New NI Discussion Forum Feature - Tagging!

[Laura F.]

Starting on December 14, 2007 we will implement tagging in our Discussion Forum community.  At first, the tagging privilege will be given only to Forum Enthusiasts, LabVIEW Champions, and NI Employees so that they can help establish a framework for tagging in our community.  Approximately 2 – 4 weeks later, depending on volume, we will give the tagging privilege to all users that have achieved the “Active” status.  The goal is to allow all community members to use tags but we are using a phased approach in rolling out this feature.

For those of you unfamiliar with tagging, it is a way to assign metadata to content on the web and is used on many popular websites like flickr, del.icio.us, and Technorati.  To watch a video on this new feature, visit Social Bookmarking in Plain English on commoncraft.com.

A tag:

• is a one word descriptor that is associated with a piece of information (like a forum message)
• can be thought of as a keyword, metadata, or category
• is a way to organize content

Some things to keep in mind:

• You can use multiple tags per message
• A tag is only one word.  If you want to use more than one word, use _ instead of a space.

In the NI Discussion Forums, tag clouds will visually display the top tags for a particular portion of the Forums.  For example, you will start to see tag clouds for the community as a whole, tag clouds at the category level, board level, and thread level.  Each message will display tags that you gave as well as tags others gave the message.  You will also be able to see all of the tags that you have created on your profile page, or another person’s tags on their profile page.

We had some miscommunication when turning on this feature, resulting in the thread you see here. 

Please post any comments or questions you have to this thread!

Thanks,
Laura
Web Support & Operations
National Instruments

[Ben]

Where do I find the ballons at?

Ben

[Laura F.]

Hi Ben,

I'm not sure what you mean - are you talking about how to add tags?  If so, your profile tells me you found it!

Thanks,
Laura

[Ben]

OK where are the clouds?

Do they look like clouds?

Where do I look to find the "top Tagger"?

Ben

[Laura F.]

Ah I see!

No, they don't look like clouds really.  I think they're called that since they give you a visual representation of the most popular tags in the community.  On the main page, it's under the announcements box:



On a board page, it's at the bottom of the page:




Thanks,
Laura



Message Edited by Laura F. on 12-14-2007 02:31 PM

[Ben]

I am looking for some early feedback on the tagging.

You can post your comments in this thread or this one.

Speak now while you still have a chances to shape the system to your needs!

Ben

[Laura F.]

Hi Everyone,

Today I have enabled tagging for all users that have achieved the "Active" rank.  Anyone that has posted 200 or more times is in this rank.

Thanks,
Laura

[Ben]

Hi Laura,

Please update the annoucements to indicate the change. many may not notice.

Ben

[TCPlomp]

Well Ben,

the 'Add Tag...' button is quite prominent.

Ton

[TCPlomp]

Laura,

would it be possible to tag a thread?
Some threads are quite long, and I would like to tag the whole thread instead of individual messages?

Thanks,

Ton