How to: use tags

If you're already used to tagging information on the web, skip down to see how to add and then use them at Gwulo.com. If you're new to tags, what's the big deal?

Think of trying to use a 50,000-page reference book that didn't have any index...

This website is a bit like that – over 50,000 different photos / places / articles / forum posts, but no index!

Then Tags provide the index.

An example:

Let's say you've been looking at this photo of an old Hong Kong tram, and you'd like to see if there are any more. In a book you'd go to the index to see what other pages are listed under the word 'tram'. Here you can see the tag 'tram', in blue below the photo. Click it, and you'll see a list of all the other photos on Gwulo that have the tag 'tram'.

So another way to think of tags is that they give users a 'Show me more like this' feature.

TAGGING BASICS

A tag describes the item you are adding, and links it to other, similar items. So for photos of trams, 'tram' is an obvious tag. It's also worth pointing out that tags are optional – if you can't think of anything to tag it with, you can leave it blank.

How to add a tag.

When you add a new image, place, forum post, etc, one of the boxes you can fill in is marked Tags:. You simply type one or more tags in there. If you want to add multiple tags, remember to separate them with a comma.

Using Tags.

Tags are listed under each item (photo, forum post, article, etc). Just click the tag to see a list of all items with that tag.

Best practices for adding tags

1. Keep them short. One or two words is usually enough.

   A common mistake is to use a long, descriptive sentence for the tag. Eg in the tram photo above, to use a tag like 'tram in causeway bay'. But tags are only useful when there are more than one item with the same tag. The chances of getting another item with the tag 'tram in causeway bay' are almost zero, so the tag is useless.
   If you find yourself writing a long tag, it is probably better added as a comment instead.

2. Let the website suggest a tag, to avoid duplicates.

   Duplicate tags (tags with different spelling, but the same meaning) are bad too. Eg if there are three photos of trams, one tagged tram, one Tram, and one trams, none are linked to each other. The trick is to type a few characters, eg tra, into the box, see what suggestions are shown. Then click the one you need. (NB You're not limited to existing tags though. If there isn't a relevant tag in the suggestions, go ahead and type your new tag. And if you want to be extra-thorough in checking, you can use the 'Tags' page to see if any relevant tags already exist.)

3. Don't use them for places or people.

   If you want to note the location of a photo, use a Place instead. But if you want to identify a type of place, tags are ideal. So 'police station' is a good tag, but 'Mong Kok Police Station' would be better described adding a SHOWS PLACE connection from the photo to the Place (see the FAQ: How to connect a Place and a Photo).

ADVANCED TAGGING

Tell people what tags you are using

In the Golden Boy project, we all agreed on a set of tags we would use, so that later we could search on those tags to see all the information different people had added.

So if you are adding some new information, and hope that others will add other, related information, it's good to let everyone know the tags you are using.

eg, If you have any old photos of Hong Kong's trams you would like to share, please upload your photo, and give it the tag: tram