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Location: 06/20/07 - release
Discussion: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
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 miltm |
Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Jun 21 2007, 10:59 PM EDT According to wikipedia description of folkonomy: "A folksonomy is a user generated taxonomy used to categorize and retrieve web content such as Web pages, photographs and Web links, using open-ended labels called tags. Typically, folksonomies are Internet-based, but their use may occur in other contexts. The folksonomic tagging is intended to make a body of information increasingly easy to search, discover, and navigate over time. A well-developed folksonomy is ideally accessible as a shared vocabulary that is both originated by, and familiar to, its primary users. Two widely cited examples of websites using folksonomic tagging are Flickr and del.icio.us, although it has been suggested that Flickr is not a good example of folksonomy." That is precisely why it needs to be kept as a main feature visible in the left hand menus at all times. The reasons you had to place it on your navigation menus originally are STILL GOOD REASONS. Adding a "Top Contributor" feature does NOT negate these reasons. THINK! 4 out of 4 found this valuable. Do you? |
 Jason_wetpaint |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Jun 22 2007, 11:44 AM EDT I appreciate that you feel strongly about this issue. I, too, believe that the Tag Cloud is a valuable feature. Unfortunately, the Tag Cloud saw very little usage. We have detailed information clearly indicating that, outside of a small percentage of our sites, the Tag Cloud was not something that added value for a majority of our users. When we add the Tag Cloud on the Search page, it will be a click away. You will be able to easily create a link to it on your wiki: http://YourWikiName.wetpaint.com/pageSearch I don't believe that putting the Tag Cloud one click away removes it from being a main feature. While we continue to develop features for our free wikis, we have a need to encourage our users to communicate with each other and discover the vast array of other wikis that are available to them. The Contributor Cloud does this very well. If you don't think it benefits you, you can close it, just like a majority of our users used to do to the Tag Cloud. I'm glad you like Wetpaint and are passionate about how we do things. I hope you keep your site with us as we go forward. 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |
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miltm |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Jun 22 2007, 12:15 PM EDT Thanks for addressing my concerns. I am VERY surprised that the feature is used so little, because I use it often when first visiting new wetpaint sites. I will stick with it and see how you implement it again before I say anymore. My wetpaint experience was excellent until this feature was removed. I do appreciate your prompt and thorough responses. Monitoring client clicking activity without server requests is quite a trick. How in the world do you do that? 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
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Anonymous |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Jun 23 2007, 3:33 PM EDT I guess what I don't understand then, since it isn't "really going away" why can't the Wiki moderators be given the choice between the two features that they would like to use? As I stated in another post, If we could promote Wikis of our chosing within the Wetpaint community that match interests closely I would include them when appropriate. This would not only make the feature more context relevant, but I would be more inclined to seek out other similar Wikis that I would find useful. But, this is a feature that makes most sense to me the deeper people go into my site. But on the main page, I would want the benefit of the tag cloud as a way of giving my visitors a broader perspective of what the site contains. Thanks 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
 andrewescott |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Jun 25 2007, 8:59 AM EDT I can't imagine the Top Contributors being more popular than the Tag Cloud! Certainly, for my site, where there are now over 100 pages, browsing them using the Navigation panel is increasingly awkward, and the Tag Cloud offered a way to find pages of interest quickly. I will now need to manually maintain a tag cloud equivalent on my front page that links to the tag search results. Could you show your wiki creators a bit more respect, and allow us to choose the boxes on the left and right rails? Your choices may suit the majority of your sites, but you could force the minority to leave. 3 out of 3 found this valuable. Do you? |
 budde |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Jun 25 2007, 9:07 AM EDT "I can't imagine the Top Contributors being more popular than the Tag Cloud!I think they are putting it somewhere else on the Page in the Next Release, But Don't take my word for it. Josh 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
 jeremy_wetpaint |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Jun 25 2007, 2:03 PM EDT It will be in a module on the right hand side of the search results page as of our next release. Do you find this valuable? |
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budde |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Jun 25 2007, 2:20 PM EDT "It will be in a module on the right hand side of the search results page as of our next release."This hopefully will make the Other User Happy to have it back. Do you find this valuable? |
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miltm |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Jun 25 2007, 4:30 PM EDT As a site grows in content (in both number of pages and number of subjects or tags), it becomes increasingly important for a site moderator (or creator) to review all tags at once. This can be in a "cloud" or a complete list. The tags then can be reviewed for mispellings, singular vs plural form of the same word or even inappropriate language. Without this ability, quality control of the tags becomes increasingly difficult. If doing a SEARCH is required to show the cloud, then there needs to be a Tags only option defaulting to ALL. Moderators have a use for this tag cloud as well as providing a quick start alternative for new users (or forgetful old users!) to navigate the site. As more professionals (such as myself) discover the ease of use, clean design and feature set of WetPaint, they will use it to build complex wikis that have content about dozens of subjects (tags) which don't fit well into the main Navigation tree. The main use of the one and only Navigation tree then becomes grouping of content by content type (i.e. Articles, Photos, Videos, Documents, Links and Syndicates...). In conclusion, I support (1) the tag cloud (or list) being restored and (2) easily viewed on home page or alternatively Search results page (from Tag only option defaulting to ALL). 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |
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Larisa Larisa |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Sep 19 2007, 6:59 PM EDT "I don't believe that putting the Tag Cloud one click away removes it from being a main feature.I just wanted to highlight that the "one click away" thing is a real difference for a couple reasons. I am in academia, and I believe wikis are really helpful for building research communities. However, when I want to invite people to it, may folks have not used wikis before. I need a visual demonstration of the multiple ways one can sort and find information. text search and keywords are two different functions, but having one lead to both confuses that. Relying on the "search" function means people have to already have search terms in mind. In addition, it only brings up the keyword cloud on the side, which is confusing because the search term may or may not be a keyword. For people unfamiliar with wikis the connections are a bit abstract. Having the keywords on the front page highlights the value of multiple keyword tagging for sorting and re-sorting the information. The search function is more like a text search - and having them intertwined like that is confusing. 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
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cploonker cploonker |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Oct 7 2007, 11:53 AM EDT I completely agree. I am a very big fan of tag cloud. It is the bigger sites which needs tag cloud the most. It is the bigger sites which attract the most traffic. There should be two options available in navigation, tag cloud and hierarchical. 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
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jeremy_wetpaint |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Oct 8 2007, 1:03 PM EDT We are fans of the tag cloud too, that's why we made it. Unfortunately, very very few users utilized this feature (we checked the numbers) and we could not justify taking up the real estate in the interface with a feature people aren't using. We understand that there are a few users out there that feel passionately about this feature, so as a compromise we placed the tag cloud on the search results page. Do you find this valuable? |
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Anonymous |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Nov 26 2007, 10:38 AM EST I just want to echo what others have said in the hope that you will reconsider your position. For many wikis (perhaps the majority of wikis as your data suggest) it may make sense to have the contributor cloud, but for other sites a tag cloud is clearly more useful. The students in my class have created the GoGreen resource guide (http://gogreenaresourceguide.wetpaint.com), a wiki where showing keywords is clearly superior to showing contributors, as there are simply too many resources to work into the navigation window and a tag cloud provides a meaningful way to navigate through them. It seems fairly obvious that the best approach would be to let administrators decide if they would like a contributor or a tag cloud (or both) rather than making the assumption that all wikis will be equally well served by one or the other. Using prior usage patterns to make decisions of this nature is an understandable approach, but will inevitably lead to a feature set that does not encourage new uses for the wikis. Tag clouds are relatively new for most people, and they are only starting to learn how to use them effectively. However, not allowing them to be added on the front page basically assures that they will not be used in the future, no matter how useful they might have been. I believe this thread makes it clear that there is a "vocal minority" that feel this is an important issue and have justifiable reasons for their beliefs. Perhaps you can take an approach that serves the majority and minority in this case rather than catering to the lowest common denominator. 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
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Jason_wetpaint |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
Nov 26 2007, 2:31 PM EST The New Year will bring changes. That's all I'm gonna say ;-) Do you find this valuable? |
 sidianmsjones |
RE: Purpose Of a Tag Cloud
May 15 2008, 4:16 AM EDT I'm new to Wetpaint but have recently run into a fairly large dilemma regarding the ease of "surfing" and categorizing entries in my wiki when they could belong to more than one category. In my case, a tag cloud is absolutely the best option. I'm not sure what else to say about it except why not allow us wiki creators to decide whether it is there or not? Do you find this valuable? |
