Vanishing Tags

[LucyDuke]

I for one have to say that I would go into threads and skip right to the bottom (and I'm sure many others will attest to this), merely to have a chuckle at the tags. They were funny! And you know what? In 90% of cases, the tags were of superior quality to the crap contained in the thread.

I agree with that particularly, and the rest of the post too.

 

[Truronian]

While there were some amusing tags I very much dispute the idea that the system was CFC's equivalent of the Edinburgh Fringe. The majority of tags were either utterly unrelated to the thread, devoid of humour or puns that a 5 year old would find dull... I wouldn't mind this so much if there was some way of knowing who added the tag "cheeze smellz like fart!!!" so I could silently judge them but the system as implemented had none.

That said I think thread starter only tags are a pretty pointless middle ground...

 

[Birdjaguar]

But the thing was, tags let people add humour to a thread without derailing the thread

There was no way in hell the Tagging system could ever have worked, and let's be honest here, there were very few tags which were actually trolling, and most were "spam" (which can't be, since spam is inherently in the thread), but they did not detract from the thread at all, and in fact, contributed to it.

In certain places, the use of tages could either summise an argument in less than 25 letters, or provide some well-needed humour to a thread, in the form of a witty one-liner.

For the most part tag humor has been pretty poor and way to repetitive. This repetitiveness only shows the lack of creativity and humor among those who do so. If you feel that 25 character posts can contribute to a thread, then why not just post it in the thread prefixed by "TAG:" The physical placement of the tag should not make any difference.

True, there were a few troll ones, but be honest; how much mroe work was it moderating the tags, when you're actually having to go through posts, some of which are thousands of words long, trying to pick out every nuance and every inference and asking yourself "hmm, does this breach any forum rules?"
I cannot see having to go through ten 25-character lines adding any significant, if any, work to the moderator workload.

It is a lot more work and given the way posters have been using the tag system, and distorted its intent, it is work moderators shouldn't have to be doing. For the most part posters use tags like dogs pissing on trees: to let other dogs know they have been there and nothing more. A useful tag system provides benefits to everyone; the broken system we have had fails completely in its intent and serves no purpose that cannot be fulfilled though in thread posting.

I for one have to say that I would go into threads and skip right to the bottom (and I'm sure many others will attest to this), merely to have a chuckle at the tags. They were funny! And you know what? In 90% of cases, the tags were of superior quality to the crap contained in the thread.

Tags also provided a sense of solidarity and community tot he forums; people would try and joke with each other, and even try to outwit each other on the tags, and I though this was a marvellous show of forum spirit, which now has gone.

I am a strong advocate of the "CFC community" and its importance to the success of this site. I also am in favor of things that build that spirit. If joking and friendly competitiveness is an important aspect of CFC and that OT communities, then perhaps we need a better way to provide that other than to distort the tag system, which is a really poor forum for such interaction. In recent months there have been many instances of a relaxation of rules to provide more "light discussion" in places like the member picture threads. What else could be done?

It seems almost as if every iota of fun, humour and messing around is a purge-worthy offence, and that OT is trying too hard to pass itself off as a place of serious and intense discussion which, no matter how hard you try and how close to it you achieve, it will never become.

It's the internet, and people can always act up, and the only way to achieve this would be to purge all people who can't adhere to these unrealsitically high standards,
CFCOT needs the humour, and the distraction, and seeing as CFCOT is probably the most active part of the site, and that it's the users that make it what it is, I think that this is a move in the wrong direction.

If TF's standards are "unrealistically high", you must have a very low opinion of humankind and its ability to be civil. I hate to break this news to you, but OT is not a place of "serious informed discussion". While there are many discussions that are informative, some that are serious and many that get intense, most of what goes on here is decidedly less serious, less intense and less informative. What you see as a rigorous tightening of the rules to curb fun is really just an attempt to maintain some sense of orderliness and a feeling of control where none exists.

The problem, as you said, is that people will try to abuse the system and create chaos here just because it is the internet and they can hide. Rules and enforcement are necessary because some people are irresponsible. We cannot solve the irresponsibility problem so we are left with rules.

The question has become 'how do we accommodate a more relaxed site and still contain those who will abuse any new opportunities?"

What is your answer?

 

[choxorn]

So it's no longer spam & troll tags that everyone thinks are funny; it's spam & troll tags that only the OP thinks are funny ?

This. Just because it's your thread doesn't make it any less likely you'll add some stupid tag to it.

I, having started this thread, can easily just add USA #1, glory to the hypnotoad, or any other of those spam tags.

 

[Zack]

No. A number of trolling / spam tags have been deleted, and the tag system has been changed so that only the thread starter can add tags.

Link to video.

 

[choxorn]

I fully agree with the above sentiment.


Link to video.

 

[nonconformist]

But I do apologize for being boring. Some things cannot be helped.

I wasn't saying you were boring; I was saying that I can coun t on one hand the users who never troll, never spam, never derail etc.

 

[Earthling]

Actually, I could see the proposed solution of leaving tags off only on OT to work - because I agree that outside of OT I've seen tags fulfill a much more straightforward purpose in noting what discussion is about. But hopefully if the creator of, say, a civ game series can still add "Lonely Hearts Club" or whatever then not all is lost. And I guess what some of you have said are making me see the history of tags a little bit in a new like - when I would see stuff like "stupid librulz" or "anime avatars suck" or something I was assuming it was one poster in the actual thread snidely criticizing another. But if enough of you were tagging random threads you weren't even posting in, then maybe not, and it was less "trolling" and more "spam" if you will.

 

[Newbunkle]

Link to video.

I agree.

 

[Arwon]

You kept 'rasism' ?

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

There was no way in hell the Tagging system could ever have worked, and let's be honest here,

They work fine for search in the gaming forums, with minimal discipline, they can work fine in colosseum fora.

there were very few tags which were actually trolling,

Well over half of the tags I checked in the humor forum were flaming and trolling. I understand, however, that was less of a problem in other colosseum fora. You tag spammers have some cause to blame the tag flamers and trollers for losing your fun. It was they who brought tag moderation problems to the fore. It not for the tag flamers and tag trollers, tag spam may have sailed under the radar for time.

 

[Abaddon]

Was there a significant level of people reporting trolling tags?

If so, were the offenders punished?


Why can't the stick be used to reduce any potential trolling, and worry not about people having fun with the feature.

I think the forum has lost something by removing this feature, and i'm scratching my head to what has been gained by its removal.

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

No, none of the ones I found was reported, I had to look for them after I notice flaming in one.

I infracted every flame or troll tag I found.

Not while the fun is spam.

Spam was and is not allowed, so nothing is lost on that account, other than a somewhat harder to police opportunity for rule breaking. Very few of the third party added tags was useful for search or infornation on the content of the tread, so very little is lost there, the expected gain is some usefulness for search.

 

[Rashiminos]

Absolutely useless. Tagging is about the users making associations between topics. The OPs aren't going to always going to come up with them, and we might as well be using the regular search again.

 

[dutchfire]

No, none of the ones I found was reported, I had to look for them after I notice flaming in one.

Which might lead one to conclude the users didn't find them problematic at all.

 

[DaveShack]

Which might lead one to conclude the users didn't find them problematic at all.

Users have more than one way to react to trolling. For example they can report the troll (good), reply in kind (bad), troll someone else (bad), etc. Likewise, spam often results in more spam. Having content be reported isn't what identifies it as a rules violation - it is what it is.

When a feature (tagging) results in more content that breaks the rules (spam/trolling/flaming) than legitimate content, it's only natural to revisit whether the feature should even be offered.