Thread tagging privileges are now revokable

[Giraffe]

Last night I decided to make a change to the usergroup structure and then announce it in a dramatic fashion. Because I have a flair for the dramatic and not because I'm sort of an idiot.

The purpose of this change was to make it possible to selectively remove individual poster's ability to add tags to threads. A few people have been somewhat persistently dickish with them, following people around the board and crapping in every thread they post in, but never quite to the point that I wanted to turn them off for everyone. So this is your heads up that if you threadshit all over the board with tags, you might eventually lose your ability to tag.

Please note that we're not banning snarky tags -- many of us like to tease other posters in the tags (usually Fenris), which is fine. What we're trying to stop are the posters who get a bee in their bonnet about another poster or issue and pepper tags all over the place. Anyone who gets de-tagged is welcome to start a thread in GS and make a case for why we are oversensitive or capricious or just plain wrong or you can PM one of us if you'd prefer to hold that discussion in private.

Sorry I can't be more precise about what will lead to de-tagging: we've been deleting all the tags we feel are over the line thus far, so there's nothing we can point to specifically. But we've also noticed a handful of names keep popping up and I'd like to have the option to simply turn off the tag faucet for these people for a while.

[bufftabby]

This is why we can have nice things.

[Nummus]

You can tell who makes which tags?!?



Damn. That last one was a mistake, I swear!

[Kat]

Can I still harass Brian via tags?

[BJMoose]

If you can find him.


And you damned well better not!

[dogbutler]

Originally Posted by Giraffe

Last night I decided to make a change to the usergroup structure and then announce it in a dramatic fashion. Because I have a flair for the dramatic and not because I'm sort of an idiot.

The purpose of this change was to make it possible to selectively remove individual poster's ability to add tags to threads. A few people have been somewhat persistently dickish with them, following people around the board and crapping in every thread they post in, but never quite to the point that I wanted to turn them off for everyone. So this is your heads up that if you threadshit all over the board with tags, you might eventually lose your ability to tag.

Please note that we're not banning snarky tags -- many of us like to tease other posters in the tags (usually Fenris), which is fine. What we're trying to stop are the posters who get a bee in their bonnet about another poster or issue and pepper tags all over the place. Anyone who gets de-tagged is welcome to start a thread in GS and make a case for why we are oversensitive or capricious or just plain wrong or you can PM one of us if you'd prefer to hold that discussion in private.

Sorry I can't be more precise about what will lead to de-tagging: we've been deleting all the tags we feel are over the line thus far, so there's nothing we can point to specifically. But we've also noticed a handful of names keep popping up and I'd like to have the option to simply turn off the tag faucet for these people for a while.

Sounds reasonable. That means I'm not actually posting on Giraffeboards.

[Kat]

Originally Posted by BJMoose

If you can find him.


And you damned well better not!

I just want to be prepared. Just in case.

[Khampelf]

Another benefit of a magnificently neglectful benevolent dictatorship. When Giraffe can finally be arsed to do something, we're the better for it.

[Morgenstern]

How will I recognize the tag police, or do they just sort of sneak up on you and smack you with something wet?

[Elyanna]

Noice.

[dogbutler]

Originally Posted by Morgenstern

How will I recognize the tag police, or do they just sort of sneak up on you and smack you with something wet?

That's not the Tag Police, that's Barbi!

[Musicat]

Are tags really necessary? Doesn't the search function find key words in the text?

[Vinyl Turnip]

[SmartAleq]

Originally Posted by Musicat

Are tags really necessary? Doesn't the search function find key words in the text?

You might not be aware of it, but a tag search is very useful. For example, the Durp snark threads are usually marked with a tag that says "lol durpers amirite?" so a search on that tag will bring up all the threads tagged thusly, whereas a search on the words "durp snark" might not return all titles. Granted, most tags are there as comic/snarky comment on the thread contents, but it would be easy for me to remember that I tagged a couple threads the same than to remember those specific threads or a good search word to look them up by. Say I decide that every thread in which you post will get the tag "looky mah tag" then I can easily bring those up without tipping you off that I'm cyber stalking you. And that's pretty useful, innit?

Also, if you click on a tag in a thread it will bring up all threads tagged that way, so you don't even have to make a search, just click a tag. Try it, it's fun!

[BJMoose]

Originally Posted by dogbutler

Sounds reasonable. That means I'm not actually posting on Giraffeboards.

Of course not! I make him keep his name on the place just to keep my Comments section pristine.

[Xploder]

I was wondering why this wasn't in effect from day one. It can't be that hard to do or else you wouldn't have been able to do it.

[Giraffe]

Originally Posted by Musicat

Are tags really necessary? Doesn't the search function find key words in the text?

Yes, but can the search function call you a gaywad?

[Dangermouse]

Originally Posted by Giraffe

Yes, but can the search function call you a gaywad?

Only if you tip it an extra $20.