Sorry, thread title a little melodramatic, but making sure is noticed

Seriously though, when tags initially rolled, individual "tags" were separated by a comma, rather than by a space (although commas still seem to work as well). The problem is that this updated format disallows a two-word tag, such as "Windows 7" - the space btwn the two creates two individual tags... the original tags rollout had no such issues.

Is there a reason for the changes, or is it possible to go back to the original tag format?

calamity

It really is standard for tags to only be a single word. That's how most other popular sites do it. We changed to this method to be more standardized.

Have not tried it yet, but would use of an underscore work? So Windows 7 becomes Windows_7

Yes, as long as it's not a space, it would work. For a more standardized naming approach, trying replacing the underscore with a hyphen.

Okies - just noted that a two-word tag was first accepted when first rolled out (interesting, article written during that period, which was first tagged "Windows 7" has now been auto-modified to "Windows7") is no longer accepted.

The only issue I can see, funnily enough, is highlighted by the moderator responses. One suggests an underscore, the other a hyphen... this (at least to my understanding, so PLEASE correct if I am wrong) leads to a common issue in the TAGGING system as a whole:
If I enter Windows 7 in the site search-box, it will scan, thread titles, bodies, then tags. If none have the specific phrase "Windows 7", then it will be missed by most search algorithms - either that or I'll get hits on anything containing either "Windows" or "7".

The advantage of having a multi-word tag system, is that those searches which match get higher priority over one element of the phrase (ie, a match to "Windows 7", take precedent over "Windows" or "7"). Also, if we are to follow the Mod's suggestions, those who search for "Windows_7" will get totaly different search result to those who search for "Windows-7", or "Windows 7".... thus the problem. Such a system confuses not only the average user, but even the more advanced user.

Now I know a two-word tagging system may not be standard, but maybe is more accessible to site users as a whole. Worth re-considering??

We use Google as our primary search function, and it scans and indexes the page as a single entity, discounting the tags for the most part.

For a more advanced search, use our advanced forum search (link in sidebar) and there is a specific field to search the tags. Naming convention is typically to combine words so that Windows 7 becomes "windows7" but when stripping spaces makes things very hard to read dashes are often used. This is really quite standardized so there are off-site articles on proper tagging naming conventions.

Cheers - was refering to site-based searches, not using Google.

Well it was a nice thought, but can see might prove unworkable. TY for the feedback