Could questions in G2G be tagged with a category as well as surname?

Question

Maybe the option for category tags as well as surname tags on questions ?

This would mean that the question list would provide you with a pretty good indication if its likely that you could help...

 

E.G.  See the way that I pretended to use category tags (surnames) as an example for this question.

 

Perhaps Supervisors who frequent G2G could add meaningful tags to questions that didn't already have them ?... and the question form could encourage the expanded use of tags as more than just surnames? (...thinking aloud...)

Comments

hmmmm Interesting... I think I like where you're going with this, Wombat! - Mike

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I wish, when asking the question, there was a drop down box at the bottom for Location and one for time frame/date range.  And there would be an error msg or reminder msg, if they were not completed.  So many questions are missing those details everyday.

Answer 1

Hi Wombat,

We can't do this currently.

When we set up this Q&A forum, we took its native tagging function and repurposed it. Instead of allowing any tags, we decided to use it for surnames. This way we could connect surname-related Q&A with other surname stuff on WikiTree. Putting a surname tag on a question means it will appear on the surname index page on WikiTree. We'll be aiming to do much more in the future -- stuff to enable watching surnames and participating in one-name studies.

So, we shouldn't use the current surname tags for anything but surnames. (I removed the test tags you put on the question (scotland engineers use_of_categories).

Conceivably we could set up an additional, parallel tagging system that would allow free-form categorization.

That would become a fourth way to organize questions. We have surname tagging, profile tagging (adding a WikiTree ID), and categorization (Genealogy Help, WikiTree Tech, or a Special Project category). I think there are some diminishing returns when you add organizational systems. People get lazy about self-organizing their questions and moderators are left with the responsibility. Which is what you propose, Wombat, and maybe it would be a good thing.

Chris

Comments

Sadly Chris, I think your right about people self-organizing.  I've noted the signal to noise ratio change since G2G took-off - I guess to an extent I was doing some wishful thinking.  When you are prepared to spend some time helping people, you wish it was easier to establish whether its an area your familiar with, or whether they've provided enough information so that you can help...
Anonymous (above) echoes my thoughts.
W