Am I using Del.icio.us correctly?

March 30, 2006 4:57 AM

If I create Del.icio.us tags that only I would understand am I doing anything wrong, or perhaps even undermining the service?

For example, if I want to use the service for research or inspiration links I would like to rate the sites I tag. So as well as tagging a portfolio site as 'art' (along with other tags) I might also add 'art***' (where *** is a 1 - 5 star rating).

I'm also thinking about categories. I am keen to switch to keyword tagging, but I would also like to broadly group my links under categories. I'm thinking about 'cat:imagery' 'cat:games' etc.

Is there anything wrong with this or perhaps is there a better way of doing it?

posted by Glum to Computers & Internet (19 answers total)

Things like del.icio.us are deliberately designed so that one person's tags can be as off-the-wall as they like, without any ill-effects on the site at large. Basically, it spots trends in tags, and one-off outliers aren't trends.
posted by reklaw at 5:05 AM on March 30, 2006

Go nuts. No one will care.

I try to pick tags that other people will use as well mainly because it helps me.

You should try using tag bundles instead of categories.
posted by grouse at 5:13 AM on March 30, 2006

I would have to agree, you don't really need to worry about it. There's no "right" way to use the site. Yes, it's a social bookmarking site, but its primary function is for you to save your bookmarks in some easy-to-find way. So if you want to tag things in some crazy way that only you'll remember, go nuts. Hell, I *never* look at other del.icio.us bookmarks other than my own.
posted by antifuse at 5:19 AM on March 30, 2006

There are of course other social bookmarking services. Tons of the buggers, in fact.

NetVouz, for instance, allows tagging like del.icio.us but also allows for categories, private bookmarks, linkchecking etc.
posted by badlydubbedboy at 5:47 AM on March 30, 2006

Wrong? No.
Efficient? Maybe not.

If you tag based on rating (1-5 stars)...unless you're going to rate other items, it's not necessary to add the word 'art'.

They've added "bundles"; which allows you to group tags under a banner (and yes, a given tag can repeat.) So you can have a bunch of items under "technology" or "art"
posted by filmgeek at 6:03 AM on March 30, 2006

If you are worried, you could just use del.icio.us's new private bookmarking feature.
posted by maxpower at 6:13 AM on March 30, 2006

Definitely not wrong. Imagine, if you were a speaker of a very obscure language, say Inuktitut (30,000 speakers). Chances are, there aren't a lot of Inuits using del.icio.us. But, I'll bet, if you did, there'd be a whole category of "alianaqpuq" for anything fun you found. I don't see why you couldn't tag things however you like. After all, if the GTD people can get away with it, so can you.
posted by phoebus at 6:18 AM on March 30, 2006

On the subject of tags in general, this post by the Rev Dan Catt is a good way to look at tags. (And this is a good way to take the piss.)
posted by Jofus at 6:23 AM on March 30, 2006

Not wrong. Your tags should first and foremost have value to you, and, hopefully, subsequent value for the community. It just so happens that for many users these two things coincide. Your special tags won't "break the system" by any means. The only time I have been affected by people's funky tags is in using the Lazy Sheep Bookmarklet, which automagically borrows tags from other users, but I make an effort to look out for and delete them.
posted by youarenothere at 7:14 AM on March 30, 2006

Use a combination of subject and rating tags. del.icio.us allows you to retrieve links based on multiple tags. So for the art site, tag it with "art" and "3" and you'd retrieve all 3-star art links by substituting "art+3" in the URL. This allows you the flexibility to get links based on rating independent of subject in the future. Whereas if you use a system like "art***", you'd be limited by that specific subject and rating combination.
posted by junesix at 7:46 AM on March 30, 2006

I would recommend changing "art***" to "art rating:3". That would make it easier to find things for yourself in the future, and would be more in line with what other people seem to be doing.
posted by scottreynen at 7:55 AM on March 30, 2006

There's certainly nothing wrong with using idiosyncratic tags—use what works for you. There is some community benefit from using tags that anybody can guess, but that's a happy side-effect, not the primary purpose of delicious.

junesix beat me to it. There's no reason to use "art***" when you can use "art ***", which actually enables more interesting views into your entries (fwiw, I simply use "good" and "bad" tags). Also suggest you check out tag bundles rather than attempt to categorize inside the tag, as grouse said. Tags and hierarchies really work at cross-purposes, IMO (see this article by Clay Shirky).

Finally, I'd caution against making your tagging system too complicated. It's better to have a system that is easy to remember and apply consistently than something you'll either get wrong half the time or need to look up before posting.
posted by adamrice at 8:00 AM on March 30, 2006

Heck of a good idea, I'm going to start using stars for some of the stuff I tag.

junesix writes "Whereas if you use a system like 'art***', you'd be limited by that specific subject and rating combination."

On the other hand if a site is a Art*****, Originality*** and a Navigation* simple standalone numbers would lose information.
posted by Mitheral at 8:17 AM on March 30, 2006

Nothing wrong with it, but be careful about using non-alphanumeric characters, as it can be a pain in the ass to look them up in a url later. My personal opinion is the suggestions here are correct: the rating should be a separate tag from "art".
posted by yerfatma at 8:47 AM on March 30, 2006

You're doing nothing wrong. I write tags based on how I would remember a link, not what most others use for keywords or anything.
posted by mathowie at 9:03 AM on March 30, 2006

Cool. I was wondering about this myself; very helpful responses.
posted by AwkwardPause at 9:19 AM on March 30, 2006

I quite often find myself double-tagging stuff, once in the way I'll remember it, and again with what I guess would be more helpful to other people - eg. if I'm bookmarking a television programme, I'll tag it 'telly' for myself and 'tv' because that's likely to be more commonly used by people looking for television programmes... just seems polite if you use del.icio.us to find stuff as well as store your own bookmarks.
posted by jack_mo at 9:56 AM on March 30, 2006

Using odd, inscrutable, or one-off tags must not be harmful, seeing as how Merlin Mann hasn't brought del.icio.us to its knees with tags like sadlonelypeoplewithtimeontheirhands, southbyfuckingsouthwest, and, my personal favorite, havealittlefirescarecrow.
posted by bevedog at 10:14 PM on March 30, 2006

MetaFilter: sadlonelypeoplewithtimeontheirhands

I'm going to have to use that tag sometime.
posted by grouse at 11:31 PM on March 30, 2006