Everything you need to know about "Tags"

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

What are tags?

Tags are keywords. Tags are helpful because they let you collect all threads with a specific tag/keyword in one place (for instance, the cookingbites recipe challenge tag). Tags/keywords act as a filter across the entire site, so no matter where a thread is on the site, if it has a particular tag, it will show in the list when you search for that tag (under the Search Forums, then Search Tags option) or click on the tag itself when you see it in any thread.

So try it - click on this cookingbites recipe challenge tag now and see what you get.

You can add up to 4 tags per member and 7 per thread. (So one member could add 3 tags and another add 2, and 3rd member would only be able to add 2 more tags.)

If you clicked the tag link above, you will see something like this.

The list will change because the challenge changes every 21-28 days, but you get the idea.

So tags are another way to search for what you are looking for, and on a cooking forum, this means you can search for a recipe with a particular ingredient much more easily, because a recipe containing carrots, for instance, can appear in multiple locations within the site.

Some tags will be added automatically to your thread if they exactly match the existing tags. So when a recipe is "carrot and coriander soup", for instance, to get the "carrot" and "soup" added automatically, the tag needs to be singular, even though we usually refer to carrots (plural), but in recipe titles, they are always singular, so the tag has been made singular for that reason - automation.

What's the problem with coriander?
The coriander will not add automatically. There are many reasons for this, but for coriander to be the same tag worldwide, it had to be labelled by all its names: fresh coriander is cilantro in some places, and ground coriander is coriander seed in others. Therefore, the tags are https://www.cookingbites.com/tags/coriander-leaves-cilantro/ and coriander (seed or ground), so we need to add those tags manually.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

How to add a tag.
It is really easy.

There are 2 ways to add a tag to any thread.

The first is when you create a thread. Once you have added the title, the system will scan it to see whether any of its words match those in the database. If they match exactly, it will add them, but you still need to double-check.
Sometimes it cannot match them because they are

• more than one word (e.g., red pepper),
• plural rather than singular (e.g., carrots versus carrot), or
• known by different names worldwide (e.g., aubergine as eggplant).

The second is a manual process:
Just below the main body of the thread, where you type the message, you will see an empty box if you haven't added a title. If you have added a title, some tags may have been added for you. However, you still need to pick the most appropriate keyword(s) for your thread by selecting tags from the drop-down menu that appears as you type. For example, if it contains coriander, start typing "cori" and choose the option you want from the list. If you know it by the name of cilantro, type "cila ", and the very same tag will show.

You can add up to 9 tags to any thread, but you cannot create new tags. If you want a new tag, please make your thread and use the report button to request a new tag by name. We will then create and add it for you.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

How to delete a tag

You can also change these tags if you want to. It may be the automatically generated tags are not the best keywords or what you are after. For instance if I had a title to a new thread of "Stuffed Potato Cakes", the system will detect "potato" and "cakes". Yeh, the tag "cakes" is not really something that is suitable to a potato cake/tattie scone, and in this instance "cakes" needs to be removed, so if you don't like the keywords the system has chosen, then just delete it/them by pressing the cross after the word.

Now, if you misspell a tag, or you see something that is not suitable or duplicate of an existing one (so it already exists in the plural and you create it in the singular), you can either edit it yourself, or you can report it to me and I can make the changes.

To edit it yourself, click on the "Edit" button to the right of the tags, which will open a box similar to the one below.
Next click on the small cross to the right of the incorrect tag and the tag will be deleted.
Now add the correct new tag and click "Save Changes" and you are done.

Remember a single member can add a maximum of 2 tags per thread and there is a maximum limit of 5 tags per thread.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

So what is the point of tags?

Well, they come in handy when it is really difficult to choose which forum to locate a recipe or discussion thread in.

Where would you locate something like a chocolate cake made with aubergines? Would you put it in the Baking, Bread Making and Cakes forum? Would it go into the Vegetables and Mushrooms after all it contains aubergine/egg plant, or even into Vegetarian and Vegan forum because it is actually a vegan cake. No, its under Sweets and Desserts, where else?

If you know that the recipe you are looking for contains aubergines (which are egg plants by the way), and you know that it is a chocolate cake, then if we were to search using the tags "chocolate" and "aubergine (eggplant)" we would find the cake much more easily.

So, go to the Search Forum Button on the front page, change to the Search Tags option, (or just type in https://www.cookingbites.com/tags/ and you will also get there)

This will bring up the search feature in the tags. If we now enter "aubergine (eggplant)" and "chocolate", the 2 ingredients we can remember for this cake, and click on the search button

we get 2 results. One is the recipe, clearly indicated as a recipe with the prefix of recipe and one is a write up about the Vegan Heartache Cake as it is called!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Tips to using tags

• Firstly, if you see a thread without any tags, please add some. Tags will only work if they are used.
• If you see an incorrect tag, please change it or report it (do tell me what is wrong though please, sometimes it is not obvious)
• If you see a misspelt tag, please edit the tags (something you can do on any thread) or report it.
• If you see a tag that is clearly UK or USA specific and it does not have the alternative name in it (so 'courgette' should really be 'courgette/zucchini') either edit it or report it.
• Don't be too specific in the tag, keep tags simple.
  For instance, if you add 'Aubergine Chutney' as a tag to a recipe, someone searching on "Aubergine" and "Chutney" won't find your recipe because your recipe does not contain the exact tag they searched on. Similarly, if they decide to search on the tag "Chutney" they also won't find your recipe because you don't have the tag they are using.
  So can I please ask you to think before you create a new tag: I guess what I am saying is if you want aubergine pickle, you would search on 2 tags instead of just 1, so add 2 tags to the recipe/discussion not 1.
• If you add a tag that could be used in the plural or singular, go with the most frequently used. E.g. Mushroom or Mushrooms. In this case mushrooms is the better option. Now use the report button and let me know that there is a duplicate option available, and I can program the system to use the one you have added as the most frequently used and the other option (in this case mushroom) will get automatically changed to mushrooms when someone tries to use it.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Additional thoughts...

One thing you may note now is that when you are adding tags to a thread, there may appear to be a lot of combinations that you could use.
For example, if you were to search on apple, you will also see apples in the list - which one do you choose? Well the answer is that you can now choose either and it will default to the 'parent' tag which in this case is apples. The same applies for courgette/courgettes/zucchini. It does not matter which one you choose out of those three because they will automatically change to "courgette (zucchini)"

We have set the system up this way to actually simplify tags and to make them universal where regions/countries use different words for the same product. Over time it will become easier to use, once you are familiar with the system, but for the time being just use the term you are familiar with and if you see that the alternative is missing please just use the report button to let me know.