Question: Should moderators move threads more consequently from Discussions to dedicated categories?

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#1

Please … Constructive feedback only.

Do you think there are Pros?
Do you think there are Cons?

Arguments starting with: As a casual reader - As a TW user - As a plugin author - As a developer - As <you name it>… I think … is a good start for feedback posts.

Question:

Should moderators move threads more consequently from Discussions to existing dedicated categories?

Reasoning

@simon reached out to me, if it would be possible to create a new category: Hosting

My answers where:

  • yes. … It’s just a view clicks to create it.
  • Creating a good description, that can be seen in the Category Overview is essential and probably more work as creating the category in the backend.

My concern as a moderator atm is, that this new relatively specific category wouldn’t get much traffic, without the moderators consequently moving threads into it.

Most users use the default Discussions category, which is OK.

I think the Discussions category contains several threads, that I would consider to be topics for the Developer or Plugins section. eg:

  • Discussions about parsing wikitext using filters. → Developer
  • Detailed questions about the “Section Editor”. → Plugins
  • Discussions, where 2/3s of the question and the responses are covered in CODE-blocks. → Developer

Some other threads may be shifted into Showcase … and so on.

#2

Broadly speaking, yes (I think).

But your question confuses me since you ask about “existing dedicated categories” but under “Reasoning” you talk about creating new cats. That said…

In my experience, categories are known to weigh heavily on the cognitive load for noobs. By contrast, Tags are lightweight and are perceived as “loose”, ad hoc categories. We should promote addition of Tags to posts.

I’d keep the cats list as small and efficacious as possible.

#3

Maybe moderators should do more tagging. To my way of thinking, special categories represent special interests that are of little interest to the rest of the community (e.g. developers, moderators). Many people (including me) forget to apply tags. Adding a tag adds value. Moving to a category may be seen as subtracting value since the resulting scope is (frequently) reduced.

#4

I think that a good observation.

TBH, I think this issue about “classification”, whether tag or category, devolves , to behaviour for purpose here I think.

For instance, the vast majority of posts are simple questions to be answered. I doubt they need tags or any special category. Once answered they are over.

But there are definitely things of lasting value that benefit us all that having a way to filter to helps a lot. Tags and Cats do that, though differently.

But I’m unclear on the best way. I can’t grasp it without understanding more of what users use this group for. I don’t think it is one thing?

Just thoughts
TT

#5

After @Mario’s comments about how categories are generally used (i.e. not all that much) I think probably a tag is less cumbersome. That said I’m not really sure how tags work. Does it require moderator permission to add a tag?

Ps, FYI I did initially imagine a “Tiddlyhost” category where people could find Tiddlyhost related discussions such as TiddlySpot to TiddlyHost , but I figured it might be considered too specific.

#6

That’s not the point, though. Tags become topic groupings. A visitor can click the filter tag, for example, and read all topics covering filters.

1 Like
#7

Right.

But.

To organise stuff for a better experience than the GG was I seriously suspect that needs Curation. Needing a person with an informed brain to assess long-term relevance.

The whole idea that Adam (newbie) and PMario (an ultimate expert) are equals seems daft. That is the POINT … can an author actually tag & cat well on-the-off?

I want to underline some threads here are of lasting relevance. But when you create one who knows that? Who marks that it is so?

Awkward TT, x

#8

That’s fine. There are enough wise heads here to police (Softly, Softly style) the tags.

Noobs know they’re noobs. Noobs are reasonable people. Noobs won’t mess with tags until they’re acclimated to the lingua franca.

Confession: Twice back there I typed BOOBS instead of noobs. :blush:

Little ol’ you, of course. See it. Tag it.

I’d call them Keynote or similar.

1 Like
#9

You likely right. (Though a b noob may not know French :smiley: either.)
Bonjour

#10

I wanted to revisit the OP, since it shows real concern.

My feeling is, basically, “yes”. BUT with the caveat that this group on Discourse is one step away from TW itself. I think that is a confounding issue.

Matching both the “look” of TW in Discourse and using Discourse “categories” closely matched to TiddlyWiki usual end use cases is the way to do it.

Punch: That’s the way to do it!

TT