I have made significant progress coding new discussion thread tagging features.
As always, we want all users to tag thread and moderators to tag threads with relevant keywords.
Moving forward, in addition to the #1 important "human tagging", we will also auto tag threads with one or two tags associated with the forum (for example "shell script" in the shell scripting forum) and some keywords from the thread title.
I've been testing this feature, and it works well, but I'm going to keep refining this over time.
Please do not stop tagging threads, or adding tags to existing threads; because the auto-tagging feature is just to insure threads are tagged and their is a baseline tag for each thread (associate with the forum of the discussion and some title keywords).
After we are happy with the overall tagging, I plan to code a new posting feature or area which will be "tag based" versus "forum based".
First off, this will be a great improvement IMHO. Tagging is like a healthy lifestyle: everybody knows s/he should be doing it but hardly anybody does it.
Still i have a suggestion for the tagging system, while you are at it: there should be a tool to "harmonise" tags. It should do the following:
select one (used) tag
(- display the number of posts it is used in)
select another (used) replacement tag
replace the first tag with the second in all posts
The problem with tagging is that - as everyone can come up with tags - we end up with multiple tags for the same things. We may end up for example having "shell script", "shell scripts", "script", "sscript", etc. tagging effectively the same thing. Such a tool would help to harmonise these.
Since we use the tags for searching it will become much more effective if one doesn't have to include several variants to the search.
The tags get larger as the amount of uploads on that particular subject occurs.
Also it tells you how many times any particular tag has been used by uploaders.
Yes, I fully understand the arguments and engineering trade-offs in the areas of tagging and taxonomies.
In our case, on this site, here is my estimate of the problem of tagging on UNIX.COM today:
90% Lack of members tagging threads.
10% Issues with similar tags (not fully harmonized)
So, I'm more interested in focusing on the 90% problem and not the 10% (or less issue).
When the balance reverses (and becomes a serious problem), we can address the problem of harmonization and similar tags; but for the foreseeable future, the focus should be tagging without any worry or concern about similar tags, etc.
When I see there is a bonafide problem in the tag space, I will address; but for now, I really think it is not an issue.
Also, moderators and admins can add and delete (and change) tags. It's fun and just takes a second to delete misspelled tags, delete unnecessary tag variations or add additional tags to thread.
I noticed that when "auto tagging" based on new thread title, sometimes there is some "useless tags", so my suggestion is to:
After starting and saving a new thread, look at the tags (especially the auto-generated tags) and edit, adding tags or deleting tags, as you think best.
The auto-tags are generated from the title you gave the new thread.
There is also a feature to auto-add tags based on the contexts of the post, but that results in way too many useless tags, so I disabled auto-generating tags from the content.