I’ve learned that there are a couple of rules for doing tags well in blogging. The purpose of tagging is to naturally group things together over time. Patterns may emerge, cross talk, or just juxtaposition.
Using fewer tags is better because more related things will accumulate in those tags. So, keep the list of tags small, approximately 100 in total, plus or minus 50. A consistent vocabulary is better, rather than having lots of tags that only refer to one thing.
Apply a few tags to each item. No more than 5, and probably more than 1.
A complication is that there are a few different dimensions that are needed for effective covering the bases. I’ve heard this called “faceted tagging.”
| Dimension | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Topic | What is it about? | #ambient #ai #rss-club |
| Type or Format | What kind of thing is it? | #albums #references |
| Context | What is it for? | #shopping #blogging |
| Status or Action | What next? | #to-listen #to-try |
| Quality or Affect | What does it do? | #relaxing |
Stick to some basic rules: decide always to use singular or plural; always-hyphenate-words; lower case generally except for proper nouns where it matters; one term per concept, which means usually being reductive or going for the broadest choice.
Anneal your tags. I mean fix errors when you notice them later. Normalize them to keep moving toward that smallest useful set of tags.
Finally, tags are not notes. Don’t use them to store descriptions or thoughts or reminders. They are too short for that, it won’d work.