Stuart Wright
Well-known member
I didn’t use tags in vBulletin and don’t use Xentag, so tags are a foreign concept to AVForums users. Despite this, I am excited about using tags because of this post XF SEO Tweaks by @ForestForTrees which extolls the organised, comprehensive and apparently productive use of tags at Stack Exchange for SEO benefit.
For ideas, I’ve been looking through the tag related suggestion threads
https://xenforo.com/community/search/7158266/?q=tags&t=post&o=replies&g=1&c[date]=1435186800&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=18
and I’ve referred to some of them here as part of my overall suggestion which includes canonical tags and synonyms. I also wanted to promote discussion and get feedback.
Creating tags
Who creates the tags? Since forums grow through the value of the community and the useful content it produces, I think the membership should create tags.
However I think that members will need to be encouraged to create tags. I'm not sure about making at least one tag compulsory per new thread because members might type in trash just to get the thread posted.
To mitigate this, could we have a method of suggesting tags based on the contents of the thread title and first post? This suggestion is interesting: Use elastic search's significant terms aggregation for automatic/suggested thread tags
Certainly if pertinent tags are created by default then members are more likely to ‘take ownership’ of those tags, removing ones they don’t like and adding their own suggestions before they hit the final ‘Create Thread’ button.
When suggesting tags, is it worth considering weighting the suggested tags by the forum/media category/resource category they are being used in? It seems to me that If we’re suggesting tags for a new thread in a particular forum then the existing tags used in threads in that forum are likely to be more relevant.
I also think there is discussion to be had with regard to having an automated process running through all existing threads to create tags. Any tag related search which omits the two million tagless existing threads on AVForums is bound to be unsatisfactory.
Any such process would need to be clever and efficient, of course.
Canonical tags and synonyms
I think we should remove duplication by setting up synonyms for tags and automatically replacing the synonyms with a preferred (or ‘canonical’) one. I think this is important because it allows us to define exactly what the preferred tags are (which is good for clarity and SEO) and then ensure less dilution of tags and SEO by always using the canonical ones.
For example, if we had the canonical tag of ‘4K UHD (Ultra HD)’ then any synonym (e.g. 4K, UHD, Ultra HD, Ultra High Definition) would automatically get changed to the canonical ‘4K UHD (Ultra HD)’ tag.
Creating synonyms would be the moderators’ job and once a tag is set up to be a synonym of another tag, then that tag would effectively be replaced by the canonical version in all content. (If this causes duplication of tags then the duplicates are deleted).
Managing tags
Should moderators be responsible for managing tags? I’m thinking so, and if so we need a front-end method of managing them. They will need to be able to delete tags, change them, and set up canonical tags and their synonyms. I think we ought to discuss tag descriptions, also. Like a mini-wiki for each tag.
The moderators would need to be able to find similar tags as suggested here Find and merge similar thread tags so that they could delete or merge the ‘bad’ or synonym tags into the canonical one.
And seeing what tags are popular as per this suggestion Show tag popularity when selecting tags might help the moderators decide on what is the best canonical tag to use.
Reporting tags
I definitely think we need a way to report tags separately from the content they are associated with. Even with the censor and spam phrase filters being used on tags, there are going to be the spammy and inappropriate ones posted and we will want to deal with the creators of those tags. A suggestion here for reporting bad tags Report bad tags
Watch tags
I think the ability to watch tags would be an awesome feature Watch thread tags
They have a ‘subscribe’ facility over at Stack Exchange. In fact I think it would be useful to look at the tag functionality they have at Stack Exchange and cherry pick the best bits.
There are plenty of other good suggestions on what to do with the tag data, but I think what’s important at this stage is focussing on getting the tag data as relevant, focussed and useful as possible via suggestions, synonyms and good tag management with front-end moderator tools.
For ideas, I’ve been looking through the tag related suggestion threads
https://xenforo.com/community/search/7158266/?q=tags&t=post&o=replies&g=1&c[date]=1435186800&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=18
and I’ve referred to some of them here as part of my overall suggestion which includes canonical tags and synonyms. I also wanted to promote discussion and get feedback.
Creating tags
Who creates the tags? Since forums grow through the value of the community and the useful content it produces, I think the membership should create tags.
However I think that members will need to be encouraged to create tags. I'm not sure about making at least one tag compulsory per new thread because members might type in trash just to get the thread posted.
To mitigate this, could we have a method of suggesting tags based on the contents of the thread title and first post? This suggestion is interesting: Use elastic search's significant terms aggregation for automatic/suggested thread tags
Certainly if pertinent tags are created by default then members are more likely to ‘take ownership’ of those tags, removing ones they don’t like and adding their own suggestions before they hit the final ‘Create Thread’ button.
When suggesting tags, is it worth considering weighting the suggested tags by the forum/media category/resource category they are being used in? It seems to me that If we’re suggesting tags for a new thread in a particular forum then the existing tags used in threads in that forum are likely to be more relevant.
I also think there is discussion to be had with regard to having an automated process running through all existing threads to create tags. Any tag related search which omits the two million tagless existing threads on AVForums is bound to be unsatisfactory.
Any such process would need to be clever and efficient, of course.
Canonical tags and synonyms
I think we should remove duplication by setting up synonyms for tags and automatically replacing the synonyms with a preferred (or ‘canonical’) one. I think this is important because it allows us to define exactly what the preferred tags are (which is good for clarity and SEO) and then ensure less dilution of tags and SEO by always using the canonical ones.
For example, if we had the canonical tag of ‘4K UHD (Ultra HD)’ then any synonym (e.g. 4K, UHD, Ultra HD, Ultra High Definition) would automatically get changed to the canonical ‘4K UHD (Ultra HD)’ tag.
Creating synonyms would be the moderators’ job and once a tag is set up to be a synonym of another tag, then that tag would effectively be replaced by the canonical version in all content. (If this causes duplication of tags then the duplicates are deleted).
Managing tags
Should moderators be responsible for managing tags? I’m thinking so, and if so we need a front-end method of managing them. They will need to be able to delete tags, change them, and set up canonical tags and their synonyms. I think we ought to discuss tag descriptions, also. Like a mini-wiki for each tag.
The moderators would need to be able to find similar tags as suggested here Find and merge similar thread tags so that they could delete or merge the ‘bad’ or synonym tags into the canonical one.
And seeing what tags are popular as per this suggestion Show tag popularity when selecting tags might help the moderators decide on what is the best canonical tag to use.
Reporting tags
I definitely think we need a way to report tags separately from the content they are associated with. Even with the censor and spam phrase filters being used on tags, there are going to be the spammy and inappropriate ones posted and we will want to deal with the creators of those tags. A suggestion here for reporting bad tags Report bad tags
Watch tags
I think the ability to watch tags would be an awesome feature Watch thread tags
They have a ‘subscribe’ facility over at Stack Exchange. In fact I think it would be useful to look at the tag functionality they have at Stack Exchange and cherry pick the best bits.
There are plenty of other good suggestions on what to do with the tag data, but I think what’s important at this stage is focussing on getting the tag data as relevant, focussed and useful as possible via suggestions, synonyms and good tag management with front-end moderator tools.
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