War Diaries Talk

Veterinary Diaries

  • floodmouse by floodmouse

    After reviewing the discussion threads on "Hashtags" and "Hashtags for Horses," I'm still wondering how to improve my tagging so that someone studying logistics could get the details they need about the horses that had to be evacuated. The Unit Activity tag list mostly deals with combat activities. Ideally there would be another item on the Unit Activity drop-down menu for "Evacuate Horses" (similar to the one for "Casualty Treatment"), with a box to enter the number of horses, where they came from, where they were sent to, and why. Having said that, I know the software can't be changed at this time. I'll keep using the recommended hashtags. I wonder, would it be helpful to post longer comments on the pages in addition to the brief hashtags? If I use the "Unit Activity" drop-down item called "Other," and post a comment on the page, would the comment associate with the tag for "Other"? I'm trying to envision how this info will appear for researchers when they're looking for something later. I welcome any suggestions on the best ways I can use tags and comments on the vet diaries for people studying support activities for the war.

    Posted

  • wildcatjenny by wildcatjenny moderator

    Hi Floodmouse,
    I looked at your comments for your diary pages today. It looks like you are doing well with the mechanics and you understand the agreed upon hashtags.
    The comments are associated with the image of the page you tagged... As are the hashtags and the standard tags. So when someone wants to look into the original data for details they will be able to find everything in one place. I would guess that a researcher can search comments for words that May be of interest them. (Anyone know for sure?)
    Please feel free to enter your comments! Use just free text with or without a hashtag.
    Maybe other Citizen Historians or moderators have additional comments? I would be interested in reading them.
    All the best, Wildcatjenny

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    Completely agree with what @wildcatjenny says about using comments and hashtags and by all means expand on why you have placed a particular hashtag in the comment box - I do agree that's interesting.

    However please don't start using "other" for stuff to do with horses unless you think it really is applicable in the circumstance. The problem with doing this is that as you may know the way the Zooniverse interface works it takes a "best fit" between tags placed by five people and if you are the only one using "other" for tagging horse activities it will just get ignored by the system. So as you say without the current ability to change the diary tags we can't really have an in-diary tag for horses. The original reason why there isn't one is that the Research Group who set this up were not sure it would be useful. One of the things we are doing here by developing the hashtags and extracting the information is trying to show them it can be and that certainly that taggers feel it is! After all the point of tagging these diaries is not just for professional historians but for amateurs like you and me!

    As to exactly how the information will appear for researchers, I'm not 100% sure. I do know that hashtagged words will be able to be searched for, hence our desire to have some good standard hashtags. I am not so sure that comments will be searchable. However if you have placed a standard hashtag and then added some comment with it, I believe that comment will be visible when the hashtag is searched for. However as @wildcatjenny says, the comments are associated with a particular page and not with a specific tag on that page.

    Heather

    Posted

  • stoat11 by stoat11

    Hi,
    I am tagging 6 DIVISION: 6 MOBILE VETERINARY SECTION (1 AUG 1914 - 31 AUG 1919) and have been wondering whether I was doing it correctly. So I was glad to track this discussion down as I have been using a daily Unit Activity of "other" for each day when the unit is not moving and thought the post by floodmouse was confirming that was right.Then I saw the update by Heather where she says don't use "other" unless its applicable.
    What's the right thing to do for Unit Activity for a Vetinary Unit?

    Cheers,
    Mike

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Mike, the unit activity tags are supposed to capture significant events affecting the unit - so moving into or out of the line for an infantry battalion, etc. But they gloss over a huge amount of day-to-day activity. In the case of this diary, that means you can't really tag all the veterinary activities the unit gets up to on a daily basis. But that's fine, because we already know they would have been doing those sorts of things. What's more important is that we can track their movements, identify individuals and so on. So don't worry if you feel like you're not capturing a lot of activity - you can use the various horses hashtags to make a note of much of that info.

    I hope that helps,

    Rob

    Posted

  • stoat11 by stoat11

    Hi Rob,
    Many thanks for your reply. Just to confirm then, I should just tag Unit Activity if they are moving somewhere and use the horse hashtags for anything else of interest. If they're just doing day to day vetinary tasks I can not bother with a Unit Activity tag?

    Cheers,
    Mike

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Exactly 😃

    Obviously if other things crop up, like they come under attack, for example, or report enemy activity, you can use the appropriate activity tags. But when it comes to horses, the hashtags are your best bet.

    Rob

    Posted

  • stoat11 by stoat11

    Hi Rob,
    That's great.
    Many thanks.

    Mike

    Posted