As for the tags, they could be useful, but we will have to look out for people misusing them.

/Claes

I copied this to start a public discussion of using 'Tags' in threads (a new vBulletin 'feature').

Your opinions?

The only negative I see (and this is just from observing tags at Amazon.com*) is folks tagging things in a non-standard way - same article with "calibration", "calibrating" and "callibrating" tags.

How much moderator control is there over tags?

*just as an example, here are the tags on a 7-port USB hub:

usb hub (39)
7 port usb hub (34)
7-port usb hub (25)
7 port (15)
usb 2 (12)
excellent (11)
usb (11)
multi port hub (10)
hub (9)
slim (4)
black (2)
powered hub (2)
7 port usb 2 hub (1)
7 port usb hum (1)
7-port usb 2 hub (1)
best 7 port hub yet (1)
blue light (1)
cool (1)
design (1)
fantabulous (1)
good hub (1)
mac usb2 (1)
metal (1)
mount (1)
poorly designed 7 port hub (1)
portable usb hub (1)
powered usb hub (1)
ps3 (1)
rockband (1)
solid usb hub (1)
the best usb hub period (1)
upstream hub (1)
usb 20 (1)
usb port (1)
usb ports (1)
usb2 (1)
usb2 hub (1)

The only negative I see (and this is just from observing tags at Amazon.com*) is folks tagging things in a non-standard way - same article with "calibration", "calibrating" and "callibrating" tags.

How much moderator control is there over tags? If it's not already set this way, I *think* moderators can delete tags. I'll have to take a look.

I really don't understand the tags thing.

http://elsmar.com/gif/Tags Editing_550.gif

I really don't understand the tags thing.

It's a way for users to categorize "stuff". Here, it categorizes threads, at Amazon.com, it categorizes their merchandise. When you click on a tag, you see all items (threads) with the same tag.

Hope that helps.

Scott, you make a very good point. I think the tags would be nice, but it is something that would need to be managed. While the "see related threads" isn't perfect, it seems to get the job done, and does it automatically.

If I am not mistaken, tags are just key words to help in searches. If I put a maximum of the 20 allowed keywords in a certain thread against two for another, the one with twenty key words will appear more often - irrespective of relevance but this is not what we want.

Over here, we are more interested in the 'most relevant' thread when we do searches and not something similar to search engine optimization. Therefore, tags if not used judiciously can be a pain in the neck.

Since it does not accept words with less than 3 characters, it is just a duplicate of the 'search' function.

I have been trying the tags out, by entering a few into some threads. I have to say it's not half bad. Yes, it is more or less a copy of the search function, but people may be more inclined to click the tags than they are to enter a "proper search".

Any opinions?

/Claes

I figure it doesn't 'hurt' anything so it's not an issue.

I have seen a few comments about maintenance, but I don't think it is something we have to do much about. It doesn't replace a proper Search, and in a way I think it's somewhat of a 'gimmick', but again I don't see a compelling reason to turn them off.

Well, looking at it, I like how it provides the most common tags option. Working in databases all the time, I'm just a big consistency freak:D. As long as we don't have audit, internal audit, internal auditor, auditor, auditing, etc. for the same thing, it will be nice.

I guess the point is it will be good if each try to locate a current suitable tag before generating a new one.:)