You're it! July 21, 2011 7:59 PM   Subscribe

Is the best approach to improving tagging on a particular post still "use the contact form"?

I was trying to find this post with the tag 'Victorian' (eventually got there with 'Romance'). This happens to me once every week or so. Previously, the mod consensus seems to be to use the contact form. Is that still best? I wish there was a way that didn't involve mod-hassling.

Also, the Tags tag.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed to Etiquette/Policy at 7:59 PM (11 comments total)

You can tag any posts of people you're co-contacts with. We are more than happy to add tags if you email us [including a link makes this extra simple] but feel free to add tags or just contact someone and ask them to co-contact you back and you can do it yourself.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:01 PM on July 21, 2011


If you google [site:www.metafilter.com victorian] that post is the fifth result. Tags are great and all but don't waste too much time relying on one method to find things. Google is superior to tags for vague searches in my experience.
posted by Rhomboid at 9:05 PM on July 21, 2011 [2 favorites]


You can tag any posts of people you're co-contacts with

You CAN? This has been my most educational day of Metatalk ever.
posted by sweetkid at 9:36 PM on July 21, 2011 [4 favorites]


When I first "co-contacted" Brandon Blatcher my doctor made me take special meds for that.
posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 10:45 PM on July 21, 2011


This needs more tags.
posted by -->NMN.80.418 at 11:24 PM on July 21, 2011


-->NMN.80.418, you have the power.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 4:54 AM on July 22, 2011


It is rather satisfying to see a buddy's poorly-tagged FPP and being able to swoop in and Set Things Right. I never tell them.
posted by BeerFilter at 7:16 AM on July 22, 2011


Oh, tags! Since 90% of my MetaFilter time is on a handheld, I never see them. I miss tags. I know the mobile view isn't designed to have full functionality, but tags are so useful, it still baffles me that they didn't make the cut, especially given how well so many other things were integrated into the mobile interface.
posted by salvia at 7:50 AM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


I agree with salvia. I always go looking for tags when I'm on mobile, and get surprised when I can't find them. And then I get sad. Every time.
posted by Gordafarin at 9:15 AM on July 22, 2011


Did everyone else notice that you can string two usernames together to create babbyʼ); Drop table users; -->NMN.80.418
posted by shakespeherian at 10:16 PM on July 22, 2011


If you google [site:www.metafilter.com victorian] that post is the fifth result.

If you use MetaFilter search, it's the first.

Tagging isn't good method with which to find specific content in another person's filing system because no two people tag the same way. In this instance, search was probably the way to go. When tagging was first introduced I argued that tagging text is much less useful than tagging music or photographs because text is inherently searchable. It was outcomes like this that I had in mind. I have long suspected that the work people put in to applying tags is not justified by how useful that they turn out to be, and that services like delicious appeal more to mild compulsive tendencies to apply order to the web than they do to people who really need to be able to find something again.

But I also argued that if you're going to have tagging, make it completely open. I understand concerns about abuse, but I'm sure after an initial teething period, it would settle down. And if tag abuse is feared, then just ban certain tags outright. I suppose the work involved in implementing tag flags isn't the most appealing thought for the moderators.

Every time I think about tagging I need to have a lie down afterwards.
posted by nthdegx at 9:23 PM on July 23, 2011


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