Tagging arrives to LAVA

[Michael Aivaliotis]

Ok, so some of you may have noticed the tagging feature on LAVA.

With very little explanation, I'm going to let everyone play with it and let me know what you think. If you're concerned about the style or look of it, don't worry, I can change that later. I just want to see if it is usefull and functional right now. We can play with the look later.

This tagging feature is available to everyone for now during the testing phase. It hasn't been decided if it will be a Premium Members only feature.

Edit: OK, so I'm seeing some issues already with this tagging feature. If you tag a post, it doesn't show up globally in the top of the topic. Apparently you Have 3 types of tags: Forum (tag a whole forum), Topic Thread or individual post.

Also discovered that the Global Tag Cloud is located here.

[Justin Goeres]

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ May 30 2008, 05:15 AM)

Ok, so some of you may have noticed the tagging feature on LAVA.

Can anyone tell me what tags do for me that I couldn't do already with a search? I'm more than willing to give them a shot and try to like them, but I just can't figure out what they're good for and how they help me use LAVA (or LabVIEW) better. They strike me as a solution looking for a problem.

For those of you who use (or like) tags, how do they improve your forum experience? What do I need to do to start seeing them in a different (and better) light?

[LAVA 1.0 Content]

QUOTE (Justin Goeres @ May 30 2008, 10:01 AM)

Can anyone tell me what tags do for me that I couldn't do already with a search? I'm more than willing to give them a shot and try to like them, but I just can't figure out what they're good for and how they help me use LAVA (or LabVIEW) better. They strike me as a solution looking for a problem.

For those of you who use (or like) tags, how do they improve your forum experience? What do I need to do to start seeing them in a different (and better) light?

If you know the words or phrases in the post then searching may be fine.

Tags let you define key words that do not appear in the post.

Once the tag DB is built-up the tag clouds will show the most common tag in bigger font.

Tags that appear in the same post are related, so...

If you tag strategically, you could over time create a tree of related tags to drill down to a topic that you want.

Others that do not know all of the key words could browse to a good post by drilling down.

http://forums.ni.com/ni/tagging/view_tag?tag.text=LabVIEW_Performance&tag.message_scope=all' target="_blank">THis link in the "dark-side" shows if you start with LabVIEW then you can click on LabVIEW_Performance to see links that speak about performance.

Happy tagging to you!

Ben

[Michael Aivaliotis]

One comment I have is please try to avoid using the word LabVIEW in your tag since all of LAVA is about LabVIEW.

I also see tagging as a way to categorize things beyond the standard LAVA categories. For example, one use-case is to tag all the posts that have code downloads then it would be easier to find some code you've seen here.

BTW, how come no-one is tagging?

[LAVA 1.0 Content]

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ May 30 2008, 01:12 PM)

...

BTW, how come no-one is tagging?

'cause it ain't ready yet?

I tried to add the tag "Twilight_Zone" to http://forums.lavag.org/Alfa-String-t10485.html' target="_blank">this thread (note the thread not any of the posts) and got a message that ready something like "notavail".

Ben

[Ton Plomp]

QUOTE (neB @ May 30 2008, 06:44 PM)

'cause it ain't ready yet?

I tried to add the tag "Twilight_Zone" to http://forums.lavag.org/Alfa-String-t10485.html' target="_blank">this thread (note the thread not any of the posts) and got a message that ready something like "notavail".

Ben

I got a 'The tag you submitted is not allowed'.

Editing an existing tag is allowed (see your question about no-one tagging)

Ton

[Michael Aivaliotis]

QUOTE (neB @ May 30 2008, 10:44 AM)

'cause it ain't ready yet?

I tried to add the tag "Twilight_Zone" to this thread (note the thread not any of the posts) and got a message that ready something like "notavail".

Ben

QUOTE (tcplomp @ May 30 2008, 11:23 AM)

I got a 'The tag you submitted is not allowed'.

Editing an existing tag is allowed (see your question about no-one tagging)

Ton

Hmm. It's intermittent, it seems to work sometimes. Looking into it.

[Yair]

Is there any option of hiding the tag section of each post (it's visually distracting)? I didn't see any obvious options in the control panel.

[Michael Aivaliotis]

QUOTE (Yen @ May 31 2008, 12:26 PM)

Is there any option of hiding the tag section of each post (it's visually distracting)? I didn't see any obvious options in the control panel.

There isn't an option for this but I could make it less distracting by changing the font size and colors.

[crelf]

QUOTE (Yen @ May 31 2008, 03:26 PM)

Is there any option of hiding the tag section of each post (it's visually distracting)?

I think that hiding it would be anitproductive with respect to the idea of tags, but I agree that they're distracting - they're huge! I'd prefer to see something that's just one small, medium gray line of text, preferably in a font different to that of the thread post text. Something like this:

Tags: This content has not been tagged yet

[Ton Plomp]

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ May 30 2008, 07:58 PM)

Hmm. It's intermittent, it seems to work sometimes. Looking into it.

I can currently tag so it seems to be fixed.

QUOTE (crelf @ May 31 2008, 10:12 PM)

I think that hiding it would be anitproductive with respect to the idea of tags, but I agree that they're distracting - they're huge! I'd prefer to see something that's just one small, medium gray line of text, preferably in a font different to that of the thread post text. Something like this:

Tags

: This content has not been tagged yet

I like your idea.

[Yair]

Thanks, it already looks better.

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ May 30 2008, 08:12 PM)

BTW, how come no-one is tagging?

To be frank, it's too much of a pain. Tags are only really useful if you use a limited subset and that requires discipline and some automated tools. Ben has his auto tagger, but I don't always have LabVIEW open and I can't say I really feel like coming up with\learning\using the relevant set of tags.

[Michael Aivaliotis]

QUOTE (Yen @ Jun 1 2008, 08:47 AM)

Thanks, it already looks better.

To be frank, it's too much of a pain. Tags are only really useful if you use a limited subset and that requires discipline and some automated tools. Ben has his auto tagger, but I don't always have LabVIEW open and I can't say I really feel like coming up with\learning\using the relevant set of tags.

Well, I guess the answer is: Don't tag. It's not for everyone. Just like editing the http://wiki.lavag.org/' rel='nofollow' target="_blank">LabVIEW Wiki isn't for everyone. On the other hand, there are some built-in features to make it easier. When you start typing in the field it searches similer tags and lists them below the field so you can pick tags already used.

There is also another mode that the tag system can operate in. The Admin (me) can define preset tags so the user (you) can just pick from a list. I think this is less usefull since the point of tagging is to let the words flow from the community. One recommendation I have is to keep the tags simple. This of course requires you to pause and think a bit. There are some tags that are easy, such as using the word Beer. I suggest you start with those.

PS: The tag system seems to still be in Beta mode. It seems to work some of the time... Like I said earlier, Working on it.

PSS: Don't use the complete title of your post as a tag.

[Ton Plomp]

Crelf has given tagging a whole new meaning.

Bullying via tagging.

Maybe we can use a similar approach to label homework hustlers?

Ton

[Yair]

Chris, how did you know?

Incidentally, in my previous line of work part of what I did was very similar to tagging and was required. I think I did enough tagging to last a lifetime.

[crelf]

QUOTE (tcplomp @ Jun 2 2008, 01:01 PM)

Crelf has given tagging a whole new meaning. http://forums.lavag.org/Yen+is+lazy-tag.html' target="_blank">Bullying via tagging.

I was wondering if anyone would notice that...

[Michael Aivaliotis]

QUOTE (tcplomp @ Jun 2 2008, 11:01 AM)

Maybe we can use a similar approach to label homework hustlers?

Ton

homework hustlers is an Excellent tag!

[Phillip Brooks]

QUOTE (tcplomp @ Jun 2 2008, 02:01 PM)

Crelf has given tagging a whole new meaning.

Bullying via tagging.

I think he's actually living up to his Aussie heritage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_ru...sitions#Taggers

"Their role is to shut down, follow, run with, mark and sometimes

nag their chosen opponent

."

[crelf]

QUOTE (Phillip Brooks @ Jun 2 2008, 03:23 PM)

I think he's actually living up to his Aussie heritage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_ru...sitions#Taggers

"Their role is to shut down, follow, run with, mark and sometimes

nag their chosen opponent

."

"They are considered "negative" players, and are often used on players that are deemed to be the most dangerous and have the most impact..."

[Ton Plomp]

Is there a reason why I can't tag twice the same tag (on different messages in different threads?)

I couldn't add the tag 'Private Method' to this post.

Ton

[TobyD]

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ Jun 1 2008, 11:33 AM)

there are some built-in features to make it easier. When you start typing in the field it searches similer tags and lists them below the field so you can pick tags already used.

This doesn't seem to be working for me (Firefox 3.0 or IE8 on Vista) but I think it would be useful to guide people to use the same tags.

QUOTE (tcplomp @ Jun 2 2008, 10:01 AM)

Maybe we can use a similar approach to label homework hustlers?

I tagged a HH a few days ago and now the tag is gone - was that the poster deleting my tag, or are only admins allowed to post "negative" tags? Too bad you can't lookup the tag history for a given post since anyone can edit them.

[LAVA 1.0 Content]

QUOTE (TobyD @ Nov 12 2008, 09:28 PM)

This doesn't seem to be working for me (Firefox 3.0 or IE8 on Vista) but I think it would be useful to guide people to use the same tags.

I tagged a HH a few days ago and now the tag is gone - was that the poster deleting my tag, or are only admins allowed to post "negative" tags? Too bad you can't lookup the tag history for a given post since anyone can edit them.

I deleted your tag.

Ton

[TobyD]

QUOTE (Ton @ Nov 12 2008, 12:55 PM)

I deleted your tag.

Ton

Why?

[crelf]

QUOTE (TobyD @ Nov 12 2008, 03:28 PM)

I tagged a HH a few days ago and now the tag is gone - was that the poster deleting my tag...

No, a moderator did. Tagging is there to help you to find things, and IMHO I don't see the value in "Homework Hustler" as a search term. If you have anything negative to say about the validity of a post, use the "! REPORT" button, not the tagging system.

I'm not sure if deleting tags can be limited to Mods and Admins...

[TobyD]

QUOTE (Ton @ Nov 12 2008, 12:55 PM)

I deleted your tag.

I think a PM letting me know why my contributions to the community are being thwarted was in order.

QUOTE (crelf @ Nov 12 2008, 01:27 PM)

No, a moderator did.

Tagging is there to help you to find things, and IMHO I don't see the value in "Homework Hustler" as a search term.

If you have anything negative to say about the validity of a post, use the "! REPORT" button, not the tagging system.

I disagree. There could be a post that I need to search for in the future where one of the things I remember is that it was a homework type question. In the case of this and many other HH's, I did try to offer some useful advice to the poster - I was not tagging just to be negative . Besides, I thought I couldn't go wrong following the advice of the Admin.

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ Jun 2 2008, 11:04 AM)

homework hustlers

is an

Excellent

tag!