War Diaries Talk

The Definitive List of Things NOT to Hashtag!

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    @marie.eklid@virginmedia.com suggested this one. Hashtags which we'd suggest avoiding, either because they're for such common things that they won't be useful, or because there are other, more specific hashtags defined here: http://talk.operationwardiary.org/#/boards/BWD000000j/discussions/DWD0000d05

    I'll get things started with a couple, but feel free to jump in and suggest others.

    • #trench
    • #mud
    • #horse - not because we're not interested in horses, but because we have a set of more specific hashtags for them

    In general, using a hashtag for peoples' names and ranks, place, trench names and so on is a bit redundant as we can handle these through the standard set of tags.

    Equally, page headers and titles, e.g. Appendix, Order, Top Secret, Secret are generally not worth hashtagging as the selection of page type gives a good enough idea of what these pages are.

    Very common words, although often interesting, are generally not worth hashtagging as they appear so frequently it's pretty much impossible to use them for analysis. We're thinking of things such as: officer, NCO, orders, train, communication, injured, wounded, killed, german, etc.

    It's also worth thinking about whether the hashtags you use are likely to be searched for by others. For example, #trenchfirestep or #failedbombingraid are probably not terms anybody would think to look for. That said, if you think the information is interesting and it's appearing relatively frequently, then by all means stop by the Definitive Hashtag List thread and we can define some terms to help capture it.

    Stores items - tagging mention of things like shovels, picks, wire, etc. is probably best avoided as they appear so frequently. If the author of the diary is making specific points about how this kit performs, however, then we have tags to cover that in the definitive hashtag list.

    With all of these, our intention is not to stop anybody using hashtags - we're grateful for all the work you're doing capturing all of this information. All we want is to ensure that your efforts are directed as effectively as possible, so that future researchers will be able to build upon the work you've done.

    Do feel free to add to this list, or query any of the items we've included so far!

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    Good idea!

    • Anything that already has a diary tag - people's names, ranks, places, names of trenches
    • Page headers and titles, e.g. Appendix, Order, TopSecret, Secret,
    • Common words like - officer, NCO, Orders, train, communication, injured, wounded, killed, German!
    • Improbable made up words that no-one is ever going to look for, e.g. trenchfirestep or signallinglamp or listofcasualties

    I'm sure I'll think of some more...

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Great, I'll add them to the list. Thanks, Heather.

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    Not sure about this one. Several people are diligently hashtagging "Reinforcements" - on almost every single diary page. Really do we think there is there any point in hashtagging something like this that you see on every page of a diary?

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    I'm not sure about that - I think we discussed having a tag like #draft, but the jury was still out on it. Any further thoughts anybody?

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    I do think where it's a genuine draft of say 50+ it can be interesting, but tagging 3 or 4 reinforcements every day seems to me not to be very worthwhile?

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    That's true. I guess men would have been trickling in all the time. Perhaps if I add #draft to the hashtag list and just specify it's only for significant numbers of new arrivals that's the best thing to do.

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    Sounds good.

    I would add there's no point in hashtagging long lists of stores items like shovels, picks, wire, etc. I just don't think this is particularly interesting. If there's some comment on the performance of the equipment then we have a tag for that but otherwise don't bother.

    Posted

  • fisfiris by fisfiris

    'Demobilisation' was a novel word but now, well into 1919, the word appears on every page - not worth hashtagging any more? Obviously named individuals get the standard tag.

    Posted