Site Forum

You can only link names already in the system. There's no "tag" system that allows us to add words/phrases to a card or set

https://www.tcdb.com/Tags.cfm

Yes, there are tags, but I don't think they get much use.  In other words, nobody has ever caused a ruckus about them in the forums to draw attention to them!

I've said before that tags are an underused feature of this website. 

If we can tag "Zubaz", we should be able to tag "Shark" or "Weather". But as noted in my previous post, I'm not sure if Admin has a specific criteria for tags. You don't want people just tagging whatever they feel like, either - you'd end up with a bunch of tags like "top loader" or "box 1" from people who don't understand how they work (for those unaware, I'm referring to comments on cards in which people have put such details that pertain only to their collection, not realizing that the comments are visible to the whole site). 

Yes!  That was sort of my point, if we are removing non-specific words like "thunder" from a character/person named "Thunder" we should also start tagging that non-specific word so it will be easier to find them.  I'm curious what the criteria is for tags as well.

We can't just say there is no tag feature when there obviously is one. Since its a feature, it should be utilized to its maximum capacity within reason. I would think if "Captain's Armband" is a tag (today's RCOTD has that tag), then I don't see why weather or aquatic animals shouldn't be listed as a tag (if it isn't already).

Yeah there's the tag feature with the predetermined tags (and I've used it a lot), but we can't do custom ones and I wouldn't want that system abused anyway. The other problem is when you create something like a "Thunder" tag then someone with no idea why it was created decides to tag all the OKC cards in the system ... and FYI Admin is the only one that can remove tags from a card, so he's gonna be pissed if that happens . Also we can't tag sets (I've discussed that with Admin over the whole MSA thing but I don't think there are any plans to do that).

I'm not sure why someone would want to tag an entire set anyways, maybe I missed where that was mentioned. Predetermined tags, whatever you want to call them exist, if Admin is the only one who can create them fine, we can always suggest some to him and if he wants to include them great.  As for the abusing part, that's easy, just like other features on the site make it so you have to pass a test before you are allowed to tag cards.  If you abuse it, get the privledge taken away. I'm also not sure how you could abuse that system anyways, especially if you used it a lot, makes it sound like you're fine with you using it but not so much others.

The idea for tagging a whole set would be for adding a word or phrase about a set that we can't put into the set's name. Something like an "MSA" tag for those custom food discs of the 70s and 80s where "MSA" isn't part of the set name and isn't the brand or manufacturer.

The "abuse" thing was like I said ... we create a "Thunder" tag for people to tag cards about thunder, but someone else might think it's about the Oklahoma City basketball team and decides to tag every OKC card with it. Same thing with "Lightning" and the Tampa Bay hockey team.  Someone goes through the tags, sees "Thunder" thinking it's about weather, and 99% of the list is basketball.


A quick update from earlier regarding messages with Admin: he confirmed "Largemouth Bass" and "European Robin" are allowed to have PIDs.

I think jupiterhill has a good idea on the use of tags.  It should not be dismissed because it doesn't fit someone else's needs on this site.  I suggest jupiter takes it to Admin, explains his intended use and see what Admin says.  It does solve how to search all of the cards without PID.

Using tags for the more generic "weather" or even "Cards about weather" (probably more appropriate and descriptive), would be better than using more specific "rain", "snow", "thinder", "lightning", etc. As you can see, there could be a huge surge of tags of they were to be so specific. But these are definitely things we don't want PIDs for either.