tagfootology

Backup your bookmarks by July 15th

2011-06-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

On July 15th, tagfoot will be taken offline indefinitely.

Please make sure to back up your tagfoot bookmarks (instructions provided below).

Instructions for exporting your bookmarks:
1. From your tagfoot profile page, click on the "DASHBOARD" tab in the upper right.
2. Right-click on "export bookmarks" from the "do stuff..." category and "select link as..."

Instructions for importing into Google Bookmarks or Delicious
While only links to Google and Delicious are provided, your tagfoot bookmarks file should be compatible with all browsers and/or online bookmarking applications. Look to your browser's help file for more information.

Instructions for importing into Google Bookmarks.
Instructions for importing to delicious.

Note:
Although, your notes, pictures, and comments will not be exported to your bookmarks file, they will be backed up internally with the hope of getting the band back together.

Again, thank you to all of you that were in it for all the right reasons.

be a good editor, trim the fat

2007-12-19T13:34:00.000-08:00

Did you know everything you add to tagfoot has the potential to end up on the tagfoot home page?

Be a good editor and submit clean titles and descriptive blurbs when submitting content. When you add to tagfoot, although your tagfoot helper will pre-populate the submission with what it thinks the title should be, you are still the "editor-in-chief."

All of the fields are editable before you commit so take a quick minute to check things over before heading towards the save button.

Effective titles
TURN THIS: "Bush signs bill boosting car fuel economy - Oil & energy - msnbc.com"
INTO THIS: "Bush signs bill boosting car fuel economy"

In this case, of course MSNBC still gets source credit and a direct link to the article. BUT, by cleaning up the title just a bit, you've done the entire tagfoot community a HUGE favor. You've given them only that which they need to digest your submission quickly.

Smart blurbing
When adding a news story, adding blurbs is really not at all a chore. Here's the quickest way: highlight the first paragraph of the story and hit your "add to my tagfoot" button. The first paragraph will automatically be inserted into the blurb field of the submission form!

Blurbs give a quick rundown as to what the story pertains to with a little more clarity than can be achieved with only a title. A good tagfoot editor, ALWAYS includes a blurb.

Brilliant tags
The right tags make all the difference in the world - the same can be said about using the wrong tags. The above mentioned story does not relate to "cool" nor does it to "fresh." It does however relate to "bush, global warming, and energy conservation." Tag well - NOTHING annoys the community more than bad tagging. Really.

As part of the tagfoot community, your public submissions are for public consumption. Keep it lean, remove the fat and don't forget to give a little taste of what's to come.

tagging 101: your tags SUCK.

2007-12-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

What is a tag and why should you care about tagging? When you finally get a grip on the concept, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. And, most importantly, you'll be able to quickly identify tags that suck.

Your bookmarks, wishlist items, news articles, videos, even your friends should and will be tagged well AND you'll make the world a better place - if you can manage to get to the end of this post.

So why would you want to tag? Tagging serves three very basic purposes.
1. Organization
2. Organization
3. Organization

If there’s only one thing you take out of this article, let it be this… CATEGORIES. (You can leave now but, you should probably keep reading.)

Think of tags as your own personal CATEGORIES - categories that will allow you to sift through all of your stuff quickly AND let your friends find things in a snap when they want to buy you a gift! Let's look at some examples of good and not-so-good tags.

THINGS TO TAG: Apple, Banana, Orange
GOOD TAGS: fruit, health
NOT-SO-GOOD: things I like to eat for breakfast

THINGS TO TAG: Dog, Cat, Hamster
GOOD TAGS: animals, pets
NOT-SO-GOOD: cute and cuddly, cutes, cuties, cutecute

THINGS TO TAG: Baseball, Football, Soccer
GOOD TAGS: sports, exercise
NOT-SO-GOOD: I love these games!

Starting to see a pattern? GOOD TAGS are generic terms that would be easily identifiable by most people. Not-so-good tags are... well... let's just say they suck.

Why? If a month from now, you're looking for something in your stuff, are you going to remember that you used "I love these games!" as your CATEGORY for Baseball and Football? Is anyone else perusing your stuff going to have a clue as to what may be under "cute and cuddly?"

The idea here is that you want to organize all of your stuff in such a way that EVERYONE can relate to your posts INCLUDING YOU A YEAR FROM NOW.

Let's look at a couple of more - only this this time, let's make them a little more "real."

NEWS HEADLINE: Dolphins win (finally)
GOOD TAGS: miami dolphins, football, nfl, sports
NOT-SO-GOOD: took them long enough

You starting to get a grip? One more...

WEB SITE: Amazon.com
GOOD TAGS: shopping, electronics, gifts
NOT-SO-GOOD: lots of stuff, cool, nice

Am I beating a dead horse? Last one...

WISHLIST ITEM: iPod Nano
GOOD TAGS: ipod, apple, mac, electronics
NOT-SO-GOOD: so cute, coolest thing ever, please

Alright, I'm done. Now go do me, you and everyone else, a favor and start tagging your stuff properly. Please. You'll thank me later.

GOOD TAGS for this post: tagging, tagfoot, tags, most awesomest post ever (ok... scratch that last one.)