The experiment of adding Scott’s WP_Folksonomy plugin to my blog has been a success so far. My blog, haibane.info, is by no means a giant traffic draw but it does have enough that the userbase has been adding some tags of their own. I have at least one user (Scott himself?) who reliably adds tags to most posts, and there have been others drive-by tagging as well. It’s encouraging to see however that there was a thread at the WordPress support forum asking about folksonomy; I directed them to the plugin asap. Now, a search for the term “folksonomy” will lead people to the same tool, and thus the seeds are sown for more people to use it. Let’s hope hat many more blogs, preferably far larger than mine, embrace and adopt folksonomy this year.
wordpress folksonomy progress
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Probably a decent number of them are me. I find it interesting to enter terms and then see the related posts update based on the new term. Which reminds me, what plugin are using for related posts? It seems like a good combination.
I’ve been meaning to get around to throwing a few more things into the plugin. Have you had any complaints? Do you think it emailing you when you get a new term (like WordPress does with a new comment) would be useful?
hey Scott,
that’s the SimpleTags plugin, it basically is a one-stop shop for all tag functionality. Theres also another plugin that does the same thing, but I haven’t activated it yet.
Overall, I think the execution of WP_Folksonomy is brilliant. I have no complaints, though thinking about new features is tough because we dont have enough people using it and pushing its boundaries yet. Let me turn the wquestion around and ask you, as a user of the plugin, do you have any ideas for features?
One thing I think might be good is to allow tag entry directly on the main page. But the form is a bit unwieldy. maybe something ajaxy like, this:
Tags: tag1 * tag2 * add a tag
where if you click the “add a tag” then it expands into the form on the spot (instead of a page reload to the form). Something that small and unobtrusive which I could tack onto the end of the tag list that is already displayed would probably drastically increase the nu,ber of people who make the effort.
as far as emailing when there’s a new term, I probably wouldnt use it – what i really intend to do is stick the tag cloud on the sidebar and let it evolve naturally. I’m not really going to edit the tags much, my main interest is in the cross-post related links as you mentioned, I see the tags as interesting intra-blog connectivity. Introducing the users to it via folksonomy means that new pathways through my content are being forged organically. Tag clouds are pretty static in comparison.
BTW Scott, I’d like to extend you an invite to blog here at metablog. Interested? register an acct and i’ll promote it. Would love to have you aboard!
Sounds fun. Thanks. I registered an account. Maybe send me an email when you get the chance about how things work.