8
votes
How do I know how to properly tag my posts?
Say I wanted to create a thread about running. Running is a sport and hobby. Sports is often seen more as the professional side of things (say, Olympic running). Then again, many runners take their hobby quite seriously and definitely exercise it as a sport. How do I know which one of those two groups is the more appropriate?
Note: IMO all the advice below only applies to people who actually want to bother with tagging. For anyone who doesn't, don't worry about it, just ignore it, and submit stuff anyways, as those of us with tag editing and group moving can handle the rest. :)
I think in a lot of cases like this, where there is crossover in terms of subject matter between the groups, it entirely depends on what the user who posts the topic wants the discussion to be focused on. If they want to discuss running as a sport, then ~sports makes the most sense to post to, and vice versa. If they are fine with either, then whichever group of users they prefer to have the discussion with (sports fans or hobbyists) is probably where they should post it. Article submissions should probably mostly stick to whichever group is most appropriate for the article itself though, e.g. Olympics news in ~sports, running shoe reviews in ~hobbies, unless there is a particular reason the OP wants to do otherwise.
As for tags, worth keeping in mind is that (IMO) they are mostly there to help people find (or filter out) specific content (which they can do by searching for and browsing the tags, e.g. ?tag=running), and act a bit like precursors to groups that don't exist yet. So since ~sports.olympics doesn't exist yet, if the topic was about Olympic running then I would add
olympics
,running
, and maybe even whichever division? it was about (e.g.100 metre dash
) to the tags.First of all, thank you for the detailed response!
If I understand this right, I can search for tags independently of groups? So groups don't matter too much in the context of finding specific content?
AFAIK you can't yet exclusively "search" for tags yet, as the topic title and other metadata will also be included in the search results. But yes, you can search within specific groups by going to that group's page and using the search bar in the top right there, or manually doing so, E.g. https://tildes.net/~tildes/search?q=advice. And searches originating from the home page will search all groups, e.g. https://tildes.net/search?q=test
Browsing tags also works similarly... you can browse a tag in all groups or just within specific groups. E.g.
https://tildes.net/?tag=ask.advice vs https://tildes.net/~tildes?tag=ask.advice
p.s. Even though it's a bit rudimentary ATM, there are lots of already accepted feature requests on Tildes Gitlab page regarding the search feature, so it will likely be improved over time: https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes/-/issues?scope=all&state=opened&search=searching
You can search tags specifically by clicking on a tag or by using
?tag=whatever
, e.g. https://tildes.net/?tag=ask https://tildes.net/~sports?tag=runningI generally refer to that as tag "browsing", since you're not really "searching" or using the site's search feature using that method, just manually inputting tags you probably already know or clicking ones you see elsewhere on the site.
I think with Tildes in its current state, groups and tags are fairly flexible. You'll see every now and then tags getting added by those with the ability to do so in the "Topic log" to the right.
Rarely (almost never), if someone thinks a different group would fit the thread better, they will ask the original poster or move the thread then ask if the original poster would prefer it moved back. Or the original poster can object to the move.
My current belief is that you post in whatever group you think is best and tag it with 2 or 3 tags that you think fit most appropriately. If later you decide to change your mind, you can ask someone to move it for you.
As far as I am aware, there isn't a stigma against posting the same thing in multiple groups. People subscribed to both groups might see both appear depending on their Activity sorting but they are also able to click "Ignore this post", and generally whichever topic has more activity will end up being the main thread while the others will kind of fade off.
Every so often there will be a discussion of groups and heirarchy. For example this one:
https://tildes.net/~tildes.official/h23/potential_new_groups_and_general_discussion_about_the_purpose_and_organization_of_the_group
Relevant comment by hungariantoast from here: