Tags, RIP?


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

     Look up. Look down. Look left. Look right. Now, why didn't you just look down? That's the only place tags would be. Unless you wrote some custom CSS for the forum, in which case may The Holy Beagle have mercy on your poor, twisted soul.

    I guess the gigabytes* of superfulous, unicode control character ridden tags were too much for the old girl. Of course, most of them should be "backed up" in that random tag script, and I'm sure someone could figure out a way of injecting them back into the system. Not that I'm saying anyone should. (Don't).

    So many archived posts are going to make (less) sense now.

    * for very small values of "giga"





  • ♿ (Parody)

    It was time for the TDWTF Tag Purge. You'd be surprised* how poorly CS can handle hundreds of tags.

     

    * or probably not, given the quality of this software



  •  They're back!

     

    allow me to be among the first to defile the virgin tag cloud.



  • It took 90 seconds to submit a post on my cellphone. That's long enough that my phone would actually give up and go to sleep before the submission was complete.

    Now it takes 9 seconds.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    It took 90 seconds to submit a post on my cellphone. That's long enough that my phone would actually give up and go to sleep before the submission was complete.

    Now it takes 9 seconds.

    CS embeds every tag for a particular forum in the page's HTML. Twice.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    It took 90 seconds to submit a post on my cellphone. That's long enough that my phone would actually give up and go to sleep before the submission was complete.

    Now it takes 9 seconds.

    and suddenly your post on that other thread makes sense

    @blakeyrat said:

    Posting test, test test test



  •  I can't wait for ender to post.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    It took 90 seconds to submit a post on my cellphone.

    Now it takes 9 seconds.

    The speed difference is noticeable in a browser, too (well, it is for me). Previously, posts seemed to struggle to display: sometimes trying to visit the last post would show the first in a thread and... ... and... ... eventually the others would appear.

    The purge also means that many posts aren't littered with some vertical detritus that some people managed to embed in a tag. Not certain how that was done, nor why.

    Did they actually serve any purpose? (The tags, not the posters who abused them).



  • @Cassidy said:

    Did they actually serve any purpose? (The tags, not the posters who abused them).

    Additional content that is reserved for website users (as IIRC they aren't included in emailed version of posts).



  • @locallunatic said:

    @Cassidy said:

    Did they actually serve any purpose? (The tags, not the posters who abused them).

    Additional content that is reserved for website users (as IIRC they aren't included in emailed version of posts).

    You could also look up posts by tags, getting a bunch of related content.


  • @Cassidy said:

    Did they actually serve any purpose? (The tags, not the posters who abused them).



  • @locallunatic said:

    Additional content that is reserved for website users (as IIRC they aren't included in emailed version of posts).

    Okay. I don't get emailed posts, so didn't know that. (yes, not your fault - I mean I'm grateful for the explanation)

    @Sutherlands said:

    You could also look up posts by tags, getting a bunch of related content.

    Okay, this is another of those occasions I really should have re-read and clarified my post (but my beer was being delivered, so priorities and all that).

    I know about grouping together related content... perhaps my question should have said "has Alex performed any analysis to see if people use them much?"

    @morbiuswilters said:

    You must be new here.

    I'm beginning to feel worried at the way you're examining my virginity. Definitely something to do with the way you lasciviously lick your own eyebrows.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Cassidy said:

    I know about grouping together related content... perhaps my question should have said "has Alex performed any analysis to see if people use them much?"

    Each forum has a tag cloud. People use them much, but not really for grouping posts in any truly meaningful way. Mostly, they are just another WTF.



  • @Cassidy said:

    I know about grouping together related content... perhaps my question should have said "has Alex performed any analysis to see if people use them much?"

    I constantly have to see them and which ones are most used when looking at the forum view.  I have a plan to get certain tags to get in regular use.


  • @Cassidy said:

    perhaps my question should have said "has Alex performed any analysis to see if people use them much?"

    Based on how often the tag cloud either brings the server to it's knees or causes those on slow connections to be unable to properly use the forum I'd say they are used lots, just probably not in a useful manner.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @locallunatic said:

    @Cassidy said:

    perhaps my question should have said "has Alex performed any analysis to see if people use them much?"

    Based on how often the tag cloud either brings the server to it's knees or causes those on slow connections to be unable to properly use the forum I'd say they are used lots, just probably not in a useful manner.

    ^^^ that. I think I purged a couple times before a while ago. The problem is that Community Server wasn't designed to be used, so you get behavior like this happening. It's a combination of not knowing how to do web front-end programming, middle-tier programming, or database programming.

    I think the next culling will be like deleting the top 10 through 50. So, sort of a survival of the mediocre.



  • On that note, is there any reason that clicking the tags in "Popular Tags" provides a 404 for most tags?


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Sutherlands said:

    On that note, is there any reason that clicking the tags in "Popular Tags" provides a 404 for most tags?

    Yes. It's broken.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    The problem is that Community Server wasn't designed to be used
     

     This makes me happy.



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    The problem is that Community Server wasn't designed to be used

    I wonder what it was designed for, then? Being ignored? Being abused? Being worshipped?



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    It's a combination of not knowing how to do web front-end programming, middle-tier programming, or database programming.

    And commentary based on inferred* design rather than actually having taken a look at it.



  • @ekolis said:

    @Alex Papadimoulis said:
    The problem is that Community Server wasn't designed to be used

    I wonder what it was designed for, then? Being ignored? Being abused? Being worshipped?

    Clearly it was designed to sap hours of developer productivity spent discussing what a MetaWTF it is.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Clearly it was designed to sap hours of developer productivity spent discussing what a MetaWTF it is.

    At the same time, my guess would be that the users of the forum are better suited to dealing with it than the average internet user would be.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Little known fact: 90% of all TDWTF comments are spent discussing what a piece of shit CS is.
     

     

    If only there was a way to group all those posts and display them with a single click.

    Alas, such a system does not exist.



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    @Sutherlands said:

    On that note, is there any reason that clicking the tags in "Popular Tags" provides a 404 for most tags?

    Yes. It's broken.

    Isn't that the offical Community Server FAQ?

    Question:  Why does Community Server   (something)   ?

    Answer:  It's broken.

     



  • @Cassidy said:

    Did they actually serve any purpose? (The tags, not the posters who abused them).
    In theory, you add a meaningful tag to your post and then, in the future, someone can click on a particular tag and view all the posts on that subject.  In real life, nobody actually does that, and even if they did, Community Server is too hopelessly broken for it to actually work.

     



  • @El_Heffe said:

    @Cassidy said:

    Did they actually serve any purpose? (The tags, not the posters who abused them).
    In theory, you add a meaningful tag to your post and then, in the future, someone can click on a particular tag and view all the posts on that subject.  In real life, nobody actually does that, and even if they did, Community Server is too hopelessly broken for it to actually work.

    There were also a few users who seemed to tag all of their posts with one or two specific tags.  If one wasn't in the broken category (think this comes from needing some number of things with it) then they could be used to find posts by that user.



  • @locallunatic said:

    There were also a few users who seemed to tag all of their posts with one or two specific tags.  If one wasn't in the broken category (think this comes from needing some number of things with it) then they could be used to find posts by that user.

    Or you could, you know, just search by user. The reason some people use the same tag for every post is to increase its dominance in the tag cloud.

     

    mod: added some classic dominant tags for you –dh



  • I would like to state for the record that even though the tag cloud is monumentally broken beyond belief, the "pedantic dickweed" tag was the very model of accurate post tagging.



  • @Lorne Kates said:

     Look up. Look down. Look left. Look right.

    Does anything special happen if after doing this you type ABAB, and then hit the "start" button on your taskbar?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I would like to state for the record that even though the tag cloud is monumentally broken beyond belief, the "pedantic dickweed" tag was the very model of accurate post tagging.

    The tags are 90% of why I come here.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @morbiuswilters said:

    The other 10% is because YouPorn is down again.

    It isn't down. They just IP banned you after you posted your livestream of your auto-erotic [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eLT5TQ8-h8"]flamming volcano[/url].

     



  • @ekolis said:

    @Lorne Kates said:
     Look up. Look down. Look left. Look right.

    Does anything special happen if after doing this you type ABAB, and then hit the "start" button on your taskbar?

     

    It's a misquote.  Should be "Look up.  Look down.  Now look at Mister Frying Pan."



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I would like to state for the record that even though the tag cloud is monumentally broken beyond belief, the "pedantic dickweed" tag was the very model of accurate post tagging.

     

    I agree. Many times the tag was used with irony in the eyes of the poster.  Ironically, this self-identification was accurate.



  • @Cassidy said:

    The speed difference is noticeable in a browser, too (well, it is for me). Previously, posts seemed to struggle to display: sometimes trying to visit the last post would show the first in a thread and... ... and... ... eventually the others would appear.
    I noticed it too.  Trying to jump to the last post in a thread took a really long time.  I just thought it was a combination of my sucky Internet connection and the general WTF that is Community Server.  I forgot that CS includes a complete copy of all Gazillion tags in every page.  Since The Great Purge, it definitely works a lot faster and smoother.  When composing a message, clicking on the "Preview" button also works much faster now.

    @blakeyrat said:

    to submit a post on my cellphone.



  • @El_Heffe said:

    I forgot that CS includes a complete copy of all Gazillion tags in every page.

    Two copies.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @El_Heffe said:
    I forgot that CS includes a complete copy of all Gazillion tags in every page.

    Two copies.

     

    And somewhere, there is someone who thought this was a good idea.

     



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    It was time for the TDWTF Tag Purge. You'd be surprised* how poorly CS can handle hundreds of tags.

     

    * or probably not, given the quality of this software

     

     Right i know i'm going in to "If it ain't broken, don't fix it!" land,

    but, if CS is really such i piece of sh** (and i think everyone agrees with me that is is), why are you still using it?

     

    Maybe, just maybe, because this site let's people share their WTF, it is one it self? (Or maybe that's just a brainfart).

     

     



  • Truth be told, the selective-quote feature is pretty good and unique AFAIK.



  • @dhromed said:

    Truth be told, the selective-quote feature is pretty good and unique AFAIK.

    When it works. Which is, maybe half the time. The rest of the time you get that awesome, "UNMATCHED QUOTE TAGS IN POST" error.



  • @dhromed said:

    Truth be told, the selective-quote feature is pretty good and unique AFAIK.

    Good, yes... unique - not quite, unless CodeProject also uses CS...



  • @ekolis said:

    Good, yes... unique - not quite, unless CodeProject also uses CS...
     

    Yeah, I imagine other use some implemantation of the idea as well, but there are still far more that don't use it and stick ot the "classic" way of dumping the entire quotable post in your textbox, which facilitates pointless fullquoting and gives rise to rules/netiquette-guidelines to prevent that.

    Vanilla had that, but for some reason they didn't include it in the most recent version, instead focusing on gradients.


Log in to reply