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Tags....OMG, what have I done?

Hiya! Just your friendly community moderator dropping in to say "OMGWTF happened to the tags?!?!" :D

Here's the situation. I've been extraordinarily busy and didn't feel like I had the time to keep up with the requests for tag additions that I was getting through comments and email, so I went ahead and changed the community options on who could create tags from just me to any member. Then I made the mistake of not checking in to see how it was going, for which I humbly and profusely apologize. One of the community members dropped me a line today and brought to my attention that the tag list had grown out of control with duplicate tags (alternate or misspellings, plurals, etc.), useless tags like "50book challenge" (uh...why do you need to tag your posts in the 50bookchallenge community as 50bookchallenge??), and a general glut of overly specific tags like obscure authors, etc.

So, I've made an executive decision. Not only have I changed the tag options back to allow only community maintainers to create new tags, I'm going to delete 99% of the author tags. Before you get upset, let me explain!!

This community has LJ Seek enabled on it (which, in addition to the link I've placed in this post, can also be found in the community profile *and* in the links sidebar when viewing the community pages). What this means to all of you is that if you want to search for any text string in the community entries, you can. Since people's entries almost always include the book title and author, I think that it's redundant to have tags for authors, since if you want to see lists of entries that talk about books by any particular author, you can use LJ Seek. Since genre is not mentioned in people's book reviews nearly as often, I think that's where the usefulness of tags really lies, so that's where I'm going to head with the tag list.

So, the new guidelines for tags are going to be that I will entertain requests for tags for genres, content, subject matter, types of awards, book lists, etc. I will *NOT* create new tags for book titles or authors. I am also going to monitor the tag list and clean up any tags that don't generate more than 5 uses or so. This is to try to control the proliferation of uberspecific genre tags that no one really understands or uses.

ETA: I also have to add...I can only shake my head in disbelief that I'm actually finding tags for people's personal LJ user IDs. Buh? There are over SIX THOUSAND members in this community...do you really think it's reasonable to make PERSONAL tags to track your own posts? The mind boggles. For real.

Comments? Questions? Suggestions?

Comments

( 43 pithy comments — Say something pithy! )
welfycat
May. 16th, 2007 02:12 am (UTC)
May I be the first to say thank you, oh so very much!

I am incredibly happy to see that the tag situation will be brought under control again, as the tags list was getting quite ridiculous!

I appreciate the steps you've outlined and think that it is an excellent plan.

quitereasonable
May. 16th, 2007 02:17 am (UTC)
I'll second the thanks at your addressing this issue.
discostare
May. 16th, 2007 02:55 am (UTC)
Thanks for coming along and cleaning them up. I found it was getting a bit ridiculous too.
xylogirl
May. 16th, 2007 02:57 am (UTC)
When tagging a post how do you use the tags that are already there without adding your own?
noachoc
May. 16th, 2007 01:22 pm (UTC)
There are a few tags that I use all the time (like adventure) so, if you know which ones you want ahead of time, you just type them into the box at the bottom, like you'd do if you were making them up. If you don't know (and this is what I do) you can just check the list on the sidebar, or go to "edit tags" on your already posted entry and the list is in a box at the bottom.

The only difference now is that, if you spell something wrong in a tag, it just won't post as that. That's why I always check my entries (and tags) after I post them.
(Anonymous)
May. 16th, 2007 03:03 am (UTC)
Can I have a Zette tag?
sh1mm3r
May. 16th, 2007 03:30 am (UTC)
THANK YOU.

I would go back to my entries and add all appropriate tags, and I've noticed that more and more are applicable, and often some were different variations of the same word. Egad!
poodlerat
May. 16th, 2007 04:44 am (UTC)
Yay! Thank you!
risa7
May. 16th, 2007 05:13 am (UTC)
Oh thank you! I do like to use tags but these were kinda scaring me :)
musesong
May. 16th, 2007 08:18 am (UTC)
Thank you. Glad to see the tags back under control. I use LJ Seek whenever I need to look for an author or title.

As for tracking our own posts I use the Memories feature on my own LJ so I have a nice list of my entries to the challenge.
noachoc
May. 16th, 2007 01:27 pm (UTC)
Thanks so very much! It's so much PRETTIER now.

hehehe, my "movie-books" made the cut (though who knows if it'll stay, I don't think it's something lots of people will use).
silentrequiem
May. 17th, 2007 04:38 am (UTC)
Thank you! I will actually start using tags again, now.
crowyhead
Jul. 19th, 2007 05:42 pm (UTC)
Couple of requests -- one, could you correct the spelling for the Newbery tag? It should be Newbery Winner, not Newberry Winner, I think.

Also, could you add a National Book Award tag? Or perhaps just a general "Award Winner" tag?
fegs
Aug. 7th, 2007 07:22 pm (UTC)
tags
I am now in the process of adding tags to my old entries, could you possibly add an indian lit or asian lit tag as I seem to read a losd of books set in that area of the world!!
shoshanapnw
Aug. 31st, 2007 04:42 am (UTC)
Hi. May I request "Asia"? We've got Africa, British, Canada, etc. and I read a lot of books about Asia! Thanks
jadis
Aug. 31st, 2007 01:01 pm (UTC)
For some goofed up reason, LJ has seen fit to make tags in a community invisible to anyone except the moderator until they've been used at least once. Buh? So stupid. In any case, I did have an asian lit tag out there, but it had zero uses, so only I could see it. I added it to this entry so it would be in use, and thus appear to the rest of the community. Let me know if you have any problems!
shoshanapnw
Aug. 31st, 2007 02:49 pm (UTC)
"Asian lit" wil be helpful, but as you can see from my entry here: http://community.livejournal.com/50bookchallenge/8376758.html not everything I'm reading about Asia is literature. I'm happy to leave it alone if adding abnother tag is a schlep or generally unnecessary.
acidosaur
Sep. 15th, 2007 09:12 pm (UTC)
this is a very good way of using tags, I find it very useful to find my own posts again :)

could I maybe suggest adding a tag for Orange Prizewinners? I've read a couple of books that won this prize and they were incredible.
busy91
Nov. 8th, 2007 08:59 pm (UTC)
something to entertain:

Native American Lit
susannag
Dec. 1st, 2007 09:12 pm (UTC)
Maybe one for "historical mystery" - i.e., a mystery novel with a historical setting?
musesong
Dec. 12th, 2007 11:37 am (UTC)
For genre tags how about 'cyberpunk'?
pure_spunk
Dec. 28th, 2007 06:25 pm (UTC)
Could we get a 'Shakespeare' tag?
sobota
Jan. 3rd, 2008 12:22 am (UTC)
i would like to see these:

postmodern fiction
early modern fiction
foreign language - original
foreign language - translated
semiautobiographical

if at all possible! thank you!

Edited at 2008-01-03 12:23 am (UTC)
caseyistrendy
Jan. 4th, 2008 01:20 am (UTC)
can i get a satire?
not_to_bore_you
Feb. 3rd, 2008 03:41 pm (UTC)
I think it's time for another tag clean-up.
quoting_mungo
Mar. 3rd, 2008 05:47 pm (UTC)
Can we have the non-fiction and nonfiction tags merged?
Should the entries previously tagged horseback fall under "animals" as it seems between me posting my 6-10 and my 11-15 entry, the horse tag was removed?

I also find the "international" and "foreign language" tags pretty confusing. What's "international"? Anything not written in Sweden or Swedish? Anything not written in the US or English? Does that mean the books I read in my native language are "foreign language" books? I have no objection to those tags as such, but I do want to question their usefulness.

"canada" and "canadian lit" seems pretty redundant as well. If we're sorting things based on origin, I'd think continent would be specific enough; if we're sorting based on where things are set, ditto, really.

And what's the purpose of the "book review" tag?

Just a pile of random thoughts, don't know that all of them are useful.


-Alexandra
musesong
Mar. 12th, 2008 07:46 pm (UTC)
Hi Alexandra,

Thank you for your feedback about tags and I'll discuss them with jadis.

I had planned to merge the non-fiction and nonfiction tags, though as this is a manual job with 136 tags I am waiting until I had a clear space to do it.

Sorry about the horseback tag, perhaps sports and animals would cover this activity?

As for the 'book review' tag I think that is a legacy of the period prior to the revamp of posting guidelines when many people just posted lists without any reviews or commentary.

As for the international and Canada (lit) I shall have a look at the way the tags have been used. A lot of these tags stem from the time in 2006 when they were first introduced and members could add their own new tags. As a result things went a little wild prompting jadis changes as per this post.

~ Vivienne
julielu
Mar. 24th, 2008 10:22 pm (UTC)
Can we add Scottish romance, or highlander romance, or just plain Scottish? Also, how about time travel?
meatina
Mar. 30th, 2008 05:04 pm (UTC)
How about a self-help tag?
rosethorne
Apr. 4th, 2008 08:15 am (UTC)
Can I recommend a "pirates" tag? There are a lot of those books out there and it'd be a useful tag.
mdyesowitch
Apr. 24th, 2008 03:51 pm (UTC)
You may think this is covered under sport, and if you do, that's understandable, but I'd like to see a separate "baseball" tag.
arylla
May. 13th, 2008 06:41 pm (UTC)
May I request a tag for German lit? I don't know if anyone beside me needs that tag, but it'd come in handy for me, because I'm reading a lot of German books.
rosethorne
Feb. 6th, 2009 05:47 pm (UTC)
Can we have tags for regionalism and dragons?

Also, realism, war, banned book, and Vonnegut?

Oh, and non-linear?

Edited at 2009-02-06 05:54 pm (UTC)
noachoc
Jul. 20th, 2009 08:29 pm (UTC)
Hey, can we have a zombie tag? It may be too specific, but it seems to cover a lot of things that are going around lately, like World War Z and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I just picked up a couple more zombie books and it might come in handy.
angabel
Aug. 23rd, 2009 01:50 am (UTC)
May I ask why "rape" is a tag? At first I thought, "oh good, it can be a good way to avoid triggering" and then realized that having it as a tag doesn't really help that. I just don't think it should be hailed as a good term for a tag; after all, if I am anything like the average user, I will peruse the tags for book recommendations and I doubt most people are actually seeking out books written on rape unless they're doing research. It just seems in bad taste, in my opinion. Perhaps a more general tag could cover it, such as "sexual violence"? This way, more books can be tagged under it and it might work better as a trigger warning.
musesong
Nov. 21st, 2010 08:38 am (UTC)
Actually this is a very good point and I would think someone did add it to signal triggering over books about rape as such.

So I have renamed the tag as 'sexual violence' as suggested.
sio
Jun. 18th, 2010 09:08 am (UTC)
don't know if this is checked at all but lately i have been reading lots of historical murder mysteries and it seems like the historical mystery genre is bigger than i thought. could we maybe have a historical mystery tag?
musesong
Nov. 21st, 2010 08:48 am (UTC)
I do tend to use two tags for this though I can see the value of being able to just search for the single tag.

We do have plenty of tags available so will add it unless jadis feels that it isn't useful.
noachoc
Aug. 3rd, 2010 06:30 pm (UTC)
May I please have a zombies tag? I promise to use it immediately and often.
musesong
Nov. 21st, 2010 08:42 am (UTC)
I think you also requested this in an entry and I did add it as well as 'ghosts' as these are popping up in fantasy/paranormal romance a fair bit.
noachoc
Nov. 22nd, 2010 02:18 pm (UTC)
Yep, you did ages ago! Thanks!
(Deleted comment)
a_neverending
Sep. 7th, 2012 10:33 am (UTC)
Hi, I just made my first entry and am a bit confused by some of the tags. I hope you can clear something up for me?
What exactly is '50bookschallenge recommends'? Is this the same as 'reccomended book'? And is ist okay to add this entry to books one personally likes or are there guidlines which books can be recomended?
And aren't 'drugs' and 'addiction' somehow redundant?
Which books would fall in the category 'foreign languages'? Books that deal with learning foreign languages? Or the actuall language of the text? If so, which language would fall under 'foreign languages'? Anything not english?
What is 'in the media' about?
Also I wonder what the diferent between 'japan', 'japanese' and 'japanese novel' might be. Does 'japanese' refer to the language?
And what exactly can be defined as a 'rare book'?
Sorry to flood you with questions, but I'd rather understand those before making a mistake.
Greetings, Sirrah
( 43 pithy comments — Say something pithy! )

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