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I've been playing around with tags and wonder if they aren't superior to categories. Is there any reason to use both? I know I can't manage tags as easily (editing or deleting them like categories), but I figure WP will add more functionality in the future.
What do you think?
If do not want to develop a mile long Categories list then tagging is useful. Tagging simply gives the blogger the ability to micro-manage categories.
http://faq.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/the-difference-between-tags-and-categories/
Lorelle says http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/tags-arrive-on-wordpresscom-blogs/
Categories are your blog’s table of contents. Don’t remove them, thinking tags are a better option. They aren’t. Your posts must be categorized. Remove them and they will be categorized as “uncategorized”, something you do not want, trust me.
Tags are like your blog’s index. They are keywords that represent the micro-categorization of your blog’s content. To work effectively, they need to be words that people search for, called search terms.
Categories are automatically marked as tags in WordPress. Theoretically, your blog doesn’t need tags. But many like the notion of breaking down the words that describe their content beyond categories, and tags offer that ability.
HTH :)
Why would WordPress have a limit to tags? Please rectify this! I'd like to shift from categories to tags, but I can't/won't do this until I know all of my tags will show up in the tag cloud.
The FAQs says:
Is there a limit to the number of tags I can have?
No.
http://faq.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/the-difference-between-tags-and-categories/
The display maybe limited but sidebar are small spaces and now you can have both a category cloud and a tag cloud as well as a dropdown category option.
Another thing, if after a couple years you may have amassed 1000 tags, do you want all 1000 showing? Your pages would end up being ten feet long.
thesacredpath wrote:
Another thing, if after a couple years you may have amassed 1000 tags, do you want all 1000 showing? Your pages would end up being ten feet long.
Where would there be "all 1000 [tags] showing" that would make ten-foot long pages?
are we talking about the Tag Cloud sidebar widget now? It has a limit of 45 tags. If it didn't have a limit, the widget could end up being huge, as thesacredpath said.
I think the limit is a good thing, but we should be able to set it lower than 45 if desired. Also, I think a drop-down option would be good, too.
I've read Lorelle's article and WP's article and I still don't see the point of using categories anymore on a personal blog. Maybe I'm missing something.
@delysid23
If the tag cloud did not have a limit it wouldn't be long till it grew to a point where it would virtually take over your sidebar - at least for those who write about a variety of subjects. I was exaggerating a little on the length of the tag cloud.
{nod to judyb12}
{waving to judy and the scared path}
Agreed. As I said above: "The display maybe limited but sidebars are small spaces ..."
IMO the huge size of the font in the Tag Cloud widget needs to be reduced.
timethief - you know you can reduce the maximum size of the tag cloud widget's font? Personally I have it set to 160%.
Derivadow,
We can change the font size on the Category Cloud, but not the new Tag Cloud. I'm sure that feature will be added soon, though. I agree with TT - it's too big.
Go to presentation > widgets and click on the box at the end of the category widget. In MistyLook it lets you set the minimum and maximum sizes as well as the maximum number of categories. I'm not sure if that is universally true for all themes or not.
@thesacredpath:
That is true for the Category Cloud widget, not the Tag Cloud widget. Nrepair is correct when he says we can't do anything about the size of the tag cloud.
Ah, my mistake. Sorry about that.
Rather than the ability to limit the tag cloud font, I'd like the ability to limit the number of tags (by size). So maybe show the biggest X tags.
We should be able to limit the number and the size, just like on the category cloud. I believe those options will be added soon.
I have pulled my tag cloud widget out of my sidebar simply because the font is far too large and because I cannot adjust size as I can do with the categories widget.
@tt
I decided on the same. In MistyLook you can change the font sizes in the category cloud, but not in the tag cloud. When WP upgrades so I can change the font sizes I'll add the tag cloud back in.
I hope WP is reading this. ;)
Staff do monitor these threads and I'm sure they will read our feedback and make adjustments. Wordpress.com is to a large degree a beta testing community. Features are unrolled and bloggers test them, share their experiences and suggestions for improvement and then staff take that into consideration and make adjustments.
This tagging is a new feature. It is meant to complement and enhance categories and not to replace them. That's why I think we ought to encourage anyone with feedback to share to post it here in the forum and to think positively. After all, the only constant in our world is change. :)
I also decided to remove my tag cloud until sizing and limit functions are added, and I sent an email to support to ask that those things be implemented. (crosses fingers)
@nrepair
I'm hoping that we will see the ability to adjust the tag widget fonts soon. It seems a logical thing.
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delysid23
