Forum tips: How tags and prefixes are used

[C clearly]

Most of you do not need to be concerned with adding tags and prefixes to your threads, since moderators normally do it after the fact. However, it is useful for everyone to understand how tags can be useful. So let's start with the useful part and I'll try to explain the technical details further down this post. It is hard to put these things into words, so let me know if you have questions.

Prefixes can be added to the start of thread titles for better visibility and for special searches. A single thread can have only one prefix. Examples are “LIVE from the Camino” “Ride Share” or "Lost & Found". They are part of the thread title and they are not links.

Tags are labels shown under the title of some threads. If you click on a tag such as "winter" in the example below, you will be taken to a list of all threads that have that same tag. A single thread can have up to 5 tags. (BUT this image is just a screenshot and does not have live links!)

The complete list of tags can be seen in a tag cloud near the bottom of the Forums home page. On that page, each one is a link, so it is a good way to browse. It looks like the following, but this just another screenshot without live links.


Stop reading here unless you are really interested!

Most of the sub-forums shown on the Forums page correspond to, and are created by, tags.

Our approach has been to restrict the creation of new tags. Threads should be tagged for three reasons only:

1. Most tags are used to populate “sub-forums” which are simply searches for that tag. All the sub-forums can be seen on the Forums/home page listing. Sometimes the wording is slightly different, but they should be easily identifiable. Without tags, nothing will be in these sub-forums.
2. Some tags are used for advanced searches within the route forums – for example, in the reference threads pinned at the top of some route forums. (These reference threads are continually refreshed as tags are added; this is easier to manage and more dynamic than relying on pinning/sticking threads.) See this thread on Advanced Searches for more information about how to do them.
3. A few tags have special uses, or they represent ideas that are works-in-progress.

All threads do not need to be tagged. They will still be available, as always, in the forum where they were placed or available for searches.

If you want to add a prefix or tags when you create a new thread, you first need to know the first 3 characters of the tags you will want to add. Here is the new thread template:



Don't be upset if you find that a moderator has added or removed tags from your thread. We will (probably) have a good reason.

 

[VNwalking]

Stupid question. How do we know what the available tags are? There's no drop-down list, right?

 

[C clearly]

Stupid question. How do we know what the available tags are? There's no drop-down list, right?

The complete list of tags can be seen in a tag cloud near the bottom of the Forums home page.

Unfortunately there is no dropdown list in the new thread template. But if you guess the first 3 character right, the options will appear.

 

[Kanga]

If you click on "forums" at the top of the page (I'm assuming you are using a browser, rather than the app) you get the full front page of the forum, and the tags appear in a cloud at the bottom.

I find the tag cloud fun if I am browsing, and looking for a rabbit hole down which to scamper. For specific queries I use the "search" function.

 

[VNwalking]

I find the tag cloud fun if I am browsing, and looking for a rabbit hole down which to scamper. For specific queries I use the "search" function.

This is wonderful, thanks @Kanga . I rarely go to that page, let alone the bottom of it. But instantly found interesting posts I'd missed.

 

[islandwalker]

However, it is useful for everyone to understand how tags can be useful.

Wow - thanks! This is very useful information. You have put a lot of work into getting this organized, and a lot of us really appreciate it.

 

[peregrina2000]

I find the tag cloud fun if I am browsing, and looking for a rabbit hole down which to scamper. For specific queries I use the "search" function.

Oh, my, that is a sign of a truly multi-talented person. I thought I was doing well by mastering the search function, but I will now forge ahead and try to get better with tags.

Having the tag cloud visible on the forums page makes it easy to access. Are all of the tags posted in that cloud?

 

[C clearly]

Are all of the tags posted in that cloud?

Yes, they are. The size of the font reflects the number of threads.

The phones tag is the biggest which I don't really like, but it is too hard to separate discussions of phones vs. apps vs. gps vs.maps. Also, that information can become obsolete very quickly, so maybe the ability to search the archives is not necessay.

In the past I tried some quirky ones like "homemade/hacks", but there is no end to where we could go with that. We didn't want to get into trending hashtags, etc.

Another interesting one is "the way movie". It is not super important, but it happens to be something that did come up often, for a while, and the 3-letter words are hard to search for, so we kept it for now.

 

[C clearly]

Another useful tidbit that you might not have noticed is this... when you use the Search, if you select "Search titles only" the search will include threads tagged with "poles" even if it isn't in the title.

I can see that the selection of the words to be used in the tags is part of the fine art. Hmmm. we might reconsider some of them.

 

[trecile]

Another useful tidbit that you might not have noticed is this... when you use the Search, if you select "Search titles only" the search will include threads tagged with "poles" even if it isn't in the title.

You can also limit your search to only the subforum that you currently are in to narrow things down.
I did this today when I wanted to find threads that would be helpful in responding to the Mountain Biking from Lisbon thread.
I went to the Bicycling on the Camino subforum, and searched for "Lisbon," then I chose This forum from the drop down menu to search only the Bicycling subforum.

 

[C clearly]

I went to the Bicycling on the Camino subforum, and searched for "Lisbon," then I chose This forum from the drop down menu to search only the Bicycling subforum.

Thank you! I have never done that (or even noticed it, to be honest) from the regular Search. I have always gone to the Advanced Search, which offers even more choices, but it is very good to know about that quick option from the regular Search.

 

[rojasa]

Thanks for this informational thread! I learned some new things, like how to totally lose myself in previously-unknown threads found in the "cloud of tags"... Seriously, I appreciate this explanation of tags, titles, and prefixes.