I am a great fan of tagging.\u00c2\u00a0 I find it to be very easy and very effective.\u00c2\u00a0 There are, of course, a couple of minor problems with tagging.\u00c2\u00a0 These have more to do with the way my mind works, rather than with actual tagging itself.<\/p>\n
The first issue I have is about user interface.\u00c2\u00a0 I see two approaches used most commonly.\u00c2\u00a0 One approach is to ask the user to enter each tag separately.\u00c2\u00a0 One by one.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a real pain, if you want to add more than one tag.\u00c2\u00a0 It is unbearable pain, if you want to add more than ten tags.\u00c2\u00a0 The second approach is way better in this regard, but introduce the problem of it’s own.\u00c2\u00a0 The approach I am talking about is the use of single input field, where the user can type as many tags as he wants, which are then automatically separated by the sofware.\u00c2\u00a0 This is so much better and easier.\u00c2\u00a0 But the common problem with thisis the deference in tag separator.\u00c2\u00a0 Some applications use a space, others a comma.\u00c2\u00a0 There are pros and cons to both of these.\u00c2\u00a0 And\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t have a strong preference in the matter (a weak preference is a space).\u00c2\u00a0 But what is often missing is the simple instruction underneath the input field which separator to use.\u00c2\u00a0 Tagging has become a common practice for many sites, and when these sites differ in the way they handle data, it is difficult fo the user to remember, which site uses which method.\u00c2\u00a0 Adding a sentence like ‘Use space to separate multiple tags.’ is so easy, but too few actually do it.<\/p>\n
The second issue is of the good practices.\u00c2\u00a0 There is no strict guidelines or rules around tagging, which leads to great flexibility.\u00c2\u00a0 But great flexibility without any guidelines leads to great confusion.\u00c2\u00a0 My most often confusion is with singular versus multiple form of words.\u00c2\u00a0 Should I use ‘blog’ or ‘blogs’, ‘feed’ or ‘feeds’?\u00c2\u00a0 I happen to think differently at different time of day.\u00c2\u00a0 It would be nice to have a reminder somewher nearby, saying ‘Use singular form of word, if in doubt’.\u00c2\u00a0 Or something like that.<\/p>\n
That I’ve finished writing this post, I suddenly remembered that I have posted something similar to this somewhere already.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, well – too bad.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n