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Regarding the use of "tags"

Hey there, I wanted to mention two things which I think could use improvement concerning the image tags. The first is an old problem I'd sent via email but may have gotten lost or forgotten about, namely the fact that the current tag implementation views the same word spelled with different letter cases as unique tags. So clicking on a tag like "ferret" won't show you all the images on the server that are also tagged "Ferret". The second thing I discovered just now, which is that when I tried adding a two word tag surrounded by quotes, ie: "Vicki Fox", nothing was added to the resultant image tag data. Having multiple words tagged under a single clickable link would be a nice benefit for targeted searches of the server database so hopefully this can be implemented.

A lot of sites could use this. The concept is called a controlled vocabulary. There are also British/American spelling differences to be accounted for.

We did get your email regarding the tag issue and case-sensitivity, and it is in our October milestone scheduled for the 26th. It may be fixed before then, but it is at least scheduled. :) I should've shot off an email or message saying we got it, so I apologize about that. We are working on reorganizing to help the staff be more efficient overall, including myself.

Brian Reynolds said:

The second thing I discovered just now, which is that when I tried adding a two word tag surrounded by quotes, ie: "Vicki Fox", nothing was added to the resultant image tag data. Having multiple words tagged under a single clickable link would be a nice benefit for targeted searches of the server database so hopefully this can be implemented.

This will be a bit more... challenging. :) Currently we use a search plugin called, amusingly enough, Ferret. It runs on a different method than being solely tag-based, and the guts of it are headache-inducing to say the least. On a positive note, if you search for "Vicki Fox" (with the quotes) results still show up, including three of your pictures. It also looks at the title and description, although its ranking method is currently not working right. (Tags should have the highest priority.)

Anyway, multiple word tags could also be a relatively simple fix, so I might be able to patch it. I have been wanting to re-do the search to be more focused around images and suited to the site, so this could be a good impetus to get me going on that, too. Thanks for bringing these up!

That's cool about the email. I wasn't sure what the status was and thought to mention it again. I look forward to seeing the updated results and am glad for the interest and drive to keep updating the site. Also I TOTALLY dig the name "Ferret" for a search program. :) :) :) I did notice that the search program takes into account the text used in the title and body description, but my thoughts were linked to the ease of use and flexibility of the tag system. I'm a big user of Flickr and the breadth of discovery gained through the simple act of clicking on a well used multi-word tag has yielded some great results there and could be equally useful here on Artspots.

Also in case it's been overlooked I also made a comment in the "The Messaging System/Video Hosting" thread concerning the use and flexible bread-crumb method of discovery through the implementation of an easier-to-see "favorites" method. I'd love to hear some thoughts about that.

Thanks again for your attention!

-Brian