Tag admins

[jackfirth]

Currently, package tags aren't very useful because they have very little consistency across the catalog. People use different tags to mean the same thing, and not everyone applies the same rules about what tags should be applied.

Some other sites that use tags like StackOverflow grant users (with sufficient reputation) the ability to edit tags on content without editing the content itself, letting the community self-organize. It would be nice if there was some set of "tag admins" in the Racket catalog who could organize and clean up tags for all packages.

Motivated by this mailing list discussion.

[jeapostrophe]

Tags ARE editable by any user. Go to the package site, click a package, and then type something and click "Add Tag" Jay

…

On Mon, Apr 24, 2017 at 4:11 PM, Jack Firth ***@***.***> wrote: Currently, package tags aren't very useful because there's very little consistency. People use different tags to mean the same thing, and not everyone applies the same rules about what tags should be applied. Other sites that use tags like StackOverflow grant users (with sufficient reputation) the ability to edit tags on content without editing the content itself, letting the community self-organize. It would be nice if there was some set of "tag admins" in the Racket catalog who could organize and clean up tags for all packages. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#44>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAOM-m207ey-QhFD41092mFoD-FB95tfks5rzQINgaJpZM4NGpvI> .

-- -=[ Jay McCarthy http://jeapostrophe.github.io ]=- -=[ Associate Professor PLT @ CS @ UMass Lowell ]=- -=[ Moses 1:33: And worlds without number have I created; ]=-

[jackfirth]

I'm not able to reproduce that. The only way I can edit tags is if I click the "edit this package" button that shows up for my packages.

[jackfirth]

Ah, it's possible to add tags in the old UI at pkgo.racket-lang.org, but you can't remove or edit existing tags.

[tonyg]

Blast. I have obliterated the anyone-can-add-tags feature of the old site by accident. I'm sorry about that! Jack, your suggestion is good. In general, curation of packages by anyone other than their authors is not well supported at present.

How would we like this to work? Here's one suggestion.

• Tag Curators may add or remove tags on any package
• Normal users may add tags to any package

A variation would be to remove the ability for any user to add tags, limiting tag editing to Tag Curators.

If we go with something like this, how would we like to bless users with Tag Curatorial powers? I mean the social process -- the technical side of it isn't very important, I don't think, with the smallish community we have at present.

ETA: We could even make it so that anonymous (unauthenticated) users could add tags to packages. But I think it might be better to at least force people to be logged in.

[tonyg]

(Jack, when you add tags using pkgo.*, do they "stick"? Or do they silently vanish after a while? I suspect the latter but may have misread the code.)

[jackfirth]

Users being able to add tags but not remove them in any circumstance seems very backwards to me. What if I change my mind, or my finger slips, or some other accident occurs? I can't undo my changes. Not to mention that removing tags is often more useful than adding them, since it cuts down on slightly different variations of a common tag.

In general I prefer a "tag curator" role instead of any user being able to edit all tags, because I think it instills a bit of community responsibility to the curator. Maybe a social process for choosing curators could center around how many packages a potential curator has in the catalog. Or maybe it should just be open to whoever sends an email to the current curators / administrators and asks to help.

(Also @tonyg, the tags do not "stick" - they do indeed vanish after a while)

[jackfirth]

Just a quick update: I've written a list of tags that I plan to apply to the catalog. Suggestions, questions, and comments more than welcome.