Community Tagging Overview

[blufawx]

I still support an opt-in/opt-out.

Until Weasyl pays for my internet, pays for commissions, or pays me for the time it takes me to create a story/color a piece of art, it's my content. no one elses.

[armaina]

what should a user be able to do other than block all submissions by that submitter?

Make it easier to report tags on submissions along with including suggestions for tags :U It's going to be work either way because you're either going to get reports for tag altering abuse, or reports for lack of tagging. It is literally unavoidable. Also remember that just because a handful of people would opt out, does not mean every other member will.

Also if you can show that the community isn't as malicious as people fear it to be, or that you actually do something consistently about malicious tagging, people will be willing to opt back in!! Maybe give your submitters the ability to choose where their trust lies (by way of opt out) in order to earn their trust.

On the suggestion side of things - Tag pools, (cat/cats same tag) as mentioned before, and tagging suggestions, tagging auto-fill, as well as 'recognized' or 'populated' tags by the site itself for simple things, as this can help artists tag stuff in the first place so they won't be flustered about what term/phrase to use in the first place.

Also important - Not so much a code change but creating a common structure for tags, a 'style guide' if you will. Like, maybe make a consensus on tags that are specifically character names belonging to a specific creator. some people have common names and would like to distinguish themselves amongst others, so say you give resources that indicate that creator: charactername is the common tagform, for specific character tags. Character names is just one thing, but having a 'style guide' for tagging format could be helpful in many other instances where the same word can be used to describe different things.

A more robust feature in the future, if you can, are tag suggestions based on tags that have already been added if there are enough other common tags related to it. A lot of artists may forget something, not out of intentionally forgetting it, but forgetting that's a tag to tag for that people can look for. Between autofills and suggestions can bridge the gap of bare or missing tags.

[Socks the Fox]

I think one thing that might help is making language around tagging while uploading more clear about how important tagging your art accurately is. Something along the lines of "Tagging is an important feature Weasyl uses that makes it easier for users to find your work! Tagging also helps users understand your work and the subjects involved. Please take a moment to add as many tags as you think might be needed to help with this. What's going on in this work? Who or what all is involved? Also, users might think of tags you may have missed and add them to better help others find your work too!"

Edit: Oh please give us an easy way to tag characters! something like "socksthefox:Jade" where the colon both tells the system it's a character tag as well as separate the owner and character (i.e. maybe a person would want to search for all art involving my characters they'd search "owner:socksthefox". They wouldn't even have to be registered on the site since it's just tags.

[Bornes]

Tagging being a central aspect of the site's function is not something I was aware of when I joined last year. I appreciate the eye opener on how much it's used for different things, actually, but it's like I'm learning this too late. Making it sound like it's something users just come in understanding when functionality like this isn't the case elsewhere - there's no telling how many other people don't/didn't either, and left expecting something else. If I realized how much this would impact my experience back then... I don't even know anymore.

Hey Ganache, this might come off as really weird but I've read a lot of your posts over the past few months and while I don't think this site is really a good match for you (in its current state), I do want to say that I have nothing against you and that if there were some sort of award available for good character/attitude, that you should get it because you've been nothing but respectful through all your posts and threads, despite being at odds with a lot of the features and trying to understand how/why they work the way they do.

That being said, I think your opinions and posts are super helpful, even though you use the site quite differently from many people. Maybe Weasyl can figure out how to support users like you better, or maybe it won't.. But users like you also help pinpoint what Weasyl is doing wrong, which is especially helpful here because not knowing community tagging impacts so much is kind of a huge thing that Weasyl needs to figure out why is happening.

I am not sure how to fix the problem of community tagging not being as visible as it should be. I am a little biased since I've been on the site so long and just kind of "know."
But if Weasyl wants to attract new users, it needs to do so in a way that it attracts the type of users that will want to use the site in the way that Weasyl has intended. It has clearly failed in that regard.

That doesn't make you or Weasyl bad at all. It is a miscommunication issue and I think Weasyl has a lot of that going on for several different things.
(My main gripe that I love to complain about is this being a general art site, but clearly marketed only toward one specific community)

Anyway I feel kind of bad about this whole thing because you are a really nice person and you kind of got caught up in all this not even knowing what you got into. And that's Weasyl's fault, I think, for not making it very clear what the site stands for and what it wants.

I hope there is a solution that will help most people and you figure out what you want to do.

[blufawx]

Hey Ganache, this might come off as really weird but I've read a lot of your posts over the past few months and while I don't think this site is really a good match for you (in its current state)

I love how easily you're trying to get a rid of people. You know, there was another group in history that had this "xxxx-only utopia" ideal.

Just sayin.

[DrunkCat]

I love how easily you're trying to get a rid of people. You know, there was another group in history that had this "xxxx-only utopia" ideal.

Just sayin.

Wow. And BlueJay thought I was baiting.

Also how can one get rid of people that don't want to be here in the first place?

[blufawx]

Wow. And BlueJay thought I was baiting.

Also how can one get rid of people that don't want to be here in the first place?

Well, you're ASSuming they don't want to be here simply because they disagree with you and the staff on community tagging.

YOU and people like you have created this 'us vs them' mentality, yet you get on me for simply having the opinion that communit tagging is bad.

[DrunkCat]

Are you the type of person to go to a burger-only restaurant and complain that they won't serve you pizza?

It's not a matter of disagreeing or agreeing. The discussion is on how best to do community tags. No one is forcing you to use Weasyl, and resorting to godwins law doesn't do well for your case of "simply having an opinion".

[Oly]

I love how easily you're trying to get a rid of people. You know, there was another group in history that had this "xxxx-only utopia" ideal.

Just sayin.

Why cherry pick and leave out the next part where they say how helpful they think ganache's posts and input are?

I don't see anybody trying to get rid of anybody. It's unfortunate but there's always gonna be someone unhappy with any choice the site makes. If that's extreme enough to the point that someone decides to leave that sucks but ultimately it's for the best, isn't it? Instead of someone in that position banging their head against a wall trying to fit into a system that is ultimately not a good fit?

It's not a case of 'we don't want your kind here.' It's a case of 'pick the tool that works for the job you need to do.' If Weasyl doesn't meet your needs as a tool, then you shouldn't try to force it any more than you should try to force the wrong type of screwdriver to work when you need to take a screw out... except that this 'screwdriver' is actually asking for feedback to see if it can adapt to meet your needs, feedback which you have given, and which has been engaged! So I'm not sure why you feel the need to act like anybody is trying to shut anybody else up.

[DrunkCat]

Why cherry pick and leave out the next part where they say how helpful they think ganache's posts and input are?

Because then the "us vs. them" jab wouldn't carry the same punch.