Should threads have flickr-style "tags"? [was writing a php script for ilx]

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I tried to ask this at poptimism, and I'd have got away with it too if it weren't for you pesky kids and your loud indiepop music.

Anyway. I have a vague fancy for writing a php script, just a bit of fun, basically to find all the classic dud threads and tally up what ilx's final collective hivemind decision is. What would be my chances of being able/allowed to do such a thing d'ya think?

― ledge (ledge), Sunday, 16 October 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

you can write this without access to the server dude. just grab each c or d thread (do a title search, with range varying to get each day individually) then get each page and tally the " c " the " d " the "classic" the "dud" and appropriate varients, then print each thread title with the appropriate tallys. also, be sure to run it at an appropriately slow speed (with "wait" commands interspersed liberally) so as not to slow the server too much. cURL is your friend!

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 17 October 2005 01:15 (twenty years ago)

Ah, but how to get each variation on the title - classic or dud, classic/dud, c/d, c or d, etc? Really I want to be able to use regular expressions.

― ledge (ledge), Monday, 17 October 2005 08:06 (twenty years ago)

hey sorry for the poptimism NOISE! :-)

what sterling said really - it's not really a script so much as a collection of IDs of threads. reg ex's would get you 99% of the way, but there would prob be some manual tweaking needed and you'd want to end up with a straight list, not something you recalc each time.

perhaps as a complement to thread categories we could have something like thread "groups" if people want to collect a bunch of threads together - a sort of "themed board". then under the categories lists we could list the "themes". tagging a thread in a theme could be a low-level admin right.

would there be much take up of this?

actually this sounds like "tags" that are cropping up on sites like flickr and lj and so on and it might be something that people would be in to. hmmmm

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 17 October 2005 09:34 (twenty years ago)

ew! tags!

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:32 (twenty years ago)

i like the grouping idea i think.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:36 (twenty years ago)

sterling is obv a metadata rockist. tags do a trick well, and they'd do what tom wants.

thinking aloud mode... a "tag" table with just two columns tagname and thread id. tags could be entered against a thread much as in LJ with a comma-delimited bit of text that is broken up and (if needed multiple) entries added to the table. a list of tags would fall out of the table using "distinct".

in theory this could replace the underused categories system, but i'd just be adding it alongside i think.

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:46 (twenty years ago)

tom - do you mind if i rename the title of this thread?

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:47 (twenty years ago)

Feel free. So you could use the search function easily enough to get a list of threads with a common topic, but how could I get a list of all threads ever (or per board) to run a regexp on?

― ledge (ledge), Monday, 17 October 2005 12:12 (twenty years ago)

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/questions.php?board=1&date=200106

is the first month's worth, then 200107 200108 etc up to 200510. pretty much the only way.

getting ALL the threads on ILE/ILM used to be a click on the main new questions page, but it was a huge strain on the server causing many poxyfule-ings.

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 17 October 2005 12:35 (twenty years ago)

Cool. Also, never heard of cURL before, it sounds like the bees knees. Cheers guys!

― ledge (ledge), Monday, 17 October 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

curl is teh greatness

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 17 October 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

I prefer wget but libcurl rules

― Jonothong Williamsmang (ex machina), Monday, 17 October 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

I think the search function should work before we tag stuff. The category system would work better if all logged ins could categorize uncategorized threads.

― Jonothong Williamsmang (ex machina), Monday, 17 October 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

haha jon like we'd let YOU have that power.

(working search generally obviates the need for categories is the thing)

tags are hella server load generally, to do anything interesting with 'em besides just fucking stick them there.

and the payoff is usually horribly mundane.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 12:12 (twenty years ago)

why would tags be a noticeable server load?

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 12:45 (twenty years ago)

Sterling, oh no I might mark something as ABJECT STUPIDITY.

― Jonothong Williamsmang (ex machina), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:00 (twenty years ago)

not tags per se, but doing anything remotely interesting with them (which requires dev energy we don't have besides)

also, who would want to find "more threads on this theme" !!1 -- ppl. want specific topix and a working search function (thread titles and first post alone even) handles most o fthat just fine.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

I am using google more than ilx search now :/

― Jonothong Williamsmang (ex machina), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 23:59 (twenty years ago)

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