First off, I want to thank Luther for adding a media tagging system to the new site. It certainly has made searching for material easier. One problem we are starting to have, however, is inconsistent tagging. Some images are tagged, while others are not. Part of the problem with that of course is that there is a lot of material to tag and it is not going to be done overnight. Some images have been tagged, but the tags are incomplete. They describe one feature of the work but not any others. Worse are ones that have completely different or new tags that they don't share with any other work. I think it is important that we establish a set of tags early on and maintain them. We should have a list of tags and definitions so that if someone is not sure they can look at a definition to see if a tag fits the media in question. More importantly, I think completely new tags should be reviewed before being added to a work.
I'd like to have a discussion about tags. What tags should we deem "official"? Which ones are redundant? How should each tag be defined so that there is no interpetation wiggle-room?
Yes, there are a lot of pictures that still need tagging. I've been tackling the pile bit by bit. The quality of searches will gradually improve over time.
As for having an official vocabulary, I don't know if that's a good idea at this stage. The purpose of the tagging system is to help people find stuff. I'm sure there are a lot of search terms out there that people consider important that wouldn't occur to me.
I'll still be asserting some editorial control in cases where tags seem redundant or nonsensical. At some point in the future there will be value in discussing which, if any, of the terms in use should be modified or removed. But for now my policy will be to allow a good deal of latitude for tags and see with what people come up with.
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