterns.

I use them, but only as a kind of glorified bookmark. I have never used a tag generated by anyone except myself, and I keep my own tags unique so I have a good hint from the tag, what the post concerned and why I tagged it.

I'm on record several times as holding the position that the current tagging system is an irremediable (not sure if that's a word) mess. I support the idea of a "tagging group" of some sort who could develop some kind of systematic method of tag usage; do massive tag edits, evaluate threads for tag worthiness, etc. By my plan, no one not authorized to tag threads could do so, and those authorized for tagging would work under an organized system.

I voted, Yes, I use them, but I could certainly get a lot more use from them if they meant something.

Edit: An aside. A beautiful example of how "tagging" should work is the "bookmarking" system designed into the Epiphany web browser.

I find that tagging things with a tag relating to the content helps me find it again, and also can help others if they search the tags.

I think it's a very handy tool. But just like any other tool, if overused it can become a bane rather than a boon.

// Eh? :scratch:

I would say that the lack of interest in this thread is a very loud vote for the lack of usefullness of the tagging system as it exists.

Remember when tags first came out? We were asking for it, and we got it, and we couldn't figure out how to use it and kind of gave it up.

Where is that spark? What were we looking for? Can we get it back?

I think that Jeremy etal need to figure out what it is there for, and tell us. :)

oh... 'answer' flagging. That is what it is also used for.

titanium_geek

That's my use too.

Same as me.