Which FM threads have you "tagged" lately?

**The Phantom** · 9th Jun 2012 09:07

Having played some older FMs lately, it struck me how seldomly the practice of tagging a FM thread is used. From now on I intend to do so for every mission I play and I hope more people follow this example.

The benefits:
- It makes a (type of) mission easier to find by searching for a tag via the Advanced Search Menu, by typing the mission's title, name of the author or a certain characteristic (like 'Mansion'). The more missions are properly tagged, the more complete a search result will be;
- Searching for 'tags' is more effective then searching for 'keyword(s)' (ever tried to locate the thread about uncadonego's FM 'Just Take a Look' using keywords?);
- "Can you recommend me a city FM?" kind of threads can become redundant;
- Less known FMs can be rediscovered;
- People stumbling on a FM thread can decide whether or not the missions meets their criteria to try it out (zombies, city FM etc.);
- It might help kamyk to get his Fan mission listing by type-thread up-to-date.

Enough reason to encourage it's use

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Feel free to post in this thread 1) the names of the FM's you recently played and tagged, 2) it's author and anything else you want to share.

Here are mine as example:
Gerrard's Temple by jericho
Out for a Revenge by Istvan Varga
Profane Ascension by Tomi
Retaliation by HipBreaker

Ideas to include as tag
Types of setting: city, mansion, sewers, island etc.;
Types of AI: mechanists, hammerites, undead etc.;
FMs main goal: revenge, escape, kidnap etc.;
Type of sky/weather: snow, rain, fog, moon;
Other characteristics: [full mission title], [name of author], briefing movie (if included), maps (if included), recommended, etc.

**Sxerks** · 9th Jun 2012 11:28

Back in Oct 2011 I added to the "Fan mission listing by type-thread" with a list I was trying to finalize for the Thief Wiki: updated list of tags.

I didn't get a lot of responses, to say the least, I guess people's ambition toward tagging wavers.

The Forums tagging is a bit unorganized, since it encompasses all Forums. Looking at this thread, there are almost too many tags. Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I think the wikis implementation is easier to use.

The cloud on the wiki can be partially seen here(at the bottom), it is not fully searchable yet, since I wanted to finalize the tags first, but the final cloud would look like this.
You can see how the tagging work on a FM page and how they are edited here.

**The Phantom** · 10th Jun 2012 09:08

You're doing a good job on those tag lists, Sxerks

Quite extensive.

I wouldn't say interest for tagging is wavering. It has never been popular and extensively used, like with keyword searching that uses all text to find result, while tagging requires active involvement from members to expend it's database. But once the number of tags is growing, tagging itself should become more popular, I hope

.

Originally Posted by Sxerks

The Forums tagging is a bit unorganized, since it encompasses all Forums.

It don't think this matters. While forum tagging might be more unorganized, Tag-searching for, say 'Mechanists', only locates those threads tagged with this hit, so it's unlikely you'll end up in a place/forum where you don't want to be.
I believe the tag cloud on the Wiki is entirely visible, while on the forums you see only the most popular tags. Don't know which one would be easier or more user friendly, they both have their advantages I guess

Anyone who came up with ideas for FMs to play after a tag search (of course taking the so far limited participating threads into consideration) or recently tagged a thread himself after playing a mission? Feel free to share how you contributed.

**The Phantom** · 18th Jun 2012 14:18

I've tagged some threads of FMs by madwolf recently (Moth to a Flame & Turn of the Tide), as well as added [name of author] and [title of FM]-tags to threads of FMs by Ramirez's Old Fat Burricks, HipBreaker and madwolf.

Looking for tags included in any of these threads should bring up these missions as result.

**demagogue** · 18th Jun 2012 16:33

Haha you mean tags are good for something other than cheap comedy?

Well that's good news.

**theBlackman** · 18th Jun 2012 19:17

None!

**The Phantom** · 19th Jun 2012 06:52

"None" what exactly ?

**deathshadow** · 19th Jun 2012 08:39

Without this thread, I'd not even have noticed there was a tagging system... Seems kinda pointless, but I'm that way about a lot of 'metadata' people add to things -- Just like if you bother putting a name on a file that actually makes sense you don't need metadata, the topic of a thread should me more than sufficient to find it.

That and nobody other than those lacking a life can be bothered to waste time filling out that extra information. Complete and utter waste of time.

**The Phantom** · 19th Jun 2012 13:45

I wish backers of tagging would have an equally distinct opinion about the subject.

I disagree here, it's certainly a useful tool. If the few minutes it takes to add a few tags to a thread is a "waste of time", the same can be said of posting a reply to a newly arrived FM.

But everyone can decide for themselves.

Without this thread, I'd not even have noticed there was a tagging system

Then this thread at least served some purpose

**demagogue** · 19th Jun 2012 18:04

The name of the file contains next to no information about what kind of FM it is, and thread text not much more. A tagging system is very useful for people that use it.