Ah, tags. A much-abused, often-ignored feature of the site. Most diarists, as far as I can tell, just put in one or two tags, just enough to make the software happy. Readers and commenters usually don't add any. But it doesn't have to be that way. See, tags can be
useful, especially when combined with the shiny new Search engine that we've been graced with.
Follow me below, and I'll explain.
The key to finding diaries on a given subject, to find the needle in the vast diary haystack, is that the Search engine can combine multiple tags.
For example, let's say that you want to do some background reading on what's going on in Iraq. To save time, you only want to look at recommended diaries. How to do so? Well, click on the Search link, and enter 'tag=Iraq tag=Recommended' (without the single quotes) in the search field. Set the type to Diaries, set the range to 4 weeks (for example), and you'll get a list of the 50-odd recommended diaries having to do with Iraq in the last month.
Now, let's say that you want to read about Iraq, but about issues besides the massacre in Haditha. Let's exclude Haditha from the search. Change the search term to 'tag=Iraq tag=Recommended NOT tag=Haditha'. Now, we get a list of 40ish diaries. Still a lot to read through, but at least we've pruned away 20 percent, and are more likely to find what we're actually looking for.
What about trying to see how a particular media outlet is covering the story? Try this search term: tag=Iraq tag="New York Times"
We need the quotes around the NYT tag because it has spaces. As you can see from the results, not very many people tag diaries with the source of the story.
Of course, we can also combine searching for tags with searching for text. For example, 'tag=Iraq tag=Recommended Haditha not tag=Haditha' finds a list of Bad Taggers, diarists who talk about Haditha, but don't use a Haditha tag. Bad diarists. No cookie for you.
So, that brings me to the piteous plea section of this diary: Please don't be a Bad Tagger. Give a moment or two worth of thought to your tags. Put in some generic tags (e.g. 'Iraq', 'George W. Bush') that indicate the broad context of your diary, but also some more specific ones ('Haditha', 'Moqtada al-Sadr', 'Polls', 'NSA Wiretapping') to help people who are searching. If you aren't sure whether a tag exists, open up the All Tags page, and use the Find function on your browser to look. If a diary is tightly coupled to a story that appeared in a specifc media outlet (a NY Times analysis piece, or some exclusive story on ABC, or the latest idiocy out of Fox News), put in a tag identifying that media outlet.
And, this plea applies to readers/commenters as well. If you think that the diary needs more tags, add them. It takes less than a minute to click on the Add Tags link (or Add/Edit for TUs), and put in a new tag or two.
Some miscellaneous pleas: Tags should be separated by commas, not spaces. If you separate your tags by spaces, they get entered into the database as one big tag; 'Iraq Haditha Marines' is not a useful tag. If you're not sure about the spelling of someone's name, take the 20 seconds to check. The easiest way is to type in what you think is the correct spelling into Google; if you've got it wrong, there's a good chance that Google will suggest the right spelling. If a diary makes it on to the Rec List, please add the Recommended tag. Please do not add that tag if a diary is not on the Rec list. That's just obnoxious.
And finally, just for giggles, a way to either boost or crush your ego. To see how many of your diaries have been picked for Susan's diary rescue project, set the search type to Stories (front page articles), and use this search text: 'tag="Diary Rescue" username', and replace username with your actual username (use double quotes if your ID has spaces). Here's mine as an example, showing the three of my diaries that caught Susan's eye.
-dms