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Raise of hands, who here likes the tagging system?

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Member Avatar for cereal

o/

Member Avatar for ~s.o.s~

If it works well (searching by tag), is well controlled (well defined tags) and maybe supports some nifty operations (like intersect etc.) then yes, tagging system sounds good for Daniweb!

Member Avatar for Dani

If it works well (searching by tag)

You can now search by tag in the top navigation menu.

Intersections are somewhere in the plan.

Member Avatar for Dani

To be perfectly honest, it was on my short term agenda to do forum-tag intersect (i.e. I only want to see threads tagged 'bug' that are within the DaniWeb feedback forum). Tag intersect was planned for a little later down the road, but I can push it up if it's something everyone really wants.

Member Avatar for pritaeas

I assume editing tags comes back at some point?

Edited by pritaeas because: Must be blind today - reverted to maintain flow
Member Avatar for Dani

It never went away. It's just that I wanted to clean up the interface a bit so you now have to hit the little blue button in the footer to unhide the form. The one that looks like a tag with a plus sign next to it.

Member Avatar for happygeek

Yep, tagging is the way forward - people just need to get used to it being front and centre in the UI rather than being allowed to merge into the background a bit.

Member Avatar for Suzie999

For me, it's not a matter of liking it, rather getting used to it.
I've never been a fan of the stackoverflow system, I mean it's great for getting answers from a google search but navigating it is a nighmare.

If it helps daniweb with traffic then it's good, only time will tell.

commented: agreed! +0
Member Avatar for snippsat

I have to say that i don't like this tagging system at all.
Maybe it's get better when i get used to it,but i am not sure.

In Python part of the old forum we had sticky thread,
do we really need to search for those threads now?
Or can post be sticky again?
Here is a picture.

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

As I understand it, I can add a tag when I create a thread but the creation of a tag is not mandatory. When someone posts a new vb.net question and does not create a vb.net tag then how am I to know about it when I have to select vb.net to look at vb.net related posts?

And I have asked this before, but since Search does not allow me to do a tag-based search, how do I look at posts which contain tags that do not appear in the tag list? All in all I think that either the implementation or the explanation of the tagging system has been poorly handled.

Likewise with some of the UI changes. The highlighting of message headers to indicate unread is good (but not intuitiive) but unless I have my contrast turned up and the screen angle just right I do not see the highlight. The overlay icon that shows that I have posted in a thread is also very hard to see and non-intuitive. I think that making these changes and not explaining them was a mistake.

Edited by Reverend Jim
commented: it definitely was a huge mistake..... +0
Member Avatar for Aeonix

When someone posts a new vb.net question and does not create a vb.net tag then how am I to know about it when I have to select vb.net to look at vb.net related posts?

So far from my perspective you're forced to use at least 1 tag.

And I have asked this before, but since Search does not allow me to do a tag-based search, how doo I look at posts which contain tags that do not appear in the tag list?

Once again, works for me. Try "vb.net", I get vb.net tagged threads only.

Edited by Aeonix
Member Avatar for Suzie999

I posted a thread 45 minutes ago with C# tag, but I still cannot find it under C# tag.

I can find it in software development forum, but if try the C# tag, it's gone, although my thread from a few weeks ago is right there.

commented: thats what Im talking about - its not done well..,.. if at all.... +0
Member Avatar for Dani

As I understand it, I can add a tag when I create a thread but the creation of a tag is not mandatory.

It became mandatory as soon as we switched over to a tagging-based system.

And I have asked this before, but since Search does not allow me to do a tag-based search

As of now, search does allow you to do a tag-based search.

All in all I think that either the implementation or the explanation of the tagging system has been poorly handled.

I think it was a case of exploring unknown territory, and deciding to put it out there and let everyone's reactions guide what needs improvement and what works and what doesn't. These types of things are never going to come out of the gates polished because I rely on real world site usage to gauge what works and what doesn't and what people like and what they don't.

I posted a thread 45 minutes ago with C# tag, but I still cannot find it under C# tag.

You're right, I see. Well, this isn't good. I will investigate.

Member Avatar for Suzie999

I replied to it, and it instantly appeared.

Member Avatar for Suzie999

Ah, just a co-inky-dink then.

Edited by Suzie999
Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

Well, if you are going to listen to the feedback and fix things then I'll be a happy guy. Today must be my lucky day. I sent off a "mad as hell" email on the weekend to michael@dell.com and got a phone call from Dell saying they will absolutely fix all my problems. It seems sometimes people do listen. But I'm still not holding my breath about Dell. Way to go on the daniweb issues though.

Member Avatar for Mr.M

Well for me I would start by asking if there is some sort of new daniweb theme guide to how we now find like Watched articles, Market, etc. What is still there and what is not because I normally access dani with a cell phone and it was all changed up. I accessed it using laptop yesterday and I thought it was just a few changes I thought the site was the same layout on big screen but was a surprised to see its completely different.

For tagging I think if all the relevant post will be found in one place like if I can click a vb.net button and see vb.net post despite the search then it would be great, this is because I find it irritating on stackoverflow to keep clicking that top button which shows a sort of drop down with all the post you have posted in order to shift the forums, like to move from vb.net to let's say java I have to do that and that only if I had ever posted on java otherwise I will have to search java then scrawl which switching the forum is a bit not so friendly at least for me.

Member Avatar for Dani

OK so the top search menu is now complete. Not only does it function as always (type a search query and be presented with google-powered results) but you can also search for tags. There's an autocomplete feature that is based on the forum that you are currently in.

Member Avatar for stultuske

Am I missing something? Yesterday, the tags were present if you opened up the subfora list with the blue button on top-right. Now, only the main titles (no tags) are present.
Where exactly can we chose a tag to visit?

Maybe a smaller remar (which I noticed by replying here), why is it not possible anymore to go to the last page (or even to see there are several pages) of replies in a thread on the top of the page?

It used to be simple to open a Thread, immediately see you're not on the last page, click the last page button and scroll down there to reply.

Now you have to scroll down just to find out you're not on the last page of the thread.

Member Avatar for Dani

Am I missing something? Yesterday, the tags were present if you opened up the subfora list with the blue button on top-right. Now, only the main titles (no tags) are present.

Yes, it was just a temporary solution, and I didn't like the way it looked. I thought it drowned out the forum categories.

Where exactly can we chose a tag to visit?

You can search for tags with the site search. There is an autocomplete that is based on the section of the site you're currently on, in an attempt to provide you with recommendations.

Maybe a smaller remar (which I noticed by replying here), why is it not possible anymore to go to the last page (or even to see there are several pages) of replies in a thread on the top of the page?

Honestly, the answer to your question is because I didn't see a need anymore. We have pagination at the top and bottom of page 2+ so that you can quickly see you're not on the first page, and quickly jump to the first page to begin reading from the beginning. But it didn't occur to me you would not want to be on the first page.

Can you give me a use case for this? When I'm browsing a list of articles, I can click the article title to go to the first page, or the timestamp of the last post to go to the last page.

Or, if I just stumble across a random article, such as by clicking the link in related articles, then I want to start at the beginning no matter what.

What are your specific use cases for needing pagination at the top? Maybe there's a more elegant solution.

Member Avatar for Mr.M

But the site is also not compatible with all devices. I'm using BlackBerry and for me I can't find the search button or field, the old feature was good because on my Watched Articles I would simply click let's say I want to go check the new posts under VB.NET then I would simply click the link within my article or any article that's under the forum I want to go to and I would be presented with that list that shows which article has been updated, which one is new, when it was posted, how many people have viewed it, how many replies are there currently. I think that was best especially spotting the articles and click to see only new or unanswered ones and so on.

Member Avatar for tgreiner

I've got to say "NO" to the tagging system.

In general, I can see it's value as an add-on to the old forum system. 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. Sticky forum posts had a "HERE I AM" quality that I think will be lost with the tagging system.

I write this as a novice programmer who visits Daniweb mostly for help, pointers, and ideas in C++ programming. 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 (or if they are, I cannot find them). I suspect that they are now part of some other tag, but what that tag might be is not always obvious. Part of my problem is certainly because I am just not yet used to the new system. However, as of right now, the new system is making the website more difficult for me to use it as a resouce.

OK, I know that DaniWeb is not primarily intended for a newb like me. I am the type of newb that will never become a top level sophisticated programmer like many of the members here (I have been a "novice programmer" member of this site for more than 10 years). Having access to the sophisticated programmer membership has been a tremendous resource for me. I know you get some people abusing that resource -- students asking that you do their homework assignments for them. But, still some of the responses to the newb questions are enlightening. I can think of a recent question on why use const in a C++ program. I found the responses to that query very interesting. Even more so because it was a question that I did not think to ask myself. I wonder if these types of questions, and discussions, will still be possible under the new system? Let me re-phrase that, for they will certainly still be "possible." The real question is, will they happen?

Given that some of the rationale for the format change was site traffic, I pose to the question: how will the site grow if newbs are not easily finding things of value here?

commented: Agree +0
Member Avatar for Suzie999

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

Edited by Suzie999
Member Avatar for Suzie999

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.

Not a big deal, I can move my hand 2 inches, but I think it would serve better at the top.
I also think the size of the tags associated with individual threads in the forum-like sections are a bit over the top and take up a lot more space than they need to.

(edit) Then when you finally get the threads with your prefered tag, the clickable tags all of a sudden are at the top, where you wanted a minute ago :)

Edited by Suzie999
Member Avatar for snippsat

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

Or just making a category like e.g Staring Python, Starting C++.
Then put sticky thread like in this picture in there.
The "Product Reviews" that i mark over has just 1 post,and could be changed.

Edited by snippsat
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