10 votes

Topic-tagging updates

Posted by Deimos
Tags: changelog

A couple of fairly minor updates to topic-tagging (that mostly came out of discussion in this thread the other day):

  1. When you're entering tags, you now need to separate them with commas. Spaces will be kept as part of the tag, instead of working as a separator. So you can tag something like music, soundtrack, full album and get 3 tags out of that.

    (Side note that I doubt anyone cares about: spaces are converted to underscores internally, so using a space or an underscore in a tag is now the same)

  2. I added a tags field to the "new topic" page, so you can tag while you're posting the topic now, instead of needing to do it separately afterwards.

Most of you have probably already read it (especially since I spammed you all with a message that has a link to it), but there's a bit more info about topic-tagging here as well: https://docs.tildes.net/mechanics#topic-tags

17 comments

  1. [4]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    Excellent. Now we just need to convince you to let us use & and other special characters as well. ;) The only question I have in regards to this change is tag hierarchy related: E.g. On one of my...

    Excellent. Now we just need to convince you to let us use & and other special characters as well. ;)

    The only question I have in regards to this change is tag hierarchy related:

    E.g. On one of my submissions I used health.public and health.mental tags but should I convert those to public health and mental health or leave them as is?

    I know tag hierarchy isn't really implemented or utilized yet... but I am just curious if we should try to structure our tags to fit within a potential hierarchy or use spaces so they are more easily readable but non-hierarchical instead? Or should we not even worry about developing standards like that yet?

    I suppose we could also try to create a conversion list running in the background for tags to order them hierarchically regardless of which people use... so public health = health.public

    1 vote
    1. [2]
      Deimos
      Link Parent
      The hierarchy question is tricky, and I don't know if there's even really a "right answer". I think a lot of it is just going to come down to convention in the end. Using the hierarchy is more...

      The hierarchy question is tricky, and I don't know if there's even really a "right answer". I think a lot of it is just going to come down to convention in the end. Using the hierarchy is more difficult, but will it (eventually) confer benefits that make it worth using?

      The way I'd probably try to think of it is based around filtering/searching: would someone want to be able to search for the health tag and find both health.public and health.mental? Would they want to be do something like "all health topics except health.public?" Would they want to filter out all health topics, instead of needing to filter mental health and public health individually?

      1 vote
      1. cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        I definitely think if people search for health they likely want all the results even the sub-categories in the hierarchy beneath it. The option to narrow searches down to specific, niche levels is...

        I definitely think if people search for health they likely want all the results even the sub-categories in the hierarchy beneath it. The option to narrow searches down to specific, niche levels is definitely ideal as well, which is why a hierarchy is a good idea for tags. And also why I suggested perhaps using a conversion list since that is the best of both worlds; easily readable "plain English" tags but contained within a hierarchy in the background for further refining searches.

        That and you know I love to categorize/organize things... so I definitely wouldn't have a problem monitoring all the tags used on the site and structuring them in a hierarchy somewhere for your use in search. I would actually enjoy it, TBH. :P

        1 vote
    2. Parliament
      Link Parent
      Definitely. I need this so I can type "r&b" instead of rhythm and blues!

      Excellent. Now we just need to convince you to let us use & and other special characters as well. ;)

      Definitely. I need this so I can type "r&b" instead of rhythm and blues!

      1 vote
  2. [5]
    rkcr
    Link
    I live for this sort of minutiae.

    (Side note that I doubt anyone cares about: spaces are converted to underscores internally, so using a space or an underscore in a tag is now the same)

    I live for this sort of minutiae.

    1 vote
    1. [4]
      rkcr
      Link Parent
      As an aside, bug report: you can't do italics in a quote (it seems to get ignored).

      As an aside, bug report: you can't do italics in a quote (it seems to get ignored).

      2 votes
      1. [3]
        Deimos
        Link Parent
        Ah, that's because quotes are in italics by default, so italics in them are back to normal text. Should quotes be italics? I don't know.

        Ah, that's because quotes are in italics by default, so italics in them are back to normal text. Should quotes be italics? I don't know.

        This is a normal line of text in a quote

        And this is an italicized line

        1 vote
        1. [3]
          Comment deleted by author
          Link Parent
          1. TheJorro
            Link Parent
            To be fair, quoting such text is usually meant to identify which portion of the previous (unitalicized) comment you are referring to, rather than it being used for any practical reading purposes.

            To be fair, quoting such text is usually meant to identify which portion of the previous (unitalicized) comment you are referring to, rather than it being used for any practical reading purposes.

            1 vote
          2. Deimos
            Link Parent
            Good enough for me, un-italicized (and de-emphasized the text color a bit).

            Good enough for me, un-italicized (and de-emphasized the text color a bit).

            1 vote
  3. [8]
    MajorParadox
    (edited )
    Link
    Will there eventually be preset tags for each group? Like if you're posting in ~music asking for a "recommendation", it might make sense for that to be a preset tag they can just select it instead...

    Will there eventually be preset tags for each group? Like if you're posting in ~music asking for a
    "recommendation", it might make sense for that to be a preset tag they can just select it instead of coming up with a tag on their own?

    If that makes sense :)

    Edit: Also, what about official ones, like I've seen changelog and such, which I assume are official, but what's stopping someone from posting with that tag? I'd like to see right away changelog is official, so some kind of styling or badge to it would be cool.

    1 vote
    1. [5]
      cfabbro
      Link Parent
      That's the plan AFAIK, yes. Losing the ability to tag anything anymore if you abuse the system, having your trust (once that is implemented) reset set to 0, permanently set to 0 or even getting...

      Will there eventually be preset tags for each group?

      That's the plan AFAIK, yes.

      what's stopping someone from posting with that tag?

      Losing the ability to tag anything anymore if you abuse the system, having your trust (once that is implemented) reset set to 0, permanently set to 0 or even getting outright banned from the site.

      some kind of styling or badge to it would be cool

      Tag styling is also coming. See the gitlab features page for more:

      https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes/issues?label_name%5B%5D=feature

      1 vote
      1. [4]
        MajorParadox
        Link Parent
        Makes sense for now but that wouldn't scale. Could be hours before someone in charge notices someone uses a tag they shouldn't have if the site gets big, right?

        what's stopping someone from posting with that tag?

        Losing the ability to tag anything anymore if you abuse the system, having your trust (once that is implemented) reset set to 0, permanently set to 0 or even getting outright banned from the site.

        Makes sense for now but that wouldn't scale. Could be hours before someone in charge notices someone uses a tag they shouldn't have if the site gets big, right?

        1 vote
        1. [3]
          cfabbro
          Link Parent
          Yeah, I'm not saying there will never be or should never be systems in place to prevent this sort of abuse... I am literally the most "@deimos, here is a gigantic list of how this feature is going...

          Yeah, I'm not saying there will never be or should never be systems in place to prevent this sort of abuse... I am literally the most "@deimos, here is a gigantic list of how this feature is going to potentially be abused" person on here. ;)

          But right now most of those preventative measures are unnecessary and ultimately may prove to be entirely unnecessary if the community culture here develops into one of good faith behavior, self-policing and making @deimos aware early about issues so he can address them.. which is especially effective while it's invite only since he can just outright ban bad faith actors and they won't be able to get back on. We will just have to see and let @deimos develop features as they are needed.

          p.s. It's never a bad thing to point out ways things can potentially be abused though... I am with you on that.

          1 vote
          1. [2]
            MajorParadox
            Link Parent
            Yeah, I meant it more than just "it can be abused" too. If nothing stands out about it, I can't intuitively know. Maybe there are more users working here and I don't know their names. Maybe...

            Yeah, I meant it more than just "it can be abused" too. If nothing stands out about it, I can't intuitively know. Maybe there are more users working here and I don't know their names. Maybe someone tagged a post "changelog" because they have a suggestion that the changelog should have a certain format. As a user, I like things to be obvious, and seeing official and non-official looking exactly the same is confusing, that's all.

            1 vote
            1. cfabbro
              Link Parent
              Yeah I definitely agree. I think all official tags applied by admins should probably have some custom styling at the very least so they dont get confused with others.

              Yeah I definitely agree. I think all official tags applied by admins should probably have some custom styling at the very least so they dont get confused with others.

              1 vote
    2. [2]
      Flashynuff
      Link Parent
      I think that instead of making a tag for "official changelog" or "official announcement", we could just have a "official tildes" tag that only admins can use. Then it can just be thrown on any old...

      I think that instead of making a tag for "official changelog" or "official announcement", we could just have a "official tildes" tag that only admins can use. Then it can just be thrown on any old post that needs to be official!

      1 vote