Say Hello To Tags

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In terms of forum organization we’ve tried to keep things pretty simple. We have just a few ‘sub-forums’ (what are called ‘categories’ here) and it works well.

What we’ve seen over time is that a lot of people use this forum to find stuff, either through google or lurking and doing searches. A lot of our categories are pretty ‘broad’ and we’ve all just tried to fit into conventions of either putting more specific words into the topic title (e.g. #flight-sims “X-Plane Releases”) or just having really long topics that have thousands of posts.

Rather than add lots more categories and have to move stuff around we thought we’d experiment with ‘tags’ as a light-weight (and optional!) way to provide a bit more context on the topics. The forum software we use is called ‘Discourse’ and it has a good explanation of what a ‘tag’ is and how it is used:

Essentially all it is is an additional bit of text to further describe a topic. This makes it easier to find for others, plus allows people to browse the forum in a way not boxed in like a category. Multiple tags can be applied allowing things like ‘VR’ to be found without having to create a ‘VR’ category.

So, we’re just trying it as an experiment. So far on the #staff have the ability to create completely ‘new tags’ but the plan is to open that to the community, so you can add your own. Tags aren’t a foregone conclusion here, we’re just seeing how they work first. Please try them out and let us know in this topic.

When you create a new topic you’ll see a new option to enter:

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Next to the photorealistic image of my face in red you can see the new tags free-text entry box. As you type in there you can see the choices. You can put up to 5 tags on a topic, although typically only one or two is good.

If you want to ‘browse by tag’ or even subscribe to one you can just click on them - they are links. The ‘watching’ circle in the top right of a tag page shows your options:

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So we’ll run this for a while and see what people think. If it works we’ll unlock it for regulars and go hog wild. #staff will have a look through and tag some old topics, so we can see it in action a bit more.

Thanks, and let us know how it goes with tags.

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How do I tag the Auto Bump thread?

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In the spirit of self-organization, as a Regular forum member you can always re-categorize or tag an existing topic - just click the ‘pencil’ :pen: icon in the topic title.

Normally the person that creates the topic chooses those, but if you really want to assign #how-to as a tag (or something worse) in a reply you can use the # plus word as well.

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For reference, the tags we are trying out so far are in three small groups:

Check them out here:

https://forums.mudspike.com/tags

Topic Type:
#real-aviation
#retro

Popular Sims
#dcs
#il2-box
#x-plane
#fsx
#p3d
#arma

Tech and Stuff
#vr
#hotas
#mission
#scenery
#mod
#pit-build
#console

This can be expanded over time, and even put into a hierarchy, but the plan is to take it slow and see if it works ok or not. When we open up the tag creation then it might go horribly wrong, but essentially it is whatever people want to make of it.

PS We might not use the above list, we’re just seeing how they work out.

PPS Removed some ones we hate already.

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Omg, I just read through it (been a bit behind). Stand-by, creating a #chaos new tag… :slight_smile:

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Suggestion: Topic Type “tutorial” or “guide”?

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I like that. @BeachAV8R, @Fridge, @Troll?

The reason we didn’t add those just yet is that (#how-to lasted about 15 mins today) was there’s some thoughts on how best to do the ‘question/answer’ like posts. We have the ability to add a ‘Solved’ flag (sort of like Stackoverflow etc) on posts in a category and we’re mulling over if something like #hardware couldn’t be expanded out to ‘Tech Support & Hardware’ instead.

As people help others then it would be a good place to collect up open and answered questions, plus we could give out badges for those who help out the most etc.

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hello

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Sounds good to me!

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Ok, as it’s 2AM in Norway, @Troll gets an abstention vote.

Added the new #guide tag - getting tagging @AeroMechanical! :slight_smile:

https://forums.mudspike.com/tags

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You could’ve called… :wink:
This is good stuff! Troll like good stuff…

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Just a heads up that there are threads that are related to IL-2 1946 or Cliffs of Dover that are categorized with the IL-2 Box tag incorrectly. Leaving it to the admin types to decide if it warrants any changes or additions to the tags categories. :sunglasses:

IL-2 1946:

Cliffs of Dover:

Wheels

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Thanks Wheels. I renamed the tag to be #il-2 to cover them all.

So far pretty happy with the tags, so thanks to the people putting them on new topics.

I think so far they make a viable alternative to lots of sub-forums for the big brands, in that people can narrow stuff down to their interests without it being too cumbersome or in-your-face organizational-no-fun zone.

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Thanks Frog, unless we see a huge surge in Cliffs of Dover or 1946 threads that will work just fine. :sunglasses:

Wheels

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