sweatyboatman's Journal: The Utility of the new Slashdot Tagging System

Recently, Slashdot started showing "Tags" for the articles on its front page(s). Consistently, these tags fill up with silly one-liners, inside-jokes, and the like. And consistently, posters complain that the tags are "broken", that no one is going to search for no or itsatrap to find something interesting.

These critics have a very literal understanding of the tagging feature. They need to recognize that while the tags are pretty much useless as a means of organizing information, they're actually quite excellent for displaying the immediate reaction of the unwashed masses (without scrolling through the posts at -1).

Slashdot already has a categorization system for each story. The editors choose the categories and stories can belong to more than one. And if you're looking for stories about Windows Vista, you'll notice the large search box in the upper right corner of the screen.

I think that the tagging beta has shown that while the rank and file cannot be trusted to rationally sort the news, they can be trusted to make the most of any new features slashdot offers. I hope the editors understand this and keep the feature active and usable.

Since no one reads this journal I'd probably be better off shouting this post at the top of my lungs. But this is the only place I can think of where writing about this makes sense and wont just be embarassing.