Good morning @everyone and @memberdirectory on Growers Network!
We just implemented some changes to the forum that will enable tagging on posts. We want to take you through what tags are, and how they’re useful.
What are tags?
Tags are essentially useful indexing tools for the forum. Let’s say you create a post in the “Growing” category, but you also want people to know the post is also about marketing, business, and dispensaries. Without tags, you could only post in the Growing category and hope that people would pick up that the post was about those other things.
But now, with tags, you can post in the Growing Category, but tag the post with “Marketing”, “Business”, and “Dispensary”. Here’s what it would look like when you’re making the post:
Why use tags?
As I mentioned previously, tags help index posts. One way they do that is they create cross-category indexes that users can search by. For example, in the image above, I used the tag “cultivation.” If a user who reads my post clicks that tag, they will now see all posts that have been tagged with “cultivation.”
Additionally, users will now be able to search posts by tag.
How do I use tags?
Creating Tags
Currently, we are restricting the creation of new tags to admins. We will be adding in new tags as time goes on, and if you would like to request a new tag, please let @hunter, @growernick, @Kareenabis420, or @nick know.
As time goes on, we may open up the creation of new tags to our members, depending on how well they are received and used.
Using tags
Using tags is super simple! Whenever you create a new thread, you will get a new box right next to the category asking for any tags you would like to add to the post.
If you click the “+” button next to the tags box, you will get a dropdown containing a bunch of existing tags, as well as the option to search for more tags.
How do the tags look?
Great question – we want your posts to look great! Here is how we have them set up to appear to users:
Forum index:
On the post:
Are there any special-use cases for tags?
Yes, and I’m glad you asked devoted Growers Network user!
Part of the reason we’re implementing tags now is because we wanted to implement a new “Question and Answer” plugin on the community. The Question and Answer plugin creates a special case where if somebody tags their post with the tags “Question” or “Help”, the post is formatted similarly to a Quora question.
What this means is that whomever asks the question can mark a response as the answer to their question, and other users can upvote posts they think answer the question. This does all sorts of fun and unique things to the thread, which I will illustrate with an example here:
As you can see. when a post is tagged with “Question” or “Help”, the entire post is reformatted to suit a Question-and-Answer style of thread. The original creator of the thread (or an admin) can mark a post as the correct answer, and it will be indicated at the top of the thread. Users can upvote posts on the left, and the answers on the thread will be resorted according to the most upvoted answers. Users can even comment on answers if they so desire, creating a nested discussion.
Restricted Tags
Some tags may be restricted for use in specific categories only, or may be restricted by group permissions. For example, @staff may apply staff-specific tags to a thread that will have special consequences for the rest of the site. If you try to use a tag and are not allowed by the forum software, the tag is restricted to specific uses.
For example, we are retrofitting AMAs with the “AMA” tag. Only admins may apply this tag.
As you can see, tags are a great way to improve your communication skills on the forum! Have any questions? Need help? Let us know and we’ll do our best to help you out. See you on the Network!