Code Project Tags FAQ

Table of Contents

• How can I create a new tag?
• How can I delete a tag?
• How can I rename a tag?
• What exactly is a tag synonym?
• What is tag merging and why would I do it?
• What is a 'Closed' tag?
• How come I can't create, edit, delete, etc.? Reputation.
• Why don't I see my tag changes immediately? Caching.

1. How can I create a new tag?

   Tags can be created by simply entering one that does not yet exist in our system while creating a new article, tip/trick, question, answer, etc. After your content (article, question, etc.) has been submitted you may see an icon next to the list of tags indicating that your new tag(s) may not be immediately visible. This is due to caching.

2. How can I delete a tag?

   You can delete tags from the Tag List page. You must have Javascript enabled in order to do this.

   When a tag gets deleted all content previously tagged with it will no longer be. Please use your judgement and only remove tags that are clearly innappropriate.

3. How can I rename a tag?

   You can rename tags from the Tag List page. You must have Javascript enabled in order to do this. Help us fix spelling and casing mistakes.

4. What exactly is a tag synonym?

   Just what you'd think. Another name or alias for a tag. For example, the tag Windows 2000 has the synonym W2K. When tagging content, if you enter a synonym of a tag (rather than the "main" name) you'll see that it gets replaced with the "main" name.

   We aim to have the "main" name the one that is most commonly used and most descriptive. This may make things easier for the reader, who sees a clearer tag, and for the writer who may enter a shorter synonym for reasons of less keystrokes or because they're more familiar with a specific synonym. We hope this reduces and even eliminates content being tagged with one conceptual tag but exposed with all variants of its name.

   Our search engine also takes synonyms into account. So when you search for W2K you'll get content tagged with Windows 2000.

5. What is tag merging and why would I do it?

   The Tag List page has a feature we call merging. This essentially takes the highlighted tag and makes it a synonym of another tag.

   For example, say there are two tags named C# and C Sharp. There's no good reason to have content sometimes tagged with one and sometimes the other (or maybe both). We recommend members to merge such instances. C# is the more popular name so we'd recommend selecting merge on the C Sharp tag. From there you can select C# as the "target" tag. C Sharp then becomes a synonym of C#.

   Synonyms can be seen on the Tag List page by hovering over the ellipsis next to a tag's name (if it has any).

6. What is a 'Closed' tag?

   A "closed" tag is essentially a deleted tag. It can no longer be used to tag content. When a tag gets deleted it is not completely removed from the system in order to prevent attempts to recreate them. Some reasons you may want to close a tag are:

   • It's considered a duplicate of another tag – perhaps due to an alternate spelling.
   • It's innappropriate to be used as a tag.
   • It's obsolete and should no longer be attributed to new content.

   While creating new tags you may see a message stating that one of the tags was previously closed (or something to that effect). You won't be able to proceed until you remove the closed tag. If you feel that the tag should not have been closed let us know why you think so and we'll consider re-opening it.

7. How come I can't create, edit, delete, etc.? Reputation.

   The ability to administer tags depends on your reputation. Specifically, if you have the reputation level for any of the reputation types listed below. We're still fine-tuning these rules so they may be tweaked.

   silver

   • Author
   • Authority
   • Editor
   • Organiser

   See the Reputation FAQ page for more details on the Reputation System.

8. Why don't I see my changes immediately? Caching.

   We're currently using an aggressive caching mechanism to reduce load on our servers. As a consequence you may not immediately see your changes. This includes creating anew, deleting, renaming, and merging tags. The cache typically expires within a half hour on each server.