Tag usage.

So it has come to my attention that tags are being misused. There are a couple SJ threads mentioning them, 1 from dark about "will you marry me tags" and another about "baneling cake competition" (the second is more harmful since competition and banelings are topics of serious discussion on this forum [and the cake is a lie])

I would like to point out that tags are supposed to be a tool to assist users in finding threads and randomly tagging things can hamper the searches and needlessly fills up the tag cloud (which is already somewhat tweaked due to disproportionate amounts of tags). I would like to ask all of you to please only tag with relevant stuff on threads that need tags.

I would also suggest that unrelated tags (x was here) be treated as spam and removed. This should also mean that SJ topics should generally not be tagged.


In addition I would like to draft some tag use rules:
1. Please tag any and all topics with usefully information and/or relevant discussions
1a. When creating a thread, please tag it when you submit it.
2. keep the tags relevant to the topic, (eg. Colossus attack discussions should be tagged with colossus, attack, and possibly attack animation if that is also being discussed)
3. avoid phrases, "colossus attack animation" will get far less hits than "colossus, attack animation"
4. don't abuse tags, they are a search tool, do not use them to mark where you have been or play forum tag
5. if you see a tag that appears not to belong treat it as spam and notify the nearest person with a modchete.
5a. moderators, if you see spam tags, please remove them.

I realize that most of these spammy tags are in space junk, but they affect the whole site so it's best not to use them there at all if you don't have a serious use for them, and, frankly, I think too much leeway is given, and too much spam is allowed there anyways. In addition to the abundance of useless tags in SJ, in any given discussion section, only three or four topics per page are tagged. If we go by the above rules though, tags would be more useful, as it is now the abundance of spam tags and untagged topics makes tags somewhat pointless.

(note to admin, the forum text says I can add 25 tags when I create a topic, the forum code disagrees. please fix this error)
-this message brought to you by the society against tag spam.

 

I agree with most of that, but I think that the mods shouldn't be held responsible for bad tagging. They can remove bad tags when reported, but they shouldn't need to go tag hunting like LK when the marry me tags and all that crap appeared. The whole community is responsible for this.

So I would like to suggest this: remove the tag option in space junk, there is no need for them, unless you are a fan of searching through the junk of others. In that case I would advise you to see a doctor. Secondly, and more serious this time, I think that tagging should be restricted to the one who created the topic that needs tagging. If more tags are still important, then notify the topic creator by a PM or include it in your post. --discuss--

 

I'm not advocating that the mods activley hunt for tags, but if they are in a thread already it couldn't hurt to delete any misplaced tags.

 

True. Nothing more to add here. Now all we need is getting people to vote. -And some attention from jon.- Maybe Place a link in your sig like you did with omnidiscussions a while ago?

 

i like the idea, but you should be able to have spamtags in sj

 

@Hex
what I would like is for the rules thread to be updated, add this and the rep and thank you to be merged with the rules to clean up some of the stickies. Theres just too damn many of them here. (something similar should be done with the guide to posting, guite to articles, and guide to news. That is of course a completley seperate discussion entirely

@Mong0
The problem is that tags are shared amongst all sections so tagging a spam thread can lead to issues, there is a thread tagged with "baneling, cake, contest" none of these are actually relevent and the thread isn't about any of these things, it is about those tags themselves. if somone were to search for baneling, cake, or contest, that thread would clutter up the search results and get in the way of threads that are aactually about that subject.

Tagging wouldn't really be too much of a problem so long as it is kept appropriate to the topic; the problem is that, right now, everything is just tagged with random crap.

Also, don't forget to add your vote.

 

The whole point of not having spam tags in sj is because they interfere with the rest of the searches and the tag cloud. Having these rules apply everywhere woold only solve the problem, since it's sj that causes the trouble. What you want makes no sense.

 

What does "woonly" mean? please revise your post.

Tags shouldn't be arbitrarily spammed anywhere, but I mentioned SJ because thats where most of the tag spam is happening. I have seen "x is here" outside of space junk before though. I don't see the problem with having a rule that says no spamming tags anywhere. Spacejunk should not be an exception, nor should it be soley focused on. tags are a tool; one that has been underutilized and abused for the most part. Hence the rules that state that you should use tags, and that you shouldn't abuse them by posting random words and phrases where they don't belong

 

Haven't read the topic, so apologies for that.

Wasn't the 'baneling cake competition' just a coincidence? I think they were just different tags that got stuck together due to being close alphabetically, not someone actually making a single tag like this.

Edit: seems like there was such attempt, so agreed here, it is something that should be taken care of (like all abuse)

 

From what I understand it started as a coincidence, the words used to be bigger so I guess someone started, but then someone started intentionally tagging it. There is a SJ thread complaining that one of the mods reversed the process.

 

In the admin control there is an option to globally kill a specific tag and I have started wielding it recently to get rid of spammy tags I notice. I would clean out all of the spammy tags but there must be close to 4000 tags in there and I can't always tell which ones are spammy and which aren't. 2 things absolutely need to happen is tags must be more effectively used and must not be used for spammy things anymore.

 

Yeah, I've noticed now. Forgive me for coming here first.

I agree with your post with the addition that the cloud shouldn't even be there in the first place. I don't know if people use it, but I know there are better things that could be put in that space.

PS: I've noticed you mention overspamming in SJ. I've made a related topic - see how many people cared

 

I meant to say "would only" in that post. Typed a bit to fast there.

And about the tag cloud showing baneling cake competition because of the alphabet, why is that? A tag cloud is supposed to show random tags all the time, not sort them. Have you ever seen a real cloud where all shades of grey were nicely sorted? :s

 

Well, I don't know why, but it is sorted alphabetically

 

I have no idea why it is like that, ask the programmer. The tag coloud is SUPPOSED to emphasize the most popular tags for some arbitraary reason (to date I haven't found a use for it other than looking pretty [in the way modern art does mind you]), I don't really see a problem with sorting them, after all it is a list of the most used tags, size just shows which are most used of the most used. Sorting them and not sorting them has pretty much the same effect.

 

One thing I don't know about tags is if they can contain words from the thread titles. AFAIK search engines use tags, but then they also use words in thread titles so it might be a good idea to avoid overlapping the two.
Unless the above is BS, in which case I'd welcome some headsup.

 

They can contain words from the title, but only the keywords should be included usually. "Colossus Discussion" doesn't really need to be tagged discussion.

As for search theres actually two types. the regular search looks thought page titles, then contents to look for the words you specified (it might also do tags, not sure though). it is very broad though, I can search for zealot, and I will get a tech tree, zerglings masaccreing protoss infantry, and a whole lot of other stuff because one person mentioned the unit.

The second type of search just looks at the tags, so if I do a tag search for Zealot, ideally it should turn up all of the threads regarding zealots; the other stuff where the unit is only mentioned in passing won't come up since it is a narrower search. if the tags have been managed well it is a good way to find stuff quickly, if ithey have been managed badly and/or not used then it won;t be of much use since the threads you are looking for won;t show up, and the htreads you aren't will. THat is why people need to tag their topics, and why tags need to be relevent to the topic.