Message from WebmasterAlex...

[goofy4tink]

We are trying something new from the folks at Boardtracker. If you start a new thread you will see an option to "specify tags".
If you look at search you will see an option to "search tags"
This will help pull out the main topic of a thread and make it easy to fine. We are also going to be doing some other stuff with this like "Tag Clouds". What is a tag cloud? Stay tuned!
Please note this is only working in the orlando blue style right now but we will expand it.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Let me see if I understand this, Diane. When we make an OP (since the new Search only searches OP's, not replies) we should try to figure what a future searchee might want to search for at some future time if they were looking for a thread containing the search word/s that we might think they will use in the future? More details please.

 

[dudspizza]

Let me see if I understand this, Diane. When we make an OP (since the new Search only searches OP's, not replies) we should try to figure what a future searchee might want to search for at some future time if they were looking for a thread containing the search word/s that we might think they will use in the future? More details please.

Basically a tag is a word or a few words that describe what your thread is about. When I design web sites, I assign them meta tags, which really means I embed key words in the html language that the search engines look for. It makes finding my web sites easier when people are using search engines.

The tags that can be used here will make searching for a certain topic easier, that is all.

A tag could be Chef Mickey's, Northwest Airlines, Magic Kingdom, or whatever.

Hope this helps.

Duds

 

[goofy4tink]

Let me see if I understand this, Diane. When we make an OP (since the new Search only searches OP's, not replies) we should try to figure what a future searchee might want to search for at some future time if they were looking for a thread containing the search word/s that we might think they will use in the future? More details please.

Now Dan...you know better than to ask me for any details that involve anything technical!!! I just copied WMAlex's post....I don't get it yet myself!!! Think Dudspizza has it figured out though!!!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Basically a tag is a word or a few words that describe what your thread is about. When I design web sites, I assign them meta tags, which really means I embed key words in the html language that the search engines look for. It makes finding my web sites easier when people are using search engines.

The tags that can be used here will make searching for a certain topic easier, that is all.

A tag could be Chef Mickey's, Northwest Airlines, Magic Kingdom, or whatever.

Hope this helps.

Duds

Hi Duds,

I too use meta tags in my personal business website. But here, in the confines of a bulletin board, the ability to search for any word that a future searchee might feel the urge to search on has worked quite well in the past. I do think the pre-tagging of of an OP is a crutch for a poorly designed search engine, or at least one with limited and narrow capacities. JMO, not an IT guy here, but rather a financial guy.

Diane.

 

[BoardTracker]

Hi Duds,

I do think the pre-tagging of of an OP is a crutch for a poorly designed search engine, or at least one with limited and narrow capacities. JMO, not an IT guy here, but rather a financial guy.

Diane.

Its not a crutch, its about building a folksonomy which you can read more about here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy

Basically tagging allows you to categorize a thread with a range of keywords you choose and over time this builds up into a very useful system which can then be searched in a number of ways. It's nothing to do with the existing search system. Once tags are created these can be used to create things like tag clouds which are a nifty way to show what topics are hot at the moment. You will also see tags above threads which link directly to tag search allowing you to find, with just a single click, other threads that were also tagged with the same keywords and related.

It's the new "web 2.0" way..

 

[WebmasterAlex]

Actually Dan it's very useful. ANY search system, the old one or the new one can only identify words not the context. If I search on "All Star Sports" I am going to get all the posts that mention "All Star Sports". By using the tags people can identify posts that are ABOUT the "All Star Sports" and are far more useful. A page of search results targeting posts that are ABOUT a subject and merely don't contain the subject is a really good thing.

It will also help with very common words. For example the DIS is probably mentioned 1000's of times on the boards. By only picking threads that the author has specifically identified as being about the DIS, it's just more useful.
I don't know of any automated search system that can accomplish this.

Of course it will also create a folksonomy and I have always wanted one of those

 

[Dan Murphy]

....Of course it will also create a folksonomy and I have always wanted one of those

If that is better than the lobotomy I had, I am all for it.