How about we start using tags?

[LGSilva]

I saw this on another forum and it seams to work.
I'm not talking about the tags that you use as keywords.
Let's say you will start a new thread because you need help. On the title you should start with [Help].
If you have a how-to -> [How-To], reporting a new application -> [App] and so on.
Of course we would have standardized tags defined by the forum admins.
How about? Good idea?

[EclipsedExistence]

I don't quite understand what you mean. Perhaps a rephrasing of your idea?

[CJ Chitwood]

I believe he means putting a brief descriptor of the type of post in the subject line so it's easier to find posts...


However, no offense to LGSilva, but this is exactly why there are keyword tags and subject lines and for that matter separate forums in the first place. If people would use them the way they were originally meant to be used, we wouldn't need "tags". Further, using "Search" isn't difficult, and the only reason I can think of for using "tags" is to make it easier for people to find certain threads about certain things.

I don't know, maybe I'm expecting too much of the little kiddies running around with G1s... but I think it would be more of a hassle than it's worth. Again, no offense, this is just my honest opinion.

[MobileMan]

Thats a good point. ^^^ Ive been on other forums and have seen other people use the wrong tags and there thread was all over the forum. But then again Ive seen it used the right way and it worked.

[bizarro_stormy]

If people just stated what the thread was about in the title, we don't need tags.

for example: 'How about we start using tags?' -- i know what that is
'Help...' -- I have a basic idea that this person needs help
'Android would make a hot boys name' -- uhhh....what?

I don't see a complete need for tags. but they could help if you feel the need to use obscure thread titles. :P

[CJ Chitwood]

+1 to Stormy. It requires a little bit of education on the posters' parts to post threads in a well-designed manner. When done properly, agreed, we don't need tags. Tags are IMHO for kids who don't know how to use forums effectively. Just an opinion, not meaning to hurt feelings with it, but that's how I feel.

[CJ Chitwood]

EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, who POST ANYTHING to any FORUM ANYWHERE, should read this page START TO FINISH at LEAST ONCE:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Cheers.

[LGSilva]

If people just stated what the thread was about in the title, we don't need tags.

for example: 'How about we start using tags?' -- i know what that is
'Help...' -- I have a basic idea that this person needs help
'Android would make a hot boys name' -- uhhh....what?

I don't see a complete need for tags. but they could help if you feel the need to use obscure thread titles. :P

Yep, this would be the ideal.
I have when I see a topic like "Multi-touch on G1!!!!!1!!one!!1" and then the person is asking if it's possible and you were thinking that someone got multi-touch on G1

--- edit ---
100% off-topic: this was my 200th post

[CJ Chitwood]

Yep, this would be the ideal.
I have when I see a topic like "Multi-touch on G1!!!!!1!!one!!1" and then the person is asking if it's possible and you were thinking that someone got multi-touch on G1

--- edit ---
100% off-topic: this was my 200th post

It's because people don't think. I'm convinced. And people don't care. I have to admit, sometimes when I'm researching a problem, trying to find a solution, and I come to a forum, I see a lot of "lolloolololol hahaha so how do I fix this problem?" and I turn around and find another forum because when people post like that I imagine they're just some early-teens kids with nothing better to do and there's like 2 or 3 of them in front of the computer screen and they're just trying to pass the time and really don't care if the problem gets fixed because mommy and daddy will just buy them a new computer for Christmas or Channukah or Kwanzaaa or whatever the ethnic holiday du jour is.


Wow. I'm in a cynical mood this morning. I wonder why...



Anywhoo, yeah, people just don't care. I like to think I do, and I go and post really long, but thorough, simple and straightforward and informative answers to questions that are asked (on the rare times that I actually DO have an answer), and then get a reply afterward that goes something like, "uuhh, yeah, loloololol, i like dont get none of what u sed lolollolol but u look like some1 who noes what ur talkin bout" and then I just want to shoot myself for wasting that much time in the first place with "sum1" who "dosent" even want "2" use even an attempt at grammar, spelling, or punctuation, proper or otherwise.

And if they don't care about those things, they're not going to care about titles to posts.


If they don't care about titles to posts, they damned sure ain't gonna care about tags.


I like Linuxquestions.org's forums, though. People use descriptive titles, but they also use tags. And thinking about the way *THEY* implemented it, it's actually not a bad idea. Because sometimes, a thread title isn't descriptive enough, or it's so long that it gets cut off by the viewer (like on AC forums, when I go in and there are two COLUMNS of about 10 thread titles each, and not one of the titles is shown in full length so I still don't know WTH they're about if I haven't already been in them (that feature could be safely removed, IMHO, but that's just me). Anyway, the benefit of tags in that LQ forum example is that while the title gives you a description of what's inside, the tags give you accurate (when used properly) keyword searches. If I have a hard drive problem, I might make a title like "supported SATA hard drive not detected in Debian Etch" but based on content I might have tags like "SATA Hard Drive Disk detect detection debian sony vaio vgn nr160e" so that maybe someone else with non-SATA disks might have a Sony Vaio similar to mine and be searching for Vaio issues, not SATA or Hard Drive issues, and would still find my post useful. Of course, you could argue that I should use a longer, more complete title. But what if the subject changes along the way, or someone says, "yeah, I have the same problem in Red Hat" and then "Oh, so it's a KERNEL problem, not a DISTRO problem"... then these other people can still add tags: "Red Hat, Kernel" and when they find out what version of kernel everyone has, they realize it's any kernel higher than 2.6.27, they might add the tag "2.6.27+" or similar.


So yeah, I guess I could swap my vote back in favor of tags, but the problem isn't so much tags as it is people have to be smart enough to use them effectively. And I don't have faith in people in general. No offense to "ne1" here.


I guess the problem with NOT having tags is for those parts of the page where the full title isn't viewable or for when even an accurate and descriptive title doesn't hold all the stuff that could be useful to someone. Plus, a thread could be indexed by tags. That way, searches would go faster because instead of searching the ENTIRE thread, you could search just a thread's tags. And, all users could add tags to each post, all of which would be added to the thread taglist, so the forum could search only thread titles, and not individual post titles. you know?

[Jorsher]

Tags can be helpful when used properly. For example, on some other forums in the for sale/trade/wanted sections they will require that you add "FS," "FT," and "WTB" to the title so it's easier to find in searches.

Unfortunately, it's really hard to educate an entire forum of what tags should be used under certain circumstances, especially when there are always new members. Even then, it's common that the search feature isn't used, which has always confused me because it takes less time to type some keywords in search than it does to create a new thread and wait for a response.

If people would just write descriptive titles and search, there really wouldn't be a need.

I think it's a good idea and works great when properly used, but its just more trouble than it's worth getting people to use it properly.