oh lord, the tag abuse...

[dreamingpixels]

Since my workday got derailed after our fiber internet installation FINALLY happened (seriously, this process started in May or June, I can't even remember anymore), I figured maybe I'd go through and edit the hot mess of tags I've got on my journal. It's making my not-so-inner metadata nerd twitch every time I go look at the ridiculous list of not-entirely-descriptive tags when I go tag an entry, so I said "let's do this!" and sat down to edit tags.



Oh god. Oh good god.

What the hell was I thinking, all those years before I actually learned what proper tagging was? I mean, old me was kind of using tags as an additional, silly way of indicating the subject of a post, but come the heck on, past me - "law and order SVU" is a much more concise and sensible tag than "i love you elliot stabler", and you know this.

Plus, all those one-time-use tags, like "holy shit I passed a math class" and "I love chai lattes like nobody's business"? No no no no no. Those make me cry. I mean, yeah, I do love chai lattes, but how often did I write about them? ONCE. And it was only in passing! 🤦‍♀️ self, why. why did you do this.

I dunno if I have the spoons to handle this insane task. While part of me is tempted to just nuke all those tags from orbit and then come up with a proper controlled vocabulary that covers the main topics I'd discuss in here, the other part of me says "hey, maybe you should leave some of those tags around for posterity, like 'my pokemans, let me show you them' and 'lerpaderp'..."

I think I'll come back to all this on another day. Until then, I guess my metadata nerd self is just gonna twitch every time I tag a post.

Comments

[luckyzukky]

oh god that sounds like a nightmare OTL. i remember when i first started using dreamwidth/livejournal a few years ago i tried talking in the tags like on tumblr, but quickly discovered the tagging system on both sites is actually competent and saves the tags u use instead of them going into the void, so my tags page became a mess for a bit. i knew i'd miss it but it bothered me so i ended up deleting all those tags lmao

[p_cocincinus]

For the sake of your pre-metadata-trained soul, there was definitely a culture of crazy tags here for a while - like it was relatively common to have more tags than actual text, and the goofier and more in-jokey/opaque the better.

I think maybe there just wasn’t an expectation that anyone would use tags to find anything except maybe the OP? Now we all know how to actually use tags, people who are not giant nerds use “hashtag” in casual conversation, the world (the internets) has changed. Know better, do better, but wow is it cringeworthy to look back at stuff before the knowing happened. 😅

[dreamingpixels]

Oh yes, I remember the trend of "let's use the most ridiculous tags EVER" - which is how I ended up with some real winners like "oh hay i speek in lolcat" and "omgwtfbbq". I'm glad I outgrew that, but daaaang my metadata-nerd-self is all "oh my god whyyyyy".

(and oh lord, the whole "hashtag [insert thing here]" trend in actual speaking drives me nuts, just like when my younger sister actually said "lol" in a face-to-face conversation instead of, you know, actually laughing)

[heliconian]

Ah the tagging system on my old, teenage, LJ was an absolute nightmare. I'm trying to be conscious about how I tag things with my new account so that I don't go crazy but the urge to do so is still there.

Good luck getting things sorted!