Trusted Users can now edit tags on stories. Hopefully this will allow tag spam to be wiped out, edit out mistakes and misspellings, and otherwise collectively prune and maintain the site's folksonomy.

Now that the tagging implementation is complete we can focus on building site tools to use those tags. Like tag-based sorting of recent diaries (which is next on the list).

Update [2005-10-11 18:23:3 by ct]: If you look to the side of your screen, at the recent diaries box, you can now either sort recent diaries by time (the default) or by a tag, which will bring up the recent diaries with that tag, up to the limit you've already defined.

So this site is about to enter the world of folksonomies, in which everyone tags the content on the site to make it easier to find, track, and categorize.

Unlike categories which force people to fit their content into a small number of content groupings, tagging allows registered users to categorize not just their own diaries, but those of anyone else's on the site, with as many keywords as necessary.

This will come in handy as we work to implement a way to sort diaries by tags (eta this week), as well as do fun stuff like this. So please start using tags when posting diaries, and don't be shy about adding tags to other content you come across. The more each piece of content (each diary) is categorized, the more ways of finding it we'll have, the more organized we'll become.

This implementation will be a bit rough at first. Not only is this new code in Scoop, but it's new technology in the web in general. So things may not be perfect or totally smooth as we not just work out the kinks, but also work out the concept itself. If you have ideas, please share.

Here's the current list of dKos tags, which will grow massively moving forward.

Update: From the comments:

Wired.com had an article last week with a few tips on how to tag effectively.

To summarize:

1. Use combinations of simple tags rather than inventing complex ones. For instance, use tags CIA, LEAK and INVESTIGATION, instead of CIA-LEAK-INVESTIGATION.

2. Use at least two tags for each item. More tags is better (up to a point).

3. Try to think of what tags people might use to search for something and use those. For example, PLAME, ROVE, FITZPATRICK, NOVAK, TREASON, OUTING, OPERATIVE might all be good tags for an entry on the Valerie Plame outing.

4. Try to re-use existing tags.

5. Keep it simple. Don't use tags that are redundant.

So the site's search sucks. We know it. The current search wasn't designed to handle 8 gazillion diaries. And categories suck as well (for a ton of reasons I won't get into). I've resisted adding them to diaries, and recently got rid of them on the frontpage stuff as well.

So how do we find the stuff we're looking for? Well, given the growth of tagging, it seems like a great way to go. We''ve got some ideas on how to make it work on the site. Those of you with experience tagging, feel free to offer ideas or suggestions.

If you don't know what tagging is, don't sweat it. I'd rather hear from those who HAVE used it and have opinions about it -- the good and bad. Any good developer resources would also be appreciated. Thanks.