Member Avatar for Dani

But, as a total replacement to the forum system it is hard to navigate and hard to find related topics when you do not know what might be related. or what might exist already.

Our site search dropdown offers an autocomplete feature to help you find tags. When you are in a forum/forum thread, it presents a list of the most popular related tags. When you're on the homepage/elsewhere, it presents a list of the most popular tags across the site as a whole. As you type, the list filters itself, but it always stays aware of what section you're in. So, for example, typing the letter 'c' while in the software development section will present you with C++ and C#, but typing the letter 'c' while in the web development section will present you with CSS.

All that was easily available on the old C++ forum. Now, the tutorials, recommended books, etc discussion topics are no longer part of the C++ tag

Those are the sticky threads, which are currently being retooled to be presented in a different way. That's not related to the tagging system. It's just something else we're in the midst of upgrading on the site right now for reasons of a lot of them being very outdated and no longer entirely relevant. If, and when, they're brought back, they'd be attached to the C++ tag the same way they were to the C++ forum.

Maybe the sticky posts have, or could have a tag of their own.

It's definitely an idea worth thinking about to have tags that can only be used by moderators. We wouldn't simply be able to tag the stickies with a sticky tag within the existing system, because then every single person who thinks they have an important question and want it to get seen by more people will do the same.

One thing I do not find particularly fantastic about tagging system, is after navigating to particular section, having to scroll to the bottom to click on a tag I'm looking for.

The reason the tag cloud is at the bottom of the page is because it's simply secondary navigation, similar to related articles, of the most popular tags used within the forum. It's not meant to serve as the primary means of navigation.

That being said, the problem is that there are effectively an unlimited number of tags, and a growing number of popular tags, and so having a comprehensive list at the top of a forum would not make much sense. You'd be scrolling endlessly. That's why the main site search was retooled to, first and foremost, be an easy way to find tags. It has an autocomplete dropdown that is conscious of the section of the site you're currently in to present you with an easy way to discover all tags.

Member Avatar for Suzie999

It has an autocomplete dropdown that is conscious of the section of the site you're currently in to present you with an easy way to discover all tags.

Great, I never realized that.

Edited by Suzie999
Member Avatar for jwenting

having to type in a search string every time I enter the site to look for say Java topics, and then getting not just those but javascript as well (because Java is a substring of Javascript) is doubly irritating.

And tag hell is already starting, someone created a "wow" tag for example.

Member Avatar for Dani

having to type in a search string every time I enter the site to look for say Java topics, and then getting not just those but javascript as well (because Java is a substring of Javascript) is doubly irritating.

You shouldn't have to type anything. You shoudl just have to click in the box and select from the dropdown list. If you're on the homepage or somewhere generic, the list includes our top sections (java being one of them). If you are somewhere within our programming section, the list is even more focused.

Do you have a better alternative to offering an easy way of finding one of now thousands of categories the site covers?

Member Avatar for Dani

And tag hell is already starting, someone created a "wow" tag for example.

I think we do a pretty decent job at encouraging the reuse of existing, relevant tags. I've been keeping a close eye on the threads posted by newbies and first time users to see if there is an increased level of confusion, and so far nothing seems any worse than normal.

But yes, unfortunately someone did hijack the WoW tag (a tag that's been in existance for many years for articles about World of Warcraft). Their thread was in a subforum of the Community Center, and because all of our Geeks' Lounge threads were moved up to that top level (which included all our wow discussions), our system presented the WoW tag as a suggestion.

Member Avatar for Dani

It also really needs to be understood that our tagging system has already existed, primarily unmoderated, for years and years and years. There are already tens of thousands of tags in the system, not all of them that great. I think that since we're migrating over to making the tagging system a bigger part, a massive cleaning up of our existing tags is in order. We're essentially moving into a filthy house and then getting mad at people for not cleaning up after themselves. I'll work on manually cleaning up some of the tags in the database tonight, and tomorrow I'll code up functionality for moderators to browse/delete/merge tags.

Member Avatar for Suzie999

Great stuff.
As a tag sceptic, I'm finding it more and more pleasant with each passing day.
Most of my initial minor frustrations, besides a glitch, were because I did not know how to use new system to yeild the results I expected.

One suggestion I would offer however, is that when I select a search tag from dropdown, that it automatically performs the search. Currently the search button needs to be clicked or enter pressed. I'm not being picky, just would be nice.

(edit) Is there only yourself who can alter/remove/add tags to topics with an existing tags, or are there others?

Edited by Suzie999
Member Avatar for happygeek

Mods and (other) admins used to be able to edit tags under the old UI, but that functionality has yet to be coded back into the new one. It's coming real soon though, and then the cleaning up can start with a bit more gusto.

tomorrow I'll code up functionality for moderators to browse/delete/merge tags

Member Avatar for pritaeas

Mods and (other) admins used to be able to edit tags under the old UI, but that functionality has yet to be coded back into the new one.

This already works actually.

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Would it cause any inconvenience if regular members were to report threads they believe are badly or not tagged?

Edited by Suzie999
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would be appropriate, just as it was appropriate to flag a thread that was placed in the wrong forum before.

Member Avatar for happygeek

This already works actually.

Not here it doesn't Prit, even as an admin I appear to have no ability to edit tags in a thread. Unless I'm missing something :)

Member Avatar for happygeek

That lets me add tags, not delete them. You think you can delete a tag, but it reappears when you hit update.

Member Avatar for Dani

Davey, that's a design flaw in the UI. The tag cloud that appears at the bottom of the page, aside from not always being representative of just the tags the current article has been tagged with, but rather related tags based on the forum its in, and other tags in common, is heavily cached. I just successfully removed and then re-added the 'tags' tag to this article, and while the tag remained in the bottom tag cloud, it successfully removed itself from the list of tags (after the first post of the thread).

In the meantime, know that what you're doing is working, and it's just a UI glitch that needs updating.

Member Avatar for Suzie999

I've noticed that when I click the "Unread" option on a topic, it takes me directly to the last post/reply in that thread regardless of whether I've read all other posts in it, or even entered the topic at all previously.

Member Avatar for Dani

Yes, that's always been our functionality. We don't keep track, in our database, what the last post you saw was.

Member Avatar for ddanbe

What is definitely a good side effect of this tagging, is that more and more members who were, say C++ afficionados now also answer questions tagged as C#, or java or whatever. Tagging erases borders between "language countries"!

Member Avatar for IntegratedTweak

Reverend Jim I totally agree with you.

Member Avatar for jkon

If you feel comfortable about something you don't really like radical changes. I understand the reasons that drove DaniWeb to that choice , some of them are correct in my opinion some others have a giant hole (e.g. why couldn't DaniWeb have a different UI for mobile + tablets with small screens and different for PC's , is one design for all really “responsive” ?).

Merging categories and using tabs to differentiate posts is a double blazed knife. From one hand DaniWeb doesn't have anymore e.g. a PHP thread ( so is week in competition in that manner ) on the other hand it brought together the “Web development” family. This is a bit strange for me because I consider my self a programmer and I can't understand why for example a JSP question isn't in the web development but is in the software development. Isn't web software development still software development ?
I understand that programming forums and sites in general have problems . I also have noticed that DaniWeb attract newbies that don't return too often. I would concentrate my self to the second problem , if every second post is about “is earth flat or round?” then those how have a knowledge that the earth is not flat will loose interest. That doesn't mean that if someone is really new to programming and really wonders if the earth is flat wouldn't get an answer.

I will not go further with comments about the “business model” of Dani Web. I am here I like the site and I like the knowledge shields that are passed some times. I have gained from that in fields that I didn't master in the past (e.g. Unix) and I hope I have helped others as well. I also gain from the interaction of ideas about certain problems we are all facing. I believe that these are the strong cards for Dani Web.
Closing a big “bravo” for the https://www.daniweb.com/stats/online section.

Member Avatar for Mr.M

I thinks this whole changing has a bad impact simply by looking on the threads, I also have a thread which was in a middle of being answered but now its quite and even the rate of answering post has dropped way down compared to the previous theme. I now just be even lazy to open this site because finding new and unanswered post I have to first type the tag then click New for new post and so on. Just check and compare the rate of posts and comments on posts and compare with older them and feature, this changing just pull me down when ever I think of opening the site, but maybe its because I'm not familiar with it yet, but I find usage gone down/ dropped.

Now mostly you find people like Jim, and others those are high rated the ones that are active in commenting in posts. Check by your self and see, most posts only have comments from those high ranked people.

The question is why? Its surely not the complexity of the questions asked but I think other people are experiencing what I'm experiencing to be lazy now to scroll, search, the older system/theme was a piece of mind, easy, and simple, its makes you active even on finding questions/posts.

Member Avatar for edbr

im not sure this is a good thing to say, but its true.
I find that tags are fine but for usability i now visit SO as the layout is easier and more functional. Especially on mobile.
Way to much scrolling with too much unwanted info first, hard to find tags tha are of interest (in my case php).
Sorry but thats how it seems to me , thanks for the help i have recieved

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