Andy Y Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 A recent topic has highlighted that some readers would like better visibility of a topics subject matter before choosing which topics to read. We have had the tag facility for a while but it is under-used and mis-used. It's an ideal tool to 'classify' what sort of project the topic is and will help readers to see if it's a subject which they are interested in. If we can start to standardise the tags used it will mean that reader can click on a tag and pull up a list of topics that have the same tag. They're easy to set up when starting a topic as shown in the picture below: All you have to do is enter the tags separated by a comma e.g. OO, Industrial, West Midlands, 1970s. This is how then appear when the topic is posted. If you were to then click on the Industrial tag it would pull up a list of similarly classified topics. It is therefore helpful to use standardised and logical tags so I would suggest classifying a layout topic as follows: Scale/Gauge: OO, P4, EM, HO, N, 2mmFS, G, O etc Genre: Pre-nationalisation, Post-nationalisation, Pre-grouping, Sectorisation etc Era: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s etc Locations: e.g. West Midlands, Scotland It is possible to edit your existing topics to include tags by going to the first post in the topic, click on Edit at the bottom of the posting and then click on Full Editor at the bottom of the text entry field. You will then be able to add tags to this standardised format and then click on Edit this topic when completed to save it. If we adopt a standard it will mean easier classification and increase the chances of your topic being seen by someone interested in that sort of content. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold martin_wynne Posted February 2, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 2, 2012 Scale/Gauge: OO, P4, EM, HO, N, 2mmFS, G, O etc Hi Andy, Historically the correct gauge designations are numeric, so that should be 00 , 0 , H0 , with zeroes, rather than OO , O , HO . Hence Gauge 1, Gauge 2, etc. If some members tag their topics 00 and others tag theirs OO, these will be two different tags to the software and members looking for content will see only half the relevant topics. Ideally we need a ruling standardising on one or the other, although how it could be enforced is a problem. An alternative is to suggest that both tags are always used as say 00,OO, so that it wouldn't matter which one was used to search. regards, Martin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Hi Andy, Historically the correct gauge designations are numeric, so that should be  00 , 0 , H0 , with zeroes, rather than OO , O , HO . Hence Gauge 1, Gauge 2, etc. If some members tag their topics 00 and others tag theirs OO, these will be two different tags to the software and members looking for content will see only half the relevant topics. Ideally we need a ruling standardising on one or the other, although how it could be enforced is a problem. An alternative is to suggest that both tags are always used as say 00,OO, so that it wouldn't matter which one was used to search. regards, Martin. That is a real can of worms and has been the subject of much dispute. Getting folk to change entrenched views on the subject will be impossible and only harden an anti or "why bother" attitude. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 Historically the correct gauge designations are numeric, I think your end comment is valid but I'd suggest that OO (used as the most prevalent example) is more commonly used than 00. I've tried to see if anyone's used 00 as a tag yet and not found one. None of the OO ones found seem to have used 00 as a back-up so I'd say it should be OO as custom and practise on here for this purpose at least. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I have just edited a couple of old topics and have found a problem: On first edit everything seems to work ok and the tags appear as expected. However, I had to re-edit - due to the crappy editor dumping the usual unintelligible html for an image that no longer displayed correctly. While re-editing to remove the nonsense and get the image back, I noticed the tags had vanished. Saving it at that point had lost the tags. So I had to edit again, yet again fixing the bad coded images and then re-enter the tags. What I thought would be a couple of minutes to do all OKWB topics has turned into a real effort. I'm even more glad that I don't do multiple subject topics. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I've been back and done a few, I used to tag theads I had started "Boris" so I could keep track of them, not such a smart idea when you suddenly top the popular tags list. If folks aren't sure to go OO or 00, why not use both as a two seperate tags? Better than trying to get "Claude Greengrass Stunt Double" into the top 10 tags list. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold martin_wynne Posted February 2, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 2, 2012 I'd suggest that OO (used as the most prevalent example) is more commonly used than 00. I'd agree that the 00 battle is almost lost. In the case of H0 (Half-0) it is well and truly lost. For 0 gauge however the fight goes on -- the Gauge 0 Guild has a zero in its domain name: http://gauge0guild.com It's a shame to see the hobby lose sight of its history and origins -- I shall continue with 00 and H0 in Templot to the bitter end. regards, Martin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
10800 Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I have just edited a couple of old topics and have found a problem: No problem here when I tried and then re-edited. Tags are still there. Maybe it's your settings Kenton? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham_Muz Posted February 2, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 2, 2012 I tend to agree with Martin here and personally feel that we should be using numerals rather than letters as being the origin of the scales including 0 gauge and gauge 1 etc. I do realise that sometimes educating the masses can be tricky... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 No problem here when I tried and then re-edited.  Tags are still there.  Maybe it's your settings Kenton? Or more likely the software ! not handling things correctly. Problem is it doesn't delete the title or the description so why screw up the tags just for the sake of it? just done another topic to see if it was something odd, but the same thing happens. Very user unfriendly and a real disincentive to even bother. You try to help and the system conspires against you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham_Muz Posted February 2, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 2, 2012 Especailly when some of the masses are rather happy with the term OO - just like Hornby appeared to be in 1938 Although these days they are corretly using '00' as can be seen on their website here Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted February 2, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 2, 2012 I've tagged my signal box thread as 4mm - 'cos it's neither OO or 00 (or EM or P4) - how does that fit with Andy's list of Scales/Gauges ? (I suggest that Scale & Gauge be split into separate Tag lists). Stu Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennine MC Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 That is a real can of worms and has been the subject of much dispute. Getting folk to change entrenched views on the subject will be impossible and only harden an anti or "why bother" attitude. Yeah. It's come to something when gauge wars are starting even within the same gauge Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted February 2, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 2, 2012 I think the tags idea is a good one, it will be good to get some sort of system to enhance the searchability. I get a bit grumbly when I don't know what a topic title relates to (ditto gallery photos with titles which are just photo numbers.... ). I've used tags in the few topics I've started (for a few days the "North Devon" tag was even in the tag cloud!), but some folks seem to just type in a phrase - possibly because we got used to the "subtitle" in the previous forum software? Sidelining a little - I think most people got used to saying "double-oh" as per Hornby Dublo. The Double O Gauge Association uses a letter "O". If we are really pedantic, say "4mm scale" "16.5mm gauge" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Lets make it easy, "small stuff" for anything less than 2.1438583456mm to the foot (including negative values), "middling stuff" for anything 2.1438583457mm to 6.1812411389mm to the foot and "big stuff" for anything greater that 6.1812411389mm to the foot. That should solve the gauge/scale problem quite easily. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 I've tagged my signal box thread as 4mm - 'cos it's neither OO or 00 (or EM or P4) - how does that fit with Andy's list of Scales/Gauges ? (I suggest that Scale & Gauge be split into separate Tag lists). Stu A good point, I notice there are several threads tagged as "7mm" but only one tagged as "O" ... and how would it work with Gough's Yard which has both O standard gauge and O-16.5 (or 0-16.5)? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted February 3, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 3, 2012 Jack, I think the tags are not either / or, but one tag for each element that's included (and relevant) - so both O (Oh, not Zero) and 0.16.5 (all digits) tags could be applied. You could add 'Micro' and Timesaver' as well as the ones you already have. Stu Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
10800 Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 I've tagged my signal box thread as 4mm - 'cos it's neither OO or 00 (or EM or P4) Hopefully Stu you've also remembered to tag it 'signal box' which is probably more important in this case! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted February 3, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 3, 2012 Hopefully Stu you've also remembered to tag it 'signal box' which is probably more important in this case! Just checked - yes, I had... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debs. Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 '00'.......they`d be very-coarse tags! ......'18.83'.......to be used where 'tagging' to two decimal-places really counts! [/kindly teasing] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted February 3, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 3, 2012 Has Boris been tagged yet ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 Hi I suspect that people want others to read the posts, so the more relevant tags they add, i.e oo,00,4mm,dublo,16.5mm ect. The more likely your post will be found so why try and limit to just one? The downside of course is that 16.5 will also pick up H0 and 4mm will pick up EM and P4, but maybe that is correct anyway and will provide people with a more diverse expierience of other gauges/scales. out of interest is it possible to do not searches on tags, eg 00,OO,4mm, -P4,-EM, -H0 ? Regards Kal Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 i've tagged my posts and then searched and they didn't appear in the results, how does that work? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted February 3, 2012 Author Share Posted February 3, 2012 I mentioned earlier that tags don't show in the normal search but link from each other. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 I mentioned earlier that tags don't show in the normal search but link from each other. not phrased like that, but now i reread it does make more sense how they work cheers for clearing that up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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