So, if you didn’t get the hint from the title, this post is going to focus a bit on tags. It’s not that anything is wrong with them or anything has changed with how they work, it’s just a quicky/recap/discussion about them.
For those of you who aren’t in the know: tags are a useful feature for organizing and maintaining your collection. Think of tags as keywords about the film you’re adding them on.
Tags work on both a personal and a global basis. This means that while you may use the keyword “Hero” as a tag on your post, other’s may be using that same tag as well. So while you’re personally organizing your collection of “Hero” films, others are using that same tag for the same reason.
Now, the global part comes in at the fact that tags can also be looked at globally (the site as a whole) in that tags that are same can be shared amongst users. So if you were looking at the “Hero” tag mentioned earlier, you could see all the users who’ve added that tag to films as well as what films it has been added to.
This feature is helpful because it helps you discover more using your tag. You can view your “Hero” tag globally and see all the other films users think that tag applies to and potentially find films that you were unaware of.
So, while you may just think your tag helps you personally organize a film, you’re actually benefiting the whole community by tagging.
One last point in this soapbox rant that I’d like to bring out is that tagging a film by a genre (which are already listed on the film page) doesn’t provide any help to either you or the community as a whole. Oddly enough, our most popular tags or those that are genre tags. The problem is that there’s already a way to pull up all films via their genre and not have to tag them (which you can find at http://www.iheartmovies.org/browse/genres/ ).
So hopefully you’ve learned a bit here at IHM Tags 101 and get to see how your actions can globally impact and contribute to the site as a whole. As usual, feel free to comment on this post with whatever ideas and death threats you have for me.
Edit: I should probably mention that if you’d like to see all of IHM’s tags, in a global sense, go here.
Aug 13th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I would have to disagree when you say tagging a movie by its genre doesnt help me. Yes, i can go to browse -> Genre, but that shows me all the movies in the database by the genre. If i tag a movie as a comedy and view that tag then i can see a snapshot of all the movies in just my collection that i consider a comedy instead of sifting through the entire site database. It is a much broader tag for a user, but i think it does help a user on a personal level. I agree with you as it doesnt really benefit the community.
If you feel different or think im missing something, please post a reply, i would love to hear other people’s opinions.
Aug 13th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Rich,
Would a genre keyword or a way to browse your collection via certain genres for your own collection then be more helpful? It would be automatic and then you wouldn’t have to add the tag to each film. While I can see how it benefits you currently, it’s only becasue we haven’t done our job in getting features you need for it out to you.
The difference between tags and genres are that we already have the genre data entered for each film. So we could easily make features based around that data. Tags are user defined because they could apply differently to different users.
Let me know what you think about what I mentioned and thanks for your comments.
Aug 13th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Mike,
Well yes, if i can search just my collection based on genre’s then i would not tag each movie with comedy, horror, etc. I’m assuming this can be something that is added then in the future?
Aug 13th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Rich,
I’ll talk to Jason and we’ll decide the best way to do it. Because we already have the data, you shouldn’t have to reenter it and waste your time. I’m not saying people have to stop doing it, it’s just counter productive for you as we could do the work for you ;).
Aug 13th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
At least I wouldn’t tag a movie by director/writer/cast member since it appear in the main movie page and it’s not opinable.
There are many interesting tags categories:
- adaptation (based on a novel/comic)
- topic (coming of age, plans, cars, horeses)
- genre and subgenre (classic noir, contemporary noir)
…
I would try to separate tags submitted by one single person from popular tags just to see what happens.
Aug 13th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Would it be better then only to include global tags for tags that have been used more than once? Or just a separate tab on the browse pages for “All Tags” than the “Popular Tags”? Again, I’m up for any kind of debate or ideas on tagging.
Aug 13th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Mike,
Well, i would make an “All Tags” page so i can see all the tags people are using and maybe get some new ideas. But you can show popular tags within the “All Tags” page by making popular ones bigger, and bolder which will make them stand out and show that is a popular tag.
Aug 13th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Rich,
That’s how it is right now at http://www.iheartmovies.org/browse/tags/
The most popular tags are the largest.
It says “Popular Tags” for browsing, but it’s really all the tags on IHM.
Aug 13th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Mike,
The only ones i see bigger are genre tags. Which i understand if those are the most popular ones right now, but maybe even more of a distinction than what is present right now. Right now i only see two size differences, a couple popular ones, and a whole slew of normal ones. Kinda see what im getting at?
Aug 13th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
More variation in the sizing then?
Aug 14th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Mike,
it would be nice a tab with “popular tags” (tagged two or more times) and a “more…” link for “all tags”
Aug 15th, 2007 at 3:02 am
@Pussywagon
It’s now created. You can see it: http://www.iheartmovies.org/browse/tags/
There’s a section for popular, friends, just added and all now.
Let me know if you guys have any other suggestions.
Sep 14th, 2007 at 2:11 am
Mabey it is worth implementing the genre’s as tag’s but kept separate from users tags.
That way people aren’t re-entering genre info, you can still have the tag could for your collection, it is easy to see what the more popular genre’s are in the community via tabs like you have already implemented.
And if people want their custom tags and genre tags combined give them a setting in their user account.