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Any update on turning off global tags or letting users know they are not local?

  1. jamesewelch
    Member

    I've been searching for the forums on this topic and there doesn't seem to be much of an update over the last few months.

    It seems like the only way to turn off global tags is to cheat the system by marking your blog as mature content. As recommended here: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=9298

    However, I'm pretty sure that will have bad side effects, so I'm trying to stay away from using that technique.

    I wouldn't mind the global tags, if it wasn't so confusing. Right now, when a user clicks on a category at the bottom of my post, it shows global posts. But if they click on the same tag in my sidebar, then they see only my posts.

    I've ended up adding my own links to the bottom of my posts that link to my categories, but the global tags are still there. So now, I just have 2 sets of links on the bottom of my posts - which is not the best way of doing it.

    I also know that I can turn off the setting under Privacy, but that limits your visibility to search engines as well. Seems like it would be nice to have a checkbox under Presentation/Extras, just like the Snap Preview option.

    But, I'd rather just have the themes edited to say that the links are GLOBAL and not linking to my own blog. Its just too confusing for me and anyone who expects the link to be site-specific navigation. Or even better, what about all of the themes having 2 sets of links. One local and one global?

    Original request was closed by admin a long time ago:
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=935

  2. raincoaster
    Member

    No, no update.

  3. wank
    Member

    The tag/category system is going to undergo an overhaul shortly, since tags are being introduced in WP 2.3, so we'll see what happens. I'm not optimistic, though; Matt has been pretty adamant about concealing the destination of global tags from visitors, since fewer people would click on them if they knew what they were and fewer clickthroughs=less ad revenue.

  4. timethief
    Member

    Refer to:
    Is there an easy way to add tags?
    See Mark's post here: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=15194&page&replies=14#post-111332

  5. raincoaster
    Member

    As well, as has been discussed before, one of the key reasons WP.com blogs do so well in search engines and Technorati is this exact thing; the way global tag pages link to individual posts. You can set it up differently with a self-hosted blog if it really bothers you, but you will not have anywhere near the juice you would if you continue to use the global tags the way they're set up here.

  6. jamesewelch
    Member

    I don't mind using the global tags. I would just like to make sure the readers know that the link they are clicking on will take them off my site. Its more of a usability/confusion issue than not wanting them.

  7. raincoaster
    Member

    If you got the CSS upgrade, perhaps you could put "Tags: opens to global tag pages" or something at the start of the paragraph of tags. That's all I can think of.

  8. options
    Member

    It seems like the only way to turn off global tags is to cheat the system by marking your blog as mature content. As recommended here: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=9298

    However, I'm pretty sure that will have bad side effects, so I'm trying to stay away from using that technique.

    yes, you're absolutely right -- marking your blog as mature content will no dice.
    furthermore, as it appeared recently, that Mature blog's Category links in the post-meta leads to literally Nowhere, i.e. appropriate Global Tags pages are simply empty at all.

    the only available way to escape from GT kolkhoz and get a sane blog navigation is to set a blog as a Private one, thus hiding it completely out from search engines view as well.

    ... one of the key reasons WP.com blogs do so well in search engines and Technorati is this exact thing; the way global tag pages link to individual posts.

    well, according to Matt himself,

    "The tag pages weren't created for search engines, they were created to build bridges between bloggers on their own little islands."

    i.e. the purpose of the Global Tag Communism is not a huge Link Farm aiming to get a SEO benefit (exploiting some search engines issues), but merely distributing (I doubt about net increase) total page-views number between different .com blogs for the account of blogs with higher PR and/or more related (to the SE) queries content. the later said blogs just have to pass away they PR/quality content links cause they out of control it this way.

    as wank has already correctly noted above, fooled by concealed GT links, visitors landed from search engines, simply click on hijacked category links and get that said "stream of fresh stuff" instead of related content they were after on your blog -- otherwise blogs with low quality and/or unrelated content would never earn that hits by a legitimate way (e.g. such as hits from SE).

    notice, by the way, that many of so called VIP blogs hosted on the .com (such as LOLcats, CNN ticker, GigaOm blogs network, and since recently .com news blog itself, et al.) don't hurry up to give up they local PR7 category links to the Global Tags system despite they seem be supposed to:

    What do we ask in return?

  9. raincoaster
    Member

    Yes, yes, Matt can say whatever he likes about intentionality, but functionality is a different thing, and that's what I'm talking about. Because the tag pages are set up that way, they have that specific effect. This has been confirmed by staff in this very forum.

  10. options
    Member

    oh, I'd love to see a link to such an interesting post of staff. wouldn't you happen to have this?

    it's curiously, not only because Andy and Matt who were kind enough to comment this issue on my blog both didn't mentioned by a single word that said mythical "specific effect" which has nothing to do with reality (cause there isn't such indeed, see POC*), and both confirmed:

    The purpose is to get .com bloggers more distribution.

    but rather because they're perfectly aware where spamdexing may lead into:

    Search engines such as Google recommend that webmasters <...> avoid participating in link farms. According to Google, a site that participates in a link farm may have its search rankings penalized.

    .
    *) POC -- Proof of the Concept:

    login into your Google Webmaster Tools dashboard, switch to "Pages that link to yours" tab: here you can see all the valid external links which your site's PR is made from.

    now count like how exactly many there are such links pointing to your blog from the pages whose URL is starting from the 'http://wordpress.com/tag' -- most likely there are zilch (zero) of such. surpisingly? -- uhm, not all.

    and yes, I'm also getting some clicks from the folks apparently bored enough so they have to browse GT or reading GT surfer's lengthy spam-sheets in chase of the "stream of fresh stuff" (so far the "Porn" tag, I've recently started to use is their beloved one), but it has nowhere near something to do with the SE juice pretended.

  11. raincoaster
    Member

    I don't have the direct link, but you can search the forums as easily as I can.

  12. mymyspacelayouts
    Member

    It seems like the only way to turn off global tags is to cheat the system by marking your blog as mature content. As recommended here: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=9298

    However, I'm pretty sure that will have bad side effects, so I'm trying to stay away from using that technique.

    My other blog is marked as "mature" though nothing about it is adult. I asked Mark what could go wrong by me doing this and he listed a few things like maybe there might be problems at Google and Technorati and pagerank. But no one didn't know exactly what could go wrong. So I went along with having it labeled adult. A few things went wonky in the beginning. I noticed my Alexa page changed at first and the " Similar pages" feature at Google went missing. But everything is now okay and is the way it should be for my other blog.

  13. timethief
    Member

    cross-reference to http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=15931

  14. judyb12
    Member

    That would seem to support options's view that the global tag pages don't actually help with ranking. Thanks for sharing the info, nosy (or should i say, mmsl) :)

  15. timethief
    Member

    I'm aware that this is a highly charged issue, for some bloggers. My blog benefits greatly from being a part of the global tagging system and I have no complaints about getting those hits that my blog would otherwise miss out on.

  16. mymyspacelayouts
    Member

    The only thing that changed my pagerank and traffic was when I took months off for health reasons. And when I came back, I changed formats from celebrity to now being weird news. Hits and pagerank went way down. :O

  17. mymyspacelayouts
    Member

    I also know that I can turn off the setting under Privacy, but that limits your visibility to search engines as well. Seems like it would be nice to have a checkbox under Presentation/Extras, just like the Snap Preview option.

    You can still be labeled mature and still be seen on search engines. Look at all the porn blogs and websites listed on Google. Being labeled mature and being private are different. You can just ask Mark to label your blog as mature though some things at first might go wonky at first as I said earlier. Being labeled mature will just take you off the tagging community, the "Next" feature on everyone's blog, and from being listed on the top blogs and top posts lists.

  18. options
    Member

    Being labeled mature will just take you off the tagging community

    and in this moment, unforunately, it will also make all your category links in the post meta-data pointing to NOWHERE.

    not sure if this helps to your readers browse for related posts on your mature blog, or even if this doesn't make them as well utterly confused by such an über-modern but somewhat unexpected manner of navigation of the web-site ;-)

  19. nosysnoop
    Member

    I don't have categories or tags on my first blog. If people want to search for anything, they type in the site search. But allot come to my site from search engines. But allot already come on a daily basis to certain posts and treat it like a forum.

  20. justjennifer
    Member

    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=15969&page&replies=1

    In the words of the venerable Mr. Spock, "Interesting". Guess we'll have to wait and see.

  21. justjennifer
    Member

    It still looks like the links in both Categories and Tags in your blog (not the sidebar) lead to the WP.com tag surfer. In my opinion, that sucks. I'd rather see Categories be local, especially since I use descriptive names for Categories (more than one word) and Tags act like keywords. FWIW-I do know that adding either a Category or Tag widget in my blog sidebar will point to my posts in my blog, but I don't like using them.

    Does anyone know if there is a any plan to change how Categories and Tags work?

  22. rpamorris
    Member

    @justjennifer

    I came here to ask the same thing. What's the point in having both tags and categories if when I click on a category link on my blog, it takes me to the tag on wordpress.com instead of the categories on my own site? I could see tags behaving that way, but why categories?

  23. nrepair
    Member

    I also think that tags should be global and categories should be local. There is no point to having both at this time, since they both work exactly the same way.

  24. options
    Member

    perhaps, you might get lucky asking these questions and voicing your ideas on the .com "News Blog" < http://wordpress.com/blog/2007/09/22/tags-and-categories/#respond > page, as there is a comments box suggesting to "Leave a Reply" *.

    and the issue is, these volunteered forums, as a matter of fact, is just a facility for either not-so-automatic copy-pasting of the well-known answers to the FAQ entries (for the apparently 'search form' wise challenged folks), or directing community members to the 'feedback form' to contact a 'happyness engineer', if this is an as pretty much FAQ one, but nonetheless is a taboo subject here for certain reasons.

    granted the "Global Tags" issue is exactly one of such tabooed topics, the only available option left is that said 'contact support' form, for what it worth.

    so, feedback there, then, please, for the benefit for all of us, certainly post back here replies of the staff, if there will be any or lack thereof.

    .
    *) and yes, I know it says: "Please do not use these comments for asking questions, use the forums or feedback form for that", but it's not quite clear what those comments there are actually supposed for, then?

  25. justjennifer
    Member

    @options-Done and Done. Awaiting moderation. Either there are another million comments awaiting moderation on that Post or Tags is the most underwhelming feature introduced on WP.com '-)

    Also, since many of us plain old members (with a small "m") haven't been around long enough or deeply enough in the forums to know what is considered taboo and what isn't, this is where we tend to congregate to give voice to our thoughts. Sorry if this was inappropriate.

  26. options
    Member

    hello jennifer, there's absolutely no need to sorry at all. I sincerelly believe everyone posting here is really a member with a capital 'M', regardless of how much % of their life time has been wrecked while hanging on these forums (or .com in general).

    it was perfectly apropriate -- that's what, in my opinion, forums, in fact are exactly supposed to. rather, perhaps, I failed to make the point clear and properly in my previous post, so I bring an apology for that.

    he-he, indeed, unfortunately yet there isn't a link I could provide you with to what's considered a taboo here ;-)

    although, just several posts above in this very thread timethief was kind enough to give us a cross-reference link to another similar titled topic on this issue, there in the last post of mine is a link to the cruical but closed topic regarding this problem. also, you might want to briefly skim through some of the post tagged as "Global Tags".

    why do you think this particular feature is the most underwhelming one? my guess it's pretty neutral, as the new Tags just recently introduced don't add or remove any significant functional value -- there's nothing has really changed from UI point of view, besides maybe another array of meta-data is now can be attached to the Posts.

    whereas inception of the notorious Global Tags feature did both things: it did remove a normal function of Categories (browse related posts) and replaced it with the "zeitgeist of what's popular in the last 48 hours", AKA "stream of the fresh stuff".

  27. justjennifer
    Member

    @options-Sorry for the late reply. I was referring to the fact that the comment before mine on the WPcom Post was made on Sept 22, whereas mine was made on Sept 26. That's pretty much a sign that comments are being held in moderation OR most unlikely that no one has posted a comment between Sept 22 and 26. That was my tongue-in-cheek inference that the new feature was "underwhelming".

    I did a bit of surfing on the Tags vs Categories subject and now have a better understanding of why this topic is a Hot Potato. Thanks for pointing it out.

    Honestly though, I absolutely agree that there should be something pointing to WPcom's Tag Zeitgeist page. This is a free service after all and traffic for the WPcom domain is a good thing for both WPcom and us. The question is what that something is (Categories vs. Tags) and how (body of Blog vs. Sidebar) and have it applied consistently across the board for all Themes. Regardless in the long run, whether we like it or not, since it's not our ball we don't get to set the rules. We can still cheer or gripe though. :)

  28. raincoaster
    Member

    All comments on the WP news blog are held in moderation. And eventually they disable comments.

  29. simplejournal
    Member

    Hey everyone, I've just realized that my tags and categories (on the post-meta) are pointing as "local" instead of "global". It wasn't like that 1 hour ago, so I'm not so sure.

    here's my blog: http://cottonable.com/
    a new blog actually, less than a week and very few content. I'm in the process of manually importing my old posts from my current blog.

  30. andrew
    Member

    Yes, your cottonable (like the name!) blog does seem to have local tags. My first thought was that it might be the theme. So I switched my other wp.com blog to the same theme as yours: Pressrow. Tags remained global.
    So there seems to be something unusual about cottonable. At first I thought it strange that "a new blog" had posts more than a year old, but I guess that's because you're importing them from your old blog.
    I am baffled by the question of why you have local tags, and very interested in what the answer turns out to be.

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