Help Everything you need to know about "Tags"

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What are tags?

So what are tags? Tags are keywords. Tags are useful because they allow you to collect all the threads with a certain tag/keyword into one place (for instance the CookingBites Recipe Challenge tag). Tags/keywords acts 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 just click on the tag itself when you see it in a thread. So try it - click on this CookingBites Recipe Challenge tag now and see what you get.

You can add tags to any thread you come across, to a maximum of 4 tags per member or 7 tags 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 did, you will see that you got something like this (click on the picture for a larger view)...

The list will change because the challenge changes every 10-15 days, but you get the idea.

So tags are another way of searching to find what you are looking for and on a cooking forum, this means that you can much more easily search for a recipe with a particular ingredient in it because it is often possible that a recipe can go into more than one location within the site.

 

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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 creating the thread. Once you have added the title to your thread, the system will scan the title to see if any of the words match what is in the database. If they do, it will add them, but you do need to double check them. Sometimes it does not quite get it correct

Just below the main body of the thread, where you type the actual content, you will see an empty box if you haven't added a title. If you have added a title, the first 2 keywords will have been added for you from the first 2 matches in the database, otherwise you can pick the most appropriate keyword/s for your thread by selecting it/them from the drop down menu that appears as you type (so if it is an aubergine chutney recipe select "Aubergine" and separately "Chutney") and press the comma key when you are done.

I can't show you a screenshot of the drop down menu but once you try it you will realise how easy it is.

The second way to add a tag is to someone else's thread. Yes, you can add tags to other threads.

A new pop-up window will appear and you will get the opportunity to type in the first few letters of the tag you are after. If you want more than 1 tag, then select the first one, press comma and start on the second one. When you have added 2 tags (the maximum any one member is allowed to add to a thread), clock on Save Changes and the tags are added to the thread.

If the tag you want does not exist, simply type what you want into the field and press the comma button on the keyboard and the tag is created. It is that easy. But please remember that just because the tag does not exist in the format you are thinking about, does not mean it does not exist and if you create it again, you will get different search results using each tag because the system thinks they are different. For instance, in the UK courgettes are courgettes, but in the USA, Canada and Australia courgettes are zucchini and creating a tag that is zucchini will not find all the recipes involving courgettes despite us knowing that they are the same thing. It is possible for a moderator to link tags together, but we need to know that you want to do this, or that you have seen a problem with 2 tags that are the same thing but give different results. If you do come across this, please just use the report button and let us know.

 

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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.

 

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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!

 

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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.

 

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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.