some really awesome & fabulous people could tag old posts

November 20, 2006 8:41 AM

My petition for the creation of a squad of mefites with the power to add tags to old posts.
posted by interrobang to Feature Requests at 8:41 AM (70 comments total)

Many older posts do not have tags, and they should. Five to ten trusted people could probably take care of this in not too long, and it would improve the quality of the site.
posted by interrobang at 8:41 AM on November 20, 2006

I think this would be awesome. It would also be useful to add the ability to redefine (or at least alert others to the presence of) dead links. I was recently reading some posts from 2001 and I'd guess that 30-50% of the links are now dead. The Wayback Machine may help...
posted by Xoder at 8:50 AM on November 20, 2006

Will they get power rings that can summon an admin when used together?
posted by Falconetti at 8:52 AM on November 20, 2006

Yes, they would.

Take a look at today, four years ago. Most of these posts are not tagged.
posted by interrobang at 8:54 AM on November 20, 2006

Good plan - tag clicking is the best way of idly tootling around the site, but it excludes years of good stuff.
posted by jack_mo at 9:02 AM on November 20, 2006

Let the librarians do it! It would harness our innate urge to put everything in its right place.
posted by arco at 9:03 AM on November 20, 2006

I remain a fan of this idea.
posted by cortex at 9:08 AM on November 20, 2006

Or those of us with way too much free time. (Great idea, btw!)
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:08 AM on November 20, 2006

Good idea.
posted by dame at 9:33 AM on November 20, 2006

Keep your tags off my posts, you damned dirty ape.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:34 AM on November 20, 2006 [2 favorites]

I think you should pick the first nine posters in this thread to form the team.
posted by casconed at 9:35 AM on November 20, 2006

Or every twelfth.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:38 AM on November 20, 2006

So, um, this would be a tag team?

good idea btw
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:40 AM on November 20, 2006

[this is good suggestion]
posted by zpousman at 9:44 AM on November 20, 2006

I would be fine with this, if I could find five-ten people I could trust with it. How do we go about identifying those people?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:51 AM on November 20, 2006

*volunteers*
posted by interrobang at 9:52 AM on November 20, 2006

I would also say that whoever ends up doing this should not add tags to posts that already have tags.
posted by interrobang at 9:53 AM on November 20, 2006 [1 favorite]

I can select a posse of crack taggers. It would be cool to have some sort of a mechanism to serve up tagless threads, but I guess we could all start from the end, or assign ranges of old MeFi and askme posts. Maybe a week in January after holiday madness where 5-10 people have extra tagging capabilities?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:06 AM on November 20, 2006

I don't trust interrobang. Least trustworthy of punctuation marks.
posted by graventy at 10:09 AM on November 20, 2006

Perhaps the team should be broken up by topic? Therefore, one person could do all computer tags, one all health tags, etc. Taggers could be people with some knowledge of the topic they're assigned (or the ability to make sure all tags in a certain topic are done in the same way).

I'll volunteer, if you'll have me.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:10 AM on November 20, 2006 [1 favorite]

This is a great idea. Jessamyn, I think whoever is picked for it should be good at tagging. I feel like a tagtard when it comes time to tag things. Thankfully del.icio.us has that suggested tag thingy. This sentence is here just to have the word "tag" one more time.
posted by frecklefaerie at 10:10 AM on November 20, 2006

I'd be interested in helping. It would make me feel like I'm contributing something to the site while mommyhood is keeping me from doing much more than reading at the moment.
posted by anastasiav at 10:21 AM on November 20, 2006

This is a good idea and some eminently sensible people (well sometimes) have already shown up in this thread. Splitting by subject will be difficult just divide up by thread numbers. How many threads are we talking about here?
posted by adamvasco at 10:30 AM on November 20, 2006

Whatever you do, don't pick me.
posted by gsteff at 10:45 AM on November 20, 2006

Tags were added in January 2005. So, that's starting someplace here on AskMe and here on MeFi.

So MeFi posts 1-31784 and AskMe posts 3705-14141. Of course, any poster can go back and add tags to their own posts, so I'd suggest anyone who is itching to get going spend a little time doing that right now.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:49 AM on November 20, 2006

So, um, this would be a tag team?

I dunno. I think I like "rag-tag band" better.

Also, any chance of being able to tag our own profiles in the future? It'd make tracking down those Mefites with Wii60s who want to play with other Wii60 Mefites much easier!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:56 AM on November 20, 2006

I still dislike turning over tagging to an obnoxious oligarchy. Grasp the Web-2.0 firmly, Matt, and give us all tag-anywhere rights.
posted by Plutor at 10:59 AM on November 20, 2006 [1 favorite]

I still dislike turning over tagging to an obnoxious oligarchy.

All the more motivation for folks who feel that way to go back and tag their old FPPs, no?

Thwarting the obnoxious oligarchy and making the site more accessible! It's win-win!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:16 AM on November 20, 2006

I would also like to present myself for the purpose of volunteering, even though my account is young, I've been reading MeFi for ages and would love to help out.
posted by Xoder at 11:19 AM on November 20, 2006

I could dig this. Gives me an excuse to post to Refi.
posted by cortex at 11:22 AM on November 20, 2006

I would like to please interject one caution/request: Can we make sure that the original poster retains the ability to delete and/or change the new tags if he/she/[insert self-identifying pronoun here] should chose to do so? It is my understanding that there have been occasions when the admins added tags and the original poster couldn't delete them. I think this would be a bit more likely to create issues in the mass-tagging scenario, no matter how well-intentioned. Thanks!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:54 AM on November 20, 2006

Yes, Yes! If I was the type to post requests I would have posted this one long ago.

Allow any well meaning people who are willing to do it the chance. Seems it would be easy to improve them, and if you did it for a while you would get the hang of it and use consistent tags. Any "extra" tags aren't really much of a problem. It's the missing tags that cause problems.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:56 AM on November 20, 2006

Thwarting the obnoxious oligarchy and making the site more accessible! It's win-win!

ObnoxiousOligarchy: im in ur post, changin ur tags
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:58 AM on November 20, 2006

I'd volunteer.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:02 PM on November 20, 2006

We should take a straw poll on some "meta" tags that might be cool to see. Like "classic" or "bestof" or something for really big deal threads.
posted by Mid at 12:35 PM on November 20, 2006

I'd also be willing to help if asked.
posted by edgeways at 12:37 PM on November 20, 2006

Alvy Ampersand: "All the more motivation for folks who feel that way to go back and tag their old FPPs, no?"

It's not that I don't want the oligarchy re-tagging my posts, it's that I don't want the oligarchy deciding which posts I should find and which I shouldn't when I search for something controversial, like, say, "opressiveinternetregimes".
posted by Plutor at 12:55 PM on November 20, 2006

This is not a good idea, because the meaning or tag for a post is not defined by a community, that's the whole point. And this could lead to problems regarding which tag is better for a post, with all the flailing debate that will ensue.

Tags hold a meaning given by the person who posted the material. Posts without tags should have new tags added by the person who submitted the link(s), and if they elect to neglect their right or ability to do that... well, that's the way it is.

Now, if you're talking about labeling posts with categories. That's something else.
posted by gsb at 1:28 PM on November 20, 2006

I like it.
posted by iconomy at 1:41 PM on November 20, 2006

I think this is a great idea but I also think it's silly that tags aren't mandatory on new posts. That said, almost all the tagless FPPs are the shittiest ones--says something about the mentality of those making them, I guess.
posted by dobbs at 1:58 PM on November 20, 2006

@ Mid: it exists and it is good.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 1:58 PM on November 20, 2006

I, a librarian manqué, offered my services to Jessamyn in private email, but am repeating it here for the record.

I promise to be judicious in the application of the "batshitinsane" tag.
posted by matildaben at 2:11 PM on November 20, 2006

My tagging style is dramatic and unconventional:

I would add a few relatively common words that I would use if I was searching for that post.

Pushing the envelope, down here!
posted by cortex at 2:15 PM on November 20, 2006

Yes; do this. Tags are by far the best way to search the site, except for the time limit on them. Taggers should think of as many applicable tags as possible, since what people will search for varies.

I will volunteer.

I think TPS's idea -- dividing by general topic area -- is good. I wouldn't do a good job tagging a tech question, but I would do a good job tagging a question about 19th century literature. I'm guessing there are people who are the reverse.
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:31 PM on November 20, 2006

gsb, a lot of AskMe is questions like "I'm going to Prague, what museums should I see?" or "My copy of Illustrator keeps freezing when I do certain things; how can I fix it?". The most important tags for these will be obvious, not a matter of personal artistic statement.
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:34 PM on November 20, 2006

I promise to be judicious in the application of the "batshitinsane" tag.

For me, this is a key issue. And let's go easy on the "asshole" tag, too.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:21 PM on November 20, 2006

We promise to lube judiciously.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:23 PM on November 20, 2006

"How do we go about identifying those people?"

Urine test. My sample's already in the mail to you (coincidentally).
posted by Eideteker at 3:56 PM on November 20, 2006

mathowie, I think between you and jessamyn you'll have no problem coming up with people you trust.

*scurries away to add tags to my posts*
posted by deborah at 4:21 PM on November 20, 2006

I'm not to be trusted.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:07 PM on November 20, 2006

Terminal Verbosity we don't use the @username convention here, just the username is sufficient.
posted by Mitheral at 6:04 PM on November 20, 2006

I would also like to present myself for the purpose of volunteering, even though my account is young, I've been reading MeFi for ages and would love to help out.

No offense, but 'everyone' has been reading mefi for ages. At the very least it should be members who have been active for some period of time.
posted by gtr at 6:21 PM on November 20, 2006

I just wanted to support the heck out of this idea, mostly because I made a post that was tag-free a while back and it haunts me.

It. Haunts. Me.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 6:29 PM on November 20, 2006

So. Tag. It. Already.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:32 PM on November 20, 2006

Wow, this is what happens when I'm not logged in and look at my old posts.

This is my face, bright red. Oops.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 6:34 PM on November 20, 2006

I would love to help, too! As long as the original poster still has the ability to change or delete tags, as IRFH says, above.
posted by librarina at 6:55 PM on November 20, 2006

I would also like to volunteer my tagging services. My tags are usually well-formed, inclusive and just recursive and redundant enough to be useful.

I also duly swear an oath to use the WTF and batshitinsane tags very sparingly, only in the most appropriate locations.

I also promise to never use the tag "quonsar" unless the post is actually about quonsar.
posted by loquacious at 7:06 PM on November 20, 2006

I wrote a thesis on taxonomy. I confidently classify myself as "able to tag" and "willing to retrotag".
posted by Rumple at 7:29 PM on November 20, 2006

Posts without tags should have new tags added by the person who submitted the link(s), and if they elect to neglect their right or ability to do that... well, that's the way it is.

I agree.
posted by y2karl at 8:19 PM on November 20, 2006

I tagged butterflies in junior high!
posted by thirteenkiller at 8:25 PM on November 20, 2006

I volunteer.

Can I suggest a "bevets" tag to warn off people who might otherwise be tempted to read too far down a thread?
posted by casarkos at 9:21 PM on November 20, 2006

only on closed threads
posted by blue_beetle at 11:36 PM on November 20, 2006

My posts are tagged and my Christmas shopping is done, and the Thanksgiving turkey is slowly thawing.
/Smug
posted by Cranberry at 12:40 AM on November 21, 2006

I would volunteer, if it wasn't for the fact that someone mentioned "trust" up there.

Also, it doesn't matter what you call this group of taggers, they will always be the "League of Justice" in my heart.
posted by Jofus at 1:56 AM on November 21, 2006

I volunteer in the unlikely case you need more hands, but I think the idea of a librarian hit squad is kind of wicked cool.
posted by taz at 2:02 AM on November 21, 2006

another librarian volunteering
posted by Eirixon at 3:14 AM on November 21, 2006

Authority Control!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:02 AM on November 21, 2006

Oh, c'mon! This I own my tags thing is too much. Put them in a more inside if that's the way you feel about it.
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:14 AM on November 21, 2006

Throwing my hat in the ring to volunteer, and shouting my hearty support for this idea. I'm relatively young account-wise as well, but I too have been reading MF for years and would be glad to help in anyway I can. (Not a librarian but an anal attention-to-detail first-born perfectionist organizer, if that helps).
posted by allkindsoftime at 9:48 AM on November 22, 2006

I think it would be great!

gsb: This is not a good idea, because the meaning or tag for a post is not defined by a community, that's the whole point.

I think you are missing something fundamental.. On MetaFilter:

favorite == bookmark

tag == keyword
Otherwise it is a completely useless feature. If you let people tag their individual comments, it might be different..

Damn! I thought of a couple more like this the other day, but now they are gone..

Flo: Can we make sure that the original poster retains the ability to delete and/or change the new tags if he/she/[insert self-identifying pronoun here] should chose to do so?

Fine, if it will make people shut up and stop complaining, while others make tags useful.

jessamyn: I guess we could all start from the end, or assign ranges of old MeFi and askme posts. Maybe a week in January after holiday madness where 5-10 people have extra tagging capabilities?

That's great, but.. In addition, we really need a way to have appropriate tags retroactively added whenever a topic presents itself, like depleted uranium, war gaming, TV antennas, or basic electronics.
posted by Chuckles at 9:30 AM on November 27, 2006