After a short discussion about tagging and tag searches in the Teachers Lounge chat, I learned some interesting things. We've been talking about how to tag for some time, and we seem to keep circling the concept of tagging with model numbers for equipment in particular.
Originally, the sentiment seemed to be: Don't tag with model numbers, just tag with brands and maybe trademarks, such as [canon] [eos]
or [speedlight]
. The question keeps rearing its head, however, and there are still questions tagged with brand and model numbers.
As it turns out, tag search seems to support wildcards. You can do searches like the following:
canon-*d => canon-450d, canon-500d, canon-7d, etc.
*-vs-* => film-vs-digital, dx-vs-fx, digital-vs-film, etc.
Given that flexibility, I think that changes the game. Rather than trying to be broad in our tagging, it is probably better to be more specific. Discussions have revolved around the concept of broad and composable tags, but they never really seem to work. For example, [canon] [550d], or [speedlight] [580EX-II], etc. Searching through threads tagged as such is more difficult and less effective.
It seems that tagging with model numbers may give us more flexibility and searchability, provided we do it correctly. So, once again, the question is brought to the table. Should we tag specifically, like so:
- [canon-550d], [canon-7d]
- [speedlight-580EX-II]
- [adobe-lightroom], [adobe-photoshop]
- [nikon-d3x], [nikon-d300]
- etc.
This gives us the flexibility to search specifically or broadly:
- Search for all threads tagged canon?
- canon-*
- Search for threads tagged only for non-pro Canon bodies?
- canon-*0d
- Search for all threads tagged adobe?
- adobe-*
- Search for all threads tagged nikon?
- nikon-*
- Search for threads tagged only for entry-level nikon d-series bodies?
- nikon-d30*