War Diaries Talk

What is tagging?

  • alchemissy by alchemissy

    I've seen the tagging thread. The issue is that I don't know what it means for this project and why there are sooooo many tags to memorize.

    Why is the tutorial/interface not enough for tagging diary entries?

    Why do people post diary pages here with tags? Who looks at their posts and what happens afterwards?

    Please be kind in your answer. I really just need someone to make the little details fit into the big picture.

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Perhaps the issue here is that we have two types of tag:

    1. The standard tags, covered in the tutorial and available to you on the left hand side of the interface

    2. Hashtags, listed here: http://talk.operationwardiary.org/#/boards/BWD000000j/discussions/DWD0000d05

    Basically, hashtags are a way of recording additional detail which might not be covered by the standard tags. If you find something of interest which you want to record, but the standard tags don't seem to offer you a way to do it, just check the list of hashtags above to see if it's already noted there. If not, feel free to suggest that we add it!

    If you don't want to use hashtags, that's fine. The really important thing is to use the standard tags to record peoples' names and the context within which they're mentioned (date, time, place, what was going on around them, etc.) But as you get more familiar with the interface and the diaries, you might well find yourself wanting to record more, and that's when hashtags are very useful. Most of them have been set up after volunteers suggested them. We have a whole suite of hashtags to record details about horses, for example, because a lot of people are very interested in what happened to them.

    We don't cover all this detail in the standard tags, because it would make the interface almost impossible to use.

    When people post diary pages here in the forums, it's generally because they have an issue they need help with. Perhaps they can't read the handwriting, or they're not sure what a particular acronym means, or they're unclear on a military term for something. The moderators looks at the posts and try to help, but often other volunteers will come to the rescue - we have people from a wide variety of backgrounds who know an awful lot about some very interesting things, so there's always somebody around who can shed light on any questions you might have.

    I hope this helps. Let us know if things are still unclear.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    alchemissy, I'm wondering if your question about people posting diary pages here actually referred to the pages posted at the top of the main Talk page? I believe--and I'm sure ral104, also known as Rob, or HeatherC will correct me if I'm wrong--that those automatically post anytime a volunteer makes a comment or adds a hashtag in the Comment box. I think this is where Rob gets at least some of his topics for his Facebook posts.

    The hashtags, as I understand their use, will allow someone who has a particular interest in say, allied relations or the logistics of water supply on the front to find mentions of those topics in the diaries.

    And as for being kind, I've been working on this project for a little over a year now and I've NEVER seen an unkind comment in this forum. It's remarkable in that regard, but all threads are focused on the diaries or the war or technical issues with the site and everyone is respectful and helpful. When I started out, I thought I would never post in the forum or make a comment on a page, but gradually I've become comfortable doing both. Just take it one step, or page, at a time.

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Ah ha! That makes sense - thanks @cgastwein@aol.com 😄

    The main Talk page shows all recent activity - any comment or hashtag added by a volunteer to a diary page's comments box. As mentioned above, I find them very useful for picking out interesting stories to post about on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OperationWarDiary). Very often, these comments won't need a response from anybody. If we do spot queries in the mix, we'll try and answer them, but with the number of pages being tagged, it's possible we might miss the odd one or two. If you think we've missed something, please do ask again here on the forums. We're always happy to help and we'd never deliberately ignore you!

    Posted