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stu neville

Commissioner.
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As we now have the capacity, I have enabled the tagging function. This has a number of useful functions, but mostly it assists searches and means that titles don't have to be overly complicated (ie to give a precis of everything the thread might contain.)

You add tags in the box below the window in which you type the body text. This only applies to the opening post of a new thread, but we can always go back and add tags if necessary if the thread morphs.

For example, if you were to post a thread about The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, you wouldn't need to entitle the thread "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" - you could call it "Jesse James' Murder", and then tag it "Jesse James" "assassination" "coward" and "Robert Ford". Ridiculous example, but you get the idea. This thread will be tagged "tags", "tagging" and "new threads" for example.

To search tags, go into Search Forums>Search Tags - shortcut for your convenience here. There is also a tag cloud which will show the most popular tags.

We're not planning on going back and retro-tagging every thread, but we may well when we come across threads where we think it'll help. Any queries, post them here.
 
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This is continuing apace and we're managing to tag most new threads as well as the majority of old threads as they resurface via new contributions.

Why should you care?

Three things:
  • General SEARCH is slowly becoming more accurate.
  • Tags may be specifically searched here: https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?tags/ The 'cloud of popular tags' increases font size in proportion to the number of times the tag appears on the board. Of course, this does not reflect the board's content accurately yet, but it gives you some idea of how much you might find if you click on one.
  • Many threads now have 'tags' at the top of each page. Clicking on any one will generate a page of search results for all other threads that also have that tag. The more general the category, the larger the likely number of results. 'Gordon Rutter' may only bring up one or two threads; 'Animals' will bring up dozens.
It's a work in progress, but please do have a click around and see whether any thoughts come to mind. After much consideration, I've decided to go 'full Fortean' and not distinguish between individual instances of a shared name: 'Dover' covers all places named Dover (but not Dover Road etc.) wherever they might be in the world on the grounds that links between Dovers may turn out to be somehow significant.
 
I did notice recently that when I searched for something specific (can't remember what it was now) it gave me a whole load of results because it included tags with whatever I was searching for as well.
IIRC it felt a bit 'overkill', when I knew what I was looking for but couldn't quite remember the thread title.
Is it possible to get the results to not also show threads that have a tag that matches your search term?
Maybe with a check box for 'do not include tags'?
 
I did notice recently that when I searched for something specific (can't remember what it was now) it gave me a whole load of results because it included tags with whatever I was searching for as well.
IIRC it felt a bit 'overkill', when I knew what I was looking for but couldn't quite remember the thread title.
Is it possible to get the results to not also show threads that have a tag that matches your search term?
Maybe with a check box for 'do not include tags'?
No.
 
Is it possible to get the results to not also show threads that have a tag that matches your search term?

No, it isn't possible.

And I can't imagine why you'd want this.

'Check the box to make your search less efficient' is not likely to be very popular.

If you pretty much know what you're looking for, you'll want to search thread titles for phrases (for which there is a box to tick).
 
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