Add the ability for logged-in users to visibly sort the Tags Page by access level.

[marahmarie]

Title:
Add the ability for logged-in users to visibly sort the Tags Page by access level.

Area:
Styles

Summary:
There is currently a hidden feature on the Visible Tags Page: the ability to show the approximate access-level assigned to each tag. I would like DW to add CSS or a combination of JavaScript and CSS to all our journals to show the hidden feature to everyone who opts-in.

Description:
Currently the Visible Tags page shows all your tags in a single, alphabetically sorted list but does not *visibly* indicate which tags are used on private, access-list-only or public posts. So one day about a year ago I asked myself, "Why not?" and wound up writing CSS that exposed the access-level of all my private and access-list-only posts. This became a fantastic sorting system since I have no other way to tell what I've thrown where without using the Manage Tags page, which can be kind of awkward and time-consuming.

So a week ago I took this a little further and refined the CSS so that 1) only logged-in users see the access-levels alongside each tag and 2) logged-in users see the exact access level used on each tag - public, private, or access-list-only. Here's a screen cap of my current Visible Tags page using my latest CSS for it (logged-in view - logged-out you won't see any of the extra information shown in this screen cap):
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll128/marahstest/expose_access-level_tags_page.jpg

What I'm humbly hoping for is this system of sorting tags by access-level, as seen in the screen cap, gets adapted site-wide either as the default view on the Visible Tags page (of course, it will be visible to logged-in users by access-level only) or else becomes an opt-in default option (which is where JavaScript would probably come into play; otherwise, this is a pure CSS hack).

There are a few possible issues with adapting this styling: 1) it may take more firepower to serve up the additional CSS (but I'm thinking it would not be enough to crash servers or do anything that dramatic as things stand; it's just hard to calculate how much this might slow things down without knowing how much firepower DW has to spare) and 2) there is currently an issue where if you use a tag at more than one access level (say you use your "cats" tag both publicly and on several access-list-only posts) it will get an HTML tag indicating it's for public use only, which means DW won't be able to style it with the specific CSS to reflect that you used it three times publicly and three times for access list readers. Until that split-usage quirk is fixed, my idea makes for an imprecise-at-best look at how your tags are being used. But I think it's still better than not having any sorting system in place at all; in the meantime you can still use your Manage Tags page to drill down more precisely.

If this were to get adopted, I could see future improvements to it such as sorting tags by access level on the Visible Tags Page instead of sorting them entirely alphabetically as we do now, adding the ability to style each access level separately, and so on.

Poll #11751 Add the ability for logged-in users to visibly sort the Tags Page by access level.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 47

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
15 (31.9%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
3 (6.4%)

(I have no opinion)
28 (59.6%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (2.1%)

Comments

[marahmarie]

Was it always like that? I used LJ from 2005-2009 and/or through some of 2010 but I can't recall if their Manage Tags page always worked like that or not. But! That does look so much like something I've already seen or else simply dreamed about that the similarity is downright spooky. Thanks for the screen cap - I think something like that on our Manage Tags page would definitely make our lives helluva lot easier. :)

[mokie]

This is under Smooth Sailing, which I also love for its many free text boxes, but I think most styles now are just the list, or the option of list/multi-level list/cloud. Having the info on the tag page itself is so useful for me, though, that I wish they all offered the option.

So an enthusiastic YES! from me for this suggestion. :)

[ETA] As per cesy's comment: the style in the posted screencap is a mixed bag on privacy.

If you were to look at my LJ tags page (you can, if you'd like--it's the same username), you'd not see any tags used only on locked or private entries. If a tag is used on a mix of open and locked/private entries, though, the table does give you that information. For instance, both "private" (only me) and "under the cone of silence" (only friends) are invisible to me when I'm logged out. But I can still see that "aha!" (mixed public/friends) is used on one locked entry.

It's not much of an issue for me, but I imagine it might be for others.

[marahmarie]

I'm not following you. Even if in theory Denise were to say, "Yes, let's jump on that split-usage wonkiness and fix it right up for you so your suggestion works exactly as described/intended", it would still not work the way you're saying it would (and cesy has not said what you're saying, either, she was just unsure how it might work). It's CSS-only and it's access-level-based only, so unless I'm missing something obvious here (I did not realize LJ leaks info in that way in order to show you the security level of each split-usage tag, but my idea should not allow that if it's done right) it shouldn't be a mixed bag on privacy if this is implemented.

But I can still see that "aha!" (mixed public/friends) is used on one locked entry.

But that's not a privacy issue. Anything the public can see, your friends can see, too. :)

As per cesy's comment: the style in the posted screencap is a mixed bag on privacy.

My screen cap, the one I put in the OP? As I said in the sentence that preceded it, "logged-out you won't see any of the extra information shown in this screen cap". Logged-in you won't, either, unless I have already granted you the correct access level to do so (and of course, I haven't done so, since no one but me is allowed to see my private posts, and no one but my access-list is allowed to see access-list-only posts on my DW). That's why I posted a screen cap, to show everyone what they can't see otherwise so they can understand how my suggestion would look and work.

[mokie]

Didn't mean to be unclear here. I wasn't saying your suggestion should or shouldn't work a certain way. I pointed out a style at LJ that does something similar to your suggestion in case it's helpful in developing said suggestion, and followed up with a description of how that LJ style works regarding privacy, again in case it's helpful in developing this suggestion here. So it's Smooth Sailing that's the mixed bag, telling folks that you've used certain tags in entries they can't access.

(Screencap was also referring to that Smooth Sailing image.)

[marahmarie]

Thanks for the clarification and sorry if I was being a little thick-headed there. Also, in response to where you asked me (now deleted, sorry if I did something to trip that) below (in the next comment thread) if "the proposed DW tag tweak would restrict the viewer to only their own access level--if I was logged out, I'd see just public tag info?" The answer's yes and yes, indeed! It's one of the happiest bug patches I've ever witnessed, honestly. :)

[mokie]

No worries! It was pure lack of caffeine on my part--I saw a second after posting that you'd already answered that. :)

[cheyinka]

""But I can still see that "aha!" (mixed public/friends) is used on one locked entry."
But that's not a privacy issue. Anything the public can see, your friends can see, too. :)"

I think you've got it backwards - it's not that a friend can see both "aha!" entries, but that looking at that page logged out, right now, I can see that there is an "aha!" entry I can't see, because I'm not on mokie's reading list. Normally, unless I'm linked to a locked entry, or I notice that the last-posted time on the profile is later than the latest entry I can see, there's no way for me to know that someone has posted an entry I can't see.

[marahmarie]

Yes, you're exactly right. And I responded to that concern by explaining what the problem looks like in my next reply. It won't be a concern on DW any longer because swaldman has patched the bug that led to that specific problem.

[cheyinka]

Somehow I missed your reply, oops! Sorry :)

[marahmarie]

It's OK! Judging by how someone else had the exact same problem, I'm sure it's just the Intertubes keep getting clogged. :)

Just as a matter of fact...

[marahmarie]

How could the first, fourth and fifth posts in your screen cap be Public and not be visible to your friends, too? Looks like LJ has a bug to me. (In which case, LJ does not have a privacy leak as I stated in my last comment: in fact, LJ is doing the exact opposite and showing some of your public posts as not being available to your friends to read - and that's impossible, I'm sorry.)

(edit) Unless...OK, think I got it...tags worked the same way there as here until last week, so on LJ right now if you split a tag up amongst public and friends posts, the friends posts count won't show because the rounding up is done in the public post's column. Got it! It is indeed the same bug we had, and that's what the bug looks like once my Suggestion here is implemented there. This won't happen on DW now, though, because swaldman patched the bug last week, promise. :)