I have opted to leave the tagging system in place. Initially it was simply a beta idea and I'd planned on removing it if it didn't serve any useful function. I can see where it has a place, and having blogged in the past I can see where it is valuable to someone researching, and am going to keep the option available.
In order to get the most out of this system it requires that we all take an active (instead of passive) stance and start tagging our posts. Even if it is a single tag (one tag that is accurate is better than 3 that really aren't at all accurate) is better than none. The weighted
tag cloud presents a useful tool that is controlled by the community.
I would like to encourage you to not only tag new posts but, when you have a spare moment, go back and tag some of the posts you may have started or contributed to. There's no reason to be a tag-hog and use up all of 'em. Right now I think the limit is set to three. If, for some reason, more or less are required we can adjust for that but right now we'll see what this leads to. So proactive and retroactive tagging would be a great asset for the community but, like all community things, requires some labor. You don't have to but, well, you could... I'll join in - I have been - and am actually looking for a way to make it so that there are some other features.
There is also a rating system that is in effect in several of the categories. Feel free to make use of it as well as the karma.
What I will ask is that you do your best to be mindful and to take advantage of the additional features.
Something that I'd like to do is seemingly a lot more difficult than I might have hoped. I really would (and likely do) require someone far more adept at this than I am. (I can admit it when it is past my level of ability, that's never stopped me from trying and indeed I am, but this one looks to be a real problem.)
Right now I have it so that feeds are pulled from the blog (for starters - if you can think of other IT related feeds that might be interesting then feel free to let me know via PM where I can review them) and at the blog I use a tagging system. These feeds are pulled via RSS and the tag information isn't sent via RSS as near as I can tell. What I would like to do is, for lack of a better word, auto-tag those automated posts in the forum with the tags that were used at the blog. Tags that aren't sent, into a system that is cobbled together, from a hack to a blog, to an entirely different database.
*sighs* If anyone has any brilliant ideas, code snippets, or just plain freakin' wants to figure it out - let me know. Right now I'm completely at a loss of where to even begin.
I did (sighs again) already consider just building out the MOD here at the forum to go retrieve the entire post information from the WordPress (that's the blogging software) database and then import it into the SMF database as a post but that seems like a lot of work just to accomplish this when, more than likely, I'll only need to figure it out again as the update cycle keeps me fairly busy and they're not exactly the same company and haven't the same agendas so they're not likely to have the same update schedule. *sighs loudly again*
Anyhow, thanks much and I'm sure we all will appreciate it.
