Quick and handy access to entries with multiple tags

[pifour]

Update: Good solution from ratcreature  see: http://dw-suggestions.dreamwidth.org/1408695.html?thread=4462775#cmt4462775

Title:

Quick and handy access to entries with multiple tags

 

Area:
tags

Summary:
Quick and handy access to entries with multiple tags

Description:
I suggest new representation of tags in a drop-down menu. When mouse pointer is over tag of the first level (T1), appears a submenu. In the submenu is tags (T11, T12 ...), which are available for entries with the tag T1. When you click on a submenu, as T11, open records that have tags T1 and T11. And so on.

Example:

Entries:

N1 with tags cats, video.
N2 with tags interesting, video.
N3 with tag interesting, pics.
N4 with tag pics.
N5 with tags cats, pics.
N6 with tags pics.
N7 with tags video.
N8 with tags cats, video.

Then tags menu is:

cats.....................opens N1, N5, N8.
.....pics................opens N5 (entries with tags cats and pics).
.....video...... ........opens N1,N8.
interesting..............opens N2, N3.
.....pics................opens N3.
.....video...............opens N2.
pics.....................opens N3, N4, N5, N6.
.....cats................opens N5.
.....interesting... .....opens N3.
video....................opens N1, N2, N7, N8.
.....cats................opens N1, N8.
.....interesting... .....opens N2.

Number levels in menu equals max number tags in entries.

Update: Good solution from ratcreature  see: http://dw-suggestions.dreamwidth.org/1408695.html?thread=4462775#cmt4462775

Poll #12622 Quick and handy access to entries with multiple tags

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 40

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This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
2 (5.0%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
21 (52.5%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
8 (20.0%)

(I have no opinion)
9 (22.5%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[ratcreature]

I would like it to be easier to access the AND for tags, but I'm not sure this menu option is practical. How would that look for communities who have for example poster tags, which are very specific, and genre or medium tags, which have many entries? Like say the latter offers "art, fiction, video" and all posts have one of the three, but there are five hundred active posters. If I went to the fiction tag in your proposal, the list wouldn't just show me the easy "drama, humor, action" type of tags to narrow down genre after picking medium, but four hundred poster name tags.

Also I wonder how much database load it would take to generate these possible AND selections dynamically in a menu, and whether that is worth it, but I don't know enough about the technical side to judge that.

[pifour]

may be it makes sense as option for paid users?

[ratcreature]

Even if performance wasn't an issue, the problem remains that in many instances hundreds of tags would show in your proposed menu to select from, if it was generated like that, and the tag page might become even more cumbersome than it already is for journals with a large number of tags.

I mean, you can scroll on a page that shows many tags, but not in a drop down menu.

[pifour]

If done right tags and tag's menu, it will not much database load and will be convenient for some users:)
pifour.livejournal.com/295946.html

[ratcreature]

But you still haven't said how you imagine it to look when there aren't four related tags like in your example, but five hundred. How do you imagine a drop-down menu to display that and be navigable. I don't mean the backend, I mean the look of the UI.

Maybe it would look great for people whose menu would show a handful of related tags, but the upper tag limit is two thousand, iirc. And in many instances a tag setup is such that a large number of tags, like author tags, are connected to another tag, like say one "fiction". Your menu pattern in that case would be
"fiction opens to author1, author2, author3, author4, author5, author6......author499, author500" You can see why that would be a problem in a drop down menu, yes?

[pifour]

I agree! This option for some users. Not for all:)

[ratcreature]

But then you would need to choose whether you want such a tag menu in another display/journal style option. I'd rather have this site find a solution that makes the tag-AND work more easily for every case (or at least most cases) and could become part of the default tag navigation. Like I could imagine to have the AND function become a part of the tag module that's in the sidebar now, so that you could access it like on bookmarking sites, like I explain in my response to zing_och below.

It wouldn't be quite as convenient for cases like your example with very few related tags, but the solution would scale up better for a large number of related tags and still display sensibly then.

[pifour]

Thanks for the good idea.
I've updated the post with a link to your offer:)

[ciaan]

Totally beside the point, but I wish comms wouldn't use poster tags. You can already filter a comm for a specific person's posts, and using tags for that just fills up the limits, is more work for the mods and posters, and not actually good added value for readers. Especially the comms that use ONLY poster tags and have gotten rid of most other tags, argh.

[zing_och]

How does it work now? Is there a way to access multiple tags at once?

[ratcreature]

When I want the AND display I look in the FAQ to find the URL syntax because I always forget, and then type it the URL.

[pifour]

+1

[zing_och]

Thank you!

[pifour]

{namejournal}.dreamwidth.org/tag/{tag1},{tag2}?mode=and

[zing_och]

OK, I definitely think there should be an easier way to do that.

[ratcreature]

I would like to see the tag module in the side bar become dynamic if you already selected one, similar to how Pinboard et al. do this kind of thing, with a little + symbol appearing for AND. Like, if I went to a journal and clicked on a tag in the sidebar, then on the /tag/tag1 page, only the related tags would appear in the tag module and have a + symbol next to them, and if I clicked that symbol, I'd then get both combined.

[pifour]

Yes! It's good!

[dancing_serpent]

+1

[lurkingcat]

+1

[fujicori]

+1

[kyrielle]

+1

[ciaan]

Sounds good!

[turlough]

+1

[axiom_of_stripe]

+1

[zing_och]

+1

[shameless2shoes]

+1

[kerravonsen]

Yes, this!

[blue_rampion]

+1

[dhamphir]

+1

[meridian_rose]

This seems like a better solution :)

[susanreads]

+1

[marahmarie]

+1

[inthetatras]

This is my "with changes."

[runpunkrun]

+1

[khaodar]

Seems like it will be limited quantity of tags per entry? Well, I've seen social network with only ONE tag available. Quite comfortable though.

[jesse_the_k]

Awesome. I can think of many cases where I'd use that, and it would simplify tracking events chronologically. My local con info is now tagged Wiscon31, Wiscon32, Wiscon33 — with this system I could have a "2011" tag and a WisCon tag. It would also make browsing archives easier.

[jesse_the_k]

Excellent!