# New feature: category tags



## mkellogg

Today, we have added tags as a new feature to the site.  You can now tag your threads with a category.*
* 
*Tagging threads with a category*
When you create a thread that requires specialized knowledge, you can now tag it with a category, such as finance, engineering, art or sports. 

Tagging a thread in this way will allow people with specialized knowledge to find your thread and, hopefully, answer it. It will also help people find your thread in the future.

To tag a thread, either choose a tag from the list in the box, or create your own if it is not listed.

*Do you have specialized knowledge?*
  If you have specialized knowledge or interest in a certain field, please go to the tag search page and bookmark the tag/language combination (in the large table at the bottom of the page). Please visit that link often to find threads marked with that category.

*My hopes*
 I hope that thread tagging will be used widely and that each tag will be like a virtual sub-forum. Instead of creating an engineering sub-forum for each current forum, an engineering tag will accomplish much of the same thing.

*A few notes:*
 - The majority of threads will not need or use tags.  They are only for specialized knowledge.
 - You are allowed to create any tags you want for now.  (Please be reasonable!)  It might be restricted in the future.
- The standard tags are all in English. This will make searching for them easier. We will only need to search for the English term.

Regards,
Mike


----------



## mkellogg

Here it is in Spanish 
*Etiquetas de categoría*

*Etiquetar hilos por categorías*
Cuando cree un hilo que requiera conocimiento especializado, ahora puede usted asignarle una etiqueta de categoría, como finanzas, ingeniería, arte o deportes.

Etiquetar un hilo de esta manera facilita que la gente con conocimiento especializado encuentre su hilo y, si hay suerte, resolver su duda. También hará más fácil para otra gente hallar su hilo en el futuro.

Para poner una etiqueta a un hilo, escoja una de la lista en el menú desplegable, o introduzca una nueva si no existe la que se ajusta más.

*¿Posee usted conocimiento especializado?*
Si posee conocimiento especializado o tiene interés en un campo particular, por favor, vaya a la página de búsqueda por etiquetas (“tag search page”) y agregue a sus favoritos la combinación de etiqueta e idioma apropiada (en la tabla grande al pie de la página). Por favor, utilice a menudo ese enlace para encontrar hilos marcados con esa categoría.

*Mis expectativas*
Tengo esperanza en que el etiquetaje de hilos se popularice y que cada etiqueta se convierta prácticamente en un sub-foro. En vez de crear un sub-foro de ingeniería y un sub-foro para cada foro actual, la etiqueta de ingeniería cumplirá en gran medida el mismo fin.

*Unas notas*
-La mayoría de hilos no van a necesitar ser etiquetados. Las etiquetas son solo para cubrir las áreas de conocimiento especializado.
-Usted puede crear las etiquetas que quiera, de momento (por favor, ¡hágalo con sensatez!) Tal facultad puede restringirse en el futuro.
-Las etiquetas estándar están todas en inglés. Esto facilitará su búsqueda, solo vamos a necesitar buscar el término en inglés.

Saludos,
Mike


----------



## SwissPete

Great! Thanks, Mike.


----------



## Rayines

Hello: I have a question with regard to this: What does *tbd* means?


----------



## cuchuflete

tbd= To be deleted (at some future date).   This is applied to threads which address a
topic of interest to an individual member, but which are so tightly tied to a given text
that they may be of little use to other people who find the thread through dictionary links,
or through forum Search.


----------



## alexacohen

That's great Mike.

I have been using them already in some other place and I find them quite useful. 
Well, they're useful if people use them with common sense. Er, sorry, you have already said that!

Cuchu, thank heavens you clarified the meaning. "Tbd" to me means "to be delivered" and I was quite lost.


----------



## Rayines

cuchuflete said:


> tbd= To be deleted (at some future date). This is applied to threads which address a
> topic of interest to an individual member, but which are so tightly tied to a given text
> that they may be of little use to other people who find the thread through dictionary links,
> or through forum Search.


Ahahá .


----------



## Salegrosso

Very useful indeed, a great idea.
Is it possible to tag a category to any old thread? And is it valid only for your own thread that you have opened?


----------



## scotu

Looks interesting....will this replace specialty forums?

I see that putting the mouse over the tag signal gives the tag(s?). Is it possible to put this tag name in the thread description so that it always appears?

scotu


----------



## Philippa

cuchuflete said:


> tbd= To be deleted (at some future date).   This is applied to threads which address a
> topic of interest to an individual member, but which are so tightly tied to a given text that they may be of little use to other people who find the thread through dictionary links, or through forum Search.


Hello Cuchu,
There are a lot of threads like this in WR (many of my threads, I'm sure) - I think they can still be of some use when you're looking for clues of how to say things, but I agree that it's timeconsuming to have lots of links for a particular word or phrase and then have to sift out the ones that are very specific to another context. Will you be able to let us know before threads disappear so we can save them another way if they're 'our' threads?
Abrazos
Philippa


----------



## alisonp

Sounds like an excellent idea, especially in the French section, where there's a lot of traffic but no specialised terminology section. Thanks!

Edit: is it possible to repeat the languages at the bottom of the columns, too?  It'd save a lot of unnecessary scrolling up and down.


----------



## dn88

Is the point that I can only tag a thread while creating it?


----------



## mkellogg

Right now, only the person who starts a thread (and moderators) can tag it. We will see how it goes, and I might allow more people or everybody to tag threads if I think we can get good results.  Good results being good, useful tags. 

So the way things are now, you can only tag old threads if you started them. 

Alison, I'll take a look at that table again.


----------



## Salegrosso

mkellogg said:


> Right now, only the person who starts a thread (and moderators) can tag it.


 
Then, can I send you a list of threads that I think should be tagged with a specific category (mathematics, in my case), which have been opened by someone who is not me?


----------



## danielfranco

I think this will be a tremendous feature of the forums. But, for the moment, my quick reply box has gone crazy. It has all the regular instructions, but no buttons! Let's see what happens when I post this...


EDIT — Ah, it's back to normal. Maybe it was a harmless bug, like staphylococcus aureus, that it's everywhere and don't do nothing to you, unless it kills you... But I digress. Thanks for the feature.
D


----------



## Punky Zoé

Hi all 

That new feature seems to be an improvement for the forum and I guess it will be very useful. I just need to try and test it.

For the moment I have already (!) questions in mind :

1 - I can create a new tag, but what will its future :
How could it be used by other foreros?
It isn't in the list of tags : may I hope it being integrated to the list?
Do created tags appear somewhere?
Are tags created by foreros administrated? If they do, how?
May I ask a moderator before creating a new tag?​2 - Some remarks about the tag list and its contents
Religion : there are two tags intitled 'religion - christianity' and 'religion - islam'
Why such a distinction?
How about other religions or atheism?

Nothing about work related questions, social measures/social protection or employment (work/labor law, health and safety, benefits, contracts [...]) ? 
​Thanks for your attention and as usual sorry for my rough English expression.


----------



## dn88

Other forer@s can do a tag-seach on the already existing tags.
Every single tag you add to a thread is also added to the list.
Tags are added, say, to the forum database, they can also be seen in the so-called "Tag Cloud" (click _Search_, and then _Tag Search_ at the top of the page).​ Forer@s can add up to 5 tags to a thread they create, they can also delete their own tags.
As for now, other members (excluding our Mods and Administrator)  can't tag your own threads. It's left to you only.


----------



## Punky Zoé

dn88 said:


> Other forer@s can do a tag-seach on the already existing tags.
> Every single tag you add to a thread is also added to the list.
> Tags are added, say, to the forum database, they can also be seen in the so-called "Tag Cloud" (click _Search_, and then _Tag Search_ at the top of the page).​ Forer@s can add up to 5 tags to a thread they create, they can also delete their own tags.
> As for now, other members (excluding our Mods and Administrator)  can't tag your own threads. It's left to you only.


Thanks, but I did ask the question because my tag (labour) isn't in the list nor the tag-cloud.


----------



## dn88

Punky Zoé said:


> Thanks, but I did ask the question because my tag (labour) isn't in the list nor the tag-cloud.



The _Tag Cloud_ shows only _the 70 most used thread tags_, but typing "labour" in the _Search by Tag_ window I found the threads you added tags to:

http://forum.wordreference.com/tags.php?tag=labour


----------



## alisonp

mkellogg said:


> So the way things are now, you can only tag old threads if you started them.


 
How do I do that?  I assumed it was using the Edit function, but I see that none of my posts have an Edit button.


----------



## Jana337

The Edit button goes away after 24 hours. But you can scroll down - right under the last post you will see a link called Edit thread. That one does not expire so you can tag your old threads, too.


----------



## alisonp

Thanks, Jana, although I must admit I can't see that either.  Perhaps I don't have my display settings set correctly? (unless it's a Mods-only setting?)


----------



## Jana337

No, it is not only for moderators (I verified it). Find a thread you started, scroll down right under the last post and check. It will say:

*Tags*___________________________________________________________Edit tags
_None_


----------



## alisonp

Jana337 said:


> Find a thread you started,


 
Duh!  Sorry, yes, I forgot I wasn't looking at one of my own threads.  All sorted now, I hope.  Thanks.


----------



## ILT

Salegrosso said:


> Then, can I send you a list of threads that I think should be tagged with a specific category (mathematics, in my case), which have been opened by someone who is not me?


Please send the list to a mod and we'll be glad to tag them for you


----------



## Salegrosso

ILT said:


> Please send the list to a mod and we'll be glad to tag them for you


 
Ok, thank you!   I'll do it soon.


----------



## ascension

Hello,

I recently tagged three threads that I started several months ago with "economics." If I go to one of these threads and click on "economics" under category tags I am taken to a list of threads which includes all three of the ones I tagged as well as a few others. However, if I click on "category tags" I am taken to "search tags by forum/language." From here when I click on "economics" in Spanish-English I am taken to a much smaller list which does not include any of the three I tagged. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks!


----------



## Jana337

AudKaem said:


> Am I doing something wrong?


No, there's some problem. 
Mike, here: http://forum.wordreference.com/tags.php, economics
vs. http://forum.wordreference.com/tags.php?tag=economics
The two can't be quite identical because the latter is for all forums but the former fails to list some Spanish threads. Looks like the former has a cut-off of three days.


----------



## mkellogg

I found the problem and fixed it. economics  Thanks.

For now, tags added to existing threads will only be added to to the search engine every six hours.


----------



## Punky Zoé

Hi there !

Please, what does the tag 'png' stand for?


----------



## Already-Seen

That's a moderation tag. Some threads may only be useful to the thread starter (i.e. the whole thread is about correcting a typo in the original text vs. a translation question) so we may tag a thread and delete it once the thread has been answered. No point in keeping those threads in the dictionaries.


----------



## Punky Zoé

Thanks Already-Seen , I guessed something nearing.(but png )


----------



## KaRiNe_Fr

Hello,


Punky Zoé said:


> [...] Please, what does the tag 'png' stand for?


Good question Punky! 


Already-Seen said:


> That's a moderation tag. [...] No point in keeping those threads in the dictionaries.


After the  tbd (to be deleted) tag, this one is particularly intriguing... "No point in keeping... etc" can't be abbreviated into png! 
Pronounciation Non-Guaranteed? Persona/Post Non Grata?  Post Not Good (enough! )... 
Please, shed some light over there, I think I'm completely in the dark! 

Where could one find the glossary of the tag abbreviations?


----------



## blasita

mkellogg said:


> Right now, only the person who starts a thread (and moderators) can tag it. We will see how it goes, and I might allow more people or everybody to tag threads if I think we can get good results.  Good results being good, useful tags.


Hello, Mike and everyone.

I suppose that the results were not satisfactory and so it was not possible to allow other forum members to tag threads. Mike, are other alternatives being considered today, please?

Voy a seguir en español porque me gustaría que quede claro que me refiero al foro de Solo Español y a los de inglés-español (Gramática y Vocabulario). No sé exactamente cómo está la situación en otros foros. Y también, desde luego, porque sé que Mike me entenderá.

Pienso que incluir etiquetas es algo muy útil ya que enriquece el foro y facilita las búsquedas. Actualmente, en el foro de Solo Español casi todos los hilos están etiquetados, pero han quedado y quedan pendientes hilos que considero importantes (tendría que hacerlo más de una persona), y en los foros de inglés-español he podido comprobar que no hay casi ninguno etiquetado salvo los relativos a moderación: el _tbd_ y el _follow-up_. Es una pena que haya entonces hilos importantes sin etiquetar. Yo he reportado un par de ellos para que los moderadores consideraran su etiquetado, pero sé que están muy ocupados y no lo he vuelto a hacer.

Tal y como yo lo veo, etiquetar es una tarea que requiere tiempo y dedicación y, que si no se hace de forma coordinada y tan exhaustiva como sea posible, no sirve de nada. Pero el caso es que me parece una pena que a una herramienta y a una idea tan buena no se le pueda sacar más rendimiento.

Muchas gracias. Un cordial saludo.


----------



## jann

blasita said:


> Hello, Mike and everyone.
> 
> I suppose that the results were not satisfactory and so it was not possible to allow other forum members to tag threads. Mike, are other alternatives being considered today, please?


 This is a very old thread, and I think perhaps you have not seen the most up-to-date information?  Members who wish to tag other people's threads need only join the taggers group. 

EDIT:  I'm sorry, that information was totally incorrect.


----------



## blasita

Hello, Jann.

Thank you for your reply.

I've already joined the taggers group, but I thought I could only tag my own threads! So, how can I tag other people's threads, please?

Regards.


----------



## jann

My mistake. 

Either I misremember, or the settings have been changed.  I'm sorry.  

I have just double-checked and you are correct: members cannot tag other people's threads.  I have edited my post above.


----------



## blasita

No problem, Jann. Many thanks, anyway.


----------



## mkellogg

Hi Blasita 

I do have one update that I am planning to do for tags: allow people to subscribe to a tag.  That way, those with specialized knowledge of a subject area can get an email notification when a thread is tagged.  This will help some by encouraging people who know about it to tag threads, but I don't know if it will solve the problem that you are talking about.

Do you have any suggested solution?  It is difficult. We tried to have tagging open to everybody, but it was not used well.

Mike


----------



## blasita

Hello, Mike.

Thank you very much for your reply. I really appreciate it.

I think that allowing people to subscribe to a particular tag would be just great! I would certainly make use of it.

And I agree that encouraging people to properly tag threads may be the key. This would be part of the solution, but yes, I am afraid that the question of who is going to tag the threads  remains. 

So, as to having a suggested solution, well,  I wish I had "the solution". Yes, I do not think that having tagging open to everybody is a good thing to do. The only thing I can think of is having a specialized group of taggers per forum (who must know what they are doing).  This group should be able to tag threads, change and delete the tags, and maybe also add tags to the proposed list of tags if necessary. They would be under moderation's supervision.

Just an overview and "a try and see if it works". I agree this is a tough issue.


----------



## mkellogg

I think that getting people to use the tags will, in turn, encourage people to tag the threads.

I will see what I can do to get the forum tag subscriptions working in the next 4-6 weeks.


----------



## blasita

I am looking forward to it, Mike. Thank you very much again.


----------



## juandiego

blasita said:


> So, as to having a suggested solution, well,  I wish I had "the solution". Yes, I do not think that having tagging open to everybody is a good thing to do. The only thing I can think of is having a specialized group of taggers per forum (who must know what they are doing).  This group should be able to tag threads, change and delete the tags, and maybe also add tags to the proposed list of tags if necessary. They would be under moderation's supervision.
> 
> Just an overview and "a try and see if it works". I agree this is a tough issue.



Hi, blasita and Mike.

Yes, I think a specialized group of a few members who are interested in this matter, regardless of they are or not mods, is the right track for this.

I have already made a lot of work adding new tags but I miss a lot the access to a complete list of the tags I have already added because sometimes I forget some of them. This full list should be known by all the taggers in order not to repeat them with a slightly different wording and also accessible from the search page in order to select the ones the user is interested in to obtain a list of threads that match those tags. For instance, selecting a couple or three tags, say: "subjuntivo/indicativo" + "subordinada de relativo" or "subjuntivo/indicativo" + "subordinada sustantiva" + "oración negativa", the user would get a list of threads which deal with those selected tags.


Mike, it would be also very interesting some other tags editing functions like to change the tag name, multiple threads tagging, separated list of tags per forum et cetera.


----------

