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Mandatory tagging?

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6 replies

by smorty71

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

When we first launched tagging, we made it optional so that people could get used to it and see it in action.

Now, however, we are thinking about making "Tags" a required field on the Start a thread page. The thinking is that, in order for tags to provide the most benefit, we need to get more threads tagged.

Are we crazy? Or is it no big deal?

Thanks,
sm

6 replies

by oz_media

Thoughts;

1) It would be NICE for those who USE tagging to track content

2) It would be irrelevant for many of us I think, as I DO often tag but never refer to tags to track anything. There are so many ways of tracking people, threads and comments it is all getting to be just a confusing muddle now. New, Hot, My Discussions, Contacts, recent posts etc. Sometimes cross referencing goes wild and the intent is completely lost in the redundancy. Ease of navigation is not necessarily over navigation. I was actually, not so much opposed, but uninterested in tagging when it was first discussed as I saw it being pretty redundant anyway.

3)One of TR's BIGGEST issues about having people be directed to post in the correct forum was that it would introduce an extra step in the process, not much sense there sorry, a simple sentence explaining questions go here and comments go there is not too invasive is it?
Forcing tags WOULD be that extra step you have been admantly opposed to.

4)You have also introduced a LINKS page already, now you are turning TR into a web portal. I NEVER login to TR when I am on another PC, I BIEW posts but don't reply, as the Login link works 1 out of 15 times for me. Even if I ask to be resent a password and paste it into the field, it still doesn't work most of the time. I just stay logged in on my notebook andone desktop, otherwise I'd never be on TR with the same alias twice. Having my web links just doesn't really interest me as I also use Novell's i-Folder and my links follow me around without logging into TR anyway.

So in a nutshell, and based on the above thoughts/conclusions, I think forcing tags would reduce their quality for one (hasty people just typing 'Windows' in or something), it WOULD add that extra step you have all been against, I don't know how many people actually would bother searching for tags, especially after they started finding all the tags that don't really focus on a discussion they are interested in. Just think how many tags will be Windows related and how many you would have to sift through to find a relevant Windows topic you are interested in, it would get boring VERY fast.

I'm not FOR tags, nor am I FOR links. I just find them redundant and useless for the most part.

There you have it and I pulled no punches, so I hope you don't feel I was having a go at you, it is just MY thoughts on the topic.

Note, if my use of the word redundant is a little redundant, then perhaps you will get the picture of redundancy I was trying to paint. :)

by smorty71

Oz,
I appreciate your honesty. I'm always open to hear what people think of our features... even though I prefer to hear from our Top 5 members :) (I couldn't resist)

As for the issue of an extra step, requiring tags really isn't an extra step. It is part of the same step.

The reason I was opposed to asking "Is this a technical question?" during the post process is that it isn't as simple as adding that question to the start a thread page.

Our discussions and technical Q&A areas don't use the same categories. So someone who selects "This is a discussion" would then have to be presented with the list of categories from discussions. The same for Tech Q&A.

I'm not opposed to working toward a universal thread input page. I just don't think it is necessarily the same as requiring the tag field on the current one.

sm

by oz_media

Well if I stop laughing long enough to type! :D

I swear you are conciously plotting me right out of the top 100 inch by inch, TR is watching me! :O

As for the redirects, I think MAYBE you got the wrong idea of what I meant. IF someone has a PC problem, they are usually more than willing to do SOME work in order to find an answer, if not, chances are they wouldn't close the question anyway.

I think if someone CHOSE to ask a question, they would also want to CHOOSE the most effective place to post it.

Therefore a simple reminder in the discussions page, even the main page where you choose the subject to "CLICK HERE if you have a technical question, your question will receive greater support." or something similar, would be helpful and not detrimental really.

As for tagging and links, my comments stay, I JUST finished being the first poster to discuss a new ARTICLE regarding Firefox security settings. One thing I did notice that you might want to look into, the person who posted the article doesn't have tags on it that I could see and doesn't have an ability to tag it either, again from what I can see.

Would the articles not be a REALLY important place for tags? Should the TR staff and editors who contribute these articles be either banned from posting or fired from CNet for such malpractices?

P.S. I DID tag my reply, for someone's benefit, WHAT A NICE GUY!!! Do I get back into the #1 slot for that? ;)

OOOh, one more thing, Right now I can't click ANY links in My discussion without getting TR's Page Not Available, perhaps updating? But if I search for the discussion I can post to it no problem.

by smorty71

Oz, Good catch on that. We did a deploy of some code changes yesterday and we must have missed something.

We are working on a fix now.
sm

by oz_media

I didn't notice this post so I posted to the TR Insiders forum, oops.

Anyhow here's a cut and past of my issues.

"There seems to be a wee problem with posts.

When you try and EDIT a post, which I do for EVERY post, you can't edit it and click submit. It ORDERS you to add tags, FAIR ENOUGH. The problem is, there's no box to add tags to? So you get left in a lopp, you can't add tags, you can't edit and repost the changes.

I'll leave you guys to take care of that, then you can go for lunch.

OzMedia - CBO Tech Republic Discussion forums

(CBO) Chief Bitching Officer. Hey it kinda fits doesn't it?"

by hal 9000

I would have used a different word for the second one but it sort of works in a understated way. :D

You must be getting old or something as you seem to be worried about offending people here or could it be that you don't want to see another "I'm leaving TR THANKS OZ!} on the insiders side of things. :p

Col ]:)

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