Lets Talk About Tags 🔖

in #steemit7 years ago



So I wanted to briefly explain why I’m only using informational and helpful tags on my posts from now on and why you should too. More importantly, I want to open the discussion about this and hear from you. These types of posts are the posts I want to highlight and create to open discussion on important topics that affect everyone on the platform on Witness Communications Assembly (WCA) when I make a Steemit account for it.

Branded posts just clog up the categories with pointless niches when we should have niche communities forming around the actual niche itself not the branded version of some of the influencers in the niche. Why? Branded tags are not self-explanatory and provide no value other than the fact that you’re in there for the exclusivity and potential upvotes from curation. If we want Steemit to be a long term thing we have to treat it like so. We have to tag correctly to build a proper index and directory of posts!

Essentially I think we need to fix this and I'm open to hear about solutions and takes on this. I think if maybe we could do 10 tags like on other platforms that have more tags allowed, we could have like 5 tags for information and 5 that could be used for branded tags etc.

If you don't know what I mean by "branded" I mean like if I had a hashtag #scottcbusiness and I required you to post using that to get an upvote by me or for a curation trail etc. I get the appeal, I get that it's been around way longer than me. SO, I am only suggesting we adjust it, not necessarily remove that aspect. I do think it's more important we have informational tags because moving forward with new members joining it would be harder and harder to find posts if they aren't indexed based on what information they contain.

What do you think about this? Let me know in the comments!



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I feel the tag system needs to be improved. There is a growing number of tags with very similar meanings that should be more standardized. Either there needs to be an "index" or "table of contents" with better standardization than the existing list of tags under the "explore" tab, or there needs to be a better way to "zero in" on closely-related tag sets. They're already too diverse, and the problem grows each time someone invents a new tag. I feel it has already had an effect on the number of views of some of my own posts.

Exactly! Everytime a new one is made it creates more noise. I think 10 tags would help solve this at least to give people space to tag better and still have branded tags. I also think implementing Steemit to suggest related tags after you type the first one would really help too :)

Have you ever used the online "Visual Thesaurus?"
https://www.visualthesaurus.com/
I think you still get five tries without subscribing. Anyway, it is a good illustration of how an algorithm can "zero in" on just the right thing...in this case a particular word, but perhaps on Steemit it could be a particular tag. Just an idea worth throwing out there, and a plug for Visual Thesaurus which I have found extremely helpful.

true, I mean it would have to be particular to Steemit though in the sense that it would have to be tags people are using not just well related wordage

When I first started blogging on Steemit, I was not aware of the significance of tags so that I would get upvotes from curation or at least attract audience or readers. I was told to use specific tags but I was apprehensive to the idea because I thought the tag did not even have the slightest connection or relevance to my post.

Then I finally got it. I have to use those tags so that I may also survive on this platform and also as a form of support to the community I belong to.

However, I agree that we should use the tags related to our blogs so that when we search for specific posts, we will be able to find what we are looking for in a content. It would be good if we could use more than 5 tags so that we still get upvoted by curation trails as well as tag our posts according to its purpose and relevance.

Yeah for now my basic solutions is Steemit having 5 tags for information and 5 for whatever

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Something should have been done about the tag abuse long ago. Good luck pushing that case with the adjerkkme and other great curatemypal award taggers. I've considered using tags like these many times and did so in my last post, but I have apprehensions. I've avoided teamcountry tags as well. Glad to find you opening up the discussion.

Yeah I want to open up discussion about all the important topics that are sort of low key ignored. If not regulating tag abuse, I'd love to see an increase in how many we can use

I forget what it is called in WordPress - there is a tag and a title if I am not mistaken. That would certainly add a granular method of controlling one's content feed - something like circles in Google+. The idea of 'branding' and the use of tags for that purpose is a cute but rather clumsy sort of hack to achieve a grouping of publications on the one hand for the purpose of the team leaders or curators to use a euphamism. It doesn't really work surely to admit an account or exclude an account from genuine membership of anything. What it does is promote the pyramid operation. For instance, someone may not be part of the approved members of a group but simply apply the tag for. It seems a method to rather deceptively promote a group on the platform - the group expands as members utilze the tag in the hopes of rewards. Eventually, the tag will fizzle out as all pyramid systems do once people realise there are far too many posts using the tag and they are not being noticed as much as the early joiners were noticed.

With all the great bots out here, I am convinced there are far more sophisticated ways to see if someone's post belongs in the team/group of circle masturbators ;-) If he has paid his dues to the group, to get his upvote or whatever the promise is for the post using the tag. Regular peopel are being encouraged to abuse the tag system and it serves a one sided advantage to the team leaders more so than the platform as a whole or the regular user.

Yeah for sure, really great points for everyone to keep in mind

I think it would be a good idea. I just don't have a clue on the heck we could ever get something like that started. It's a good thing we have people like you, strong smart leaders. I am curious if you have any ideas to get something like this started other than what you were talking about here. Have you been in talks with anybody else in the uppers realms of steemit about this?

No but that is the point we get a discussion going, form a sentiment and go from there. I'd love to get a vibe for how people feel. I want to use my platform WCA and make a steemit account to do weekly topics to debate and discuss like this to get a better idea how witnesses and the public feel about these issues

The weekly discussions and or debates sounds like a great idea. I think it would be a way easier form of figuring out where the witnesses actually stand. Would there be any way for us to submit questions during the discussions? Or would it just be between you guys and we would watch? I ask because I really have no clue what WCA is.

Yeah so people could comment and discuss on the post and we'd try to do real time on the discord channel and in the future maybe open the voice channel and people can tune in like a show and talk about it. We will take any questions too and topics to do :)

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Great post, as usual @scottcbusiness! And very helpful to. I agree fully that we should do all we can to keep the platform as organized as possible: Steemit is great, but not the most user-friendly in all aspects. This is one of the reasons your highly informative posts are so well loved. So it's up to people like you and all of us to keep Steemit nice, clean and searchable. Even looking at attracting new users to our space this is essential, if "outsiders" don't find what they're looking for when using Google or duck-duck-go, they won't stay to hang around.

The solution I've found for myself is just use a maximum of 1 non-related tag and always make it the last or second last one.

Thanks again and keep up the good work!

Thanks for your feedback, glad you agree! Yeah I think the basic solution is to have more tags to use overall

I feel like there are a lot of middle-ground tags. Like, I'm not using #archisteem because I want their upvote (not especially valuable at the moment) but because my posts are part of an ongoing conversation in that community that we want to be able to index.

There's also the issue that some "informational" tags haven't yet coalesced into consensus. Like do I use #steemit-webcomics or #steemcartoon or #webcomics or #comics or idon'tknowwhat. None of those are "branded," they're just kind of chaotic.

Something I saw on some other platform that I liked, but now can't remember where, was the ability of readers to add tags to content. Not sure how much sense that makes here in general but I like it better for getting posts into the right informational categories, which seems to be your goal if I understand you correctly.

Yes, that would be the goal. Instead of necessarily restricting people my basic solution so far is that we should have 10 tags and 5 should be informational

Keep up the good work my friend!

thanks so much!

You are so right! But...no one explane how use the tags. I use some tags randomly. 5 tags are not enough....or tags maybe
could cover a wider range of evaluation...

Yeah right now I am thinking 10 is a good solution

Yes...maybe soon..I hope