Good tags bad tags by Tim Finnegan Lyrics
Looking closer at the current list of RapGenius tags we can explore what makes a tag more or less useful... (Warning: the closer you look, the more confusing these can get)
If it's just a name, this can be handled much better via search:
A-Tribe-Called-Quest
Adidas
Albert-Camus
Alexander-Wang
Even if there are several possible names for one thing, eg: A-Rod
Allowing one or more tags for each named person/place/thing would mean billions of tags... surely a nightmare that defeats their purpose.
More-promising tags:
A-Cappella: this applies to performances without accompaniment in any genre, and it could be interesting to see them all grouped together. But RapGenius hasn't begun tagging performances yet, just songs.
African-American-Literature: Amazon uses lots of categories like this. They can help a lot, as tags, because the text of the book won't usually spell it out. And making it a tag allows more overlap than a strict hierarchy/taxonomy. But again we'd be talking thousands of tags at this level.
Algebra: As a subcategory of math it makes sense, but I bet there's almost no overlap: no songs or poems or novels about algebra except ones that can be found by simple search on the word
Adult-Swim: Maybe, if discussions take the category for granted and don't spell it out?
Advertising: I sort of like this one because it can be explored in all different media, and you can't be sure what other words they'll use (ad, ads, commercials, etc)
Ad-Hominem: It would be cool to pull up all sorts of ad-hominems from every sort of media, but I don't really think it's practical. (Picture the arguments between accusers and defenders)
Alcohol: There's all kinds of references to drinking and drugging in all media, so maybe something like this could be useful
21-&-Over: If this is about legality, it's going to be handled at a higher level than tags
90s-Kids: This would be better handled by a forum or blog where the best articles are linked.
90s-Rock: Ideally, the song-database should let you specify all rock from 1990 to 1999.
Air-Tanks: Maybe someone thought a news item about air tanks deserved this tag? (smh craaaazy)
2014-Australian-Open: It would be super-impractical to allow a tag for every sporting event.
2014-Elections: Imagining some future researcher, interested in items about elections in a specific year? But then you'd want to specify the country, and the office... no way!?!
ACA
Affordable-Care-Act: And 'Obamacare' too, while we're at it, right? But in a year nobody will even care, so let them do the multiple searches instead of trying to impose one official tag.
If it's just a name, this can be handled much better via search:
A-Tribe-Called-Quest
Adidas
Albert-Camus
Alexander-Wang
Even if there are several possible names for one thing, eg: A-Rod
Allowing one or more tags for each named person/place/thing would mean billions of tags... surely a nightmare that defeats their purpose.
More-promising tags:
A-Cappella: this applies to performances without accompaniment in any genre, and it could be interesting to see them all grouped together. But RapGenius hasn't begun tagging performances yet, just songs.
African-American-Literature: Amazon uses lots of categories like this. They can help a lot, as tags, because the text of the book won't usually spell it out. And making it a tag allows more overlap than a strict hierarchy/taxonomy. But again we'd be talking thousands of tags at this level.
Algebra: As a subcategory of math it makes sense, but I bet there's almost no overlap: no songs or poems or novels about algebra except ones that can be found by simple search on the word
Adult-Swim: Maybe, if discussions take the category for granted and don't spell it out?
Advertising: I sort of like this one because it can be explored in all different media, and you can't be sure what other words they'll use (ad, ads, commercials, etc)
Ad-Hominem: It would be cool to pull up all sorts of ad-hominems from every sort of media, but I don't really think it's practical. (Picture the arguments between accusers and defenders)
Alcohol: There's all kinds of references to drinking and drugging in all media, so maybe something like this could be useful
21-&-Over: If this is about legality, it's going to be handled at a higher level than tags
90s-Kids: This would be better handled by a forum or blog where the best articles are linked.
90s-Rock: Ideally, the song-database should let you specify all rock from 1990 to 1999.
Air-Tanks: Maybe someone thought a news item about air tanks deserved this tag? (smh craaaazy)
2014-Australian-Open: It would be super-impractical to allow a tag for every sporting event.
2014-Elections: Imagining some future researcher, interested in items about elections in a specific year? But then you'd want to specify the country, and the office... no way!?!
ACA
Affordable-Care-Act: And 'Obamacare' too, while we're at it, right? But in a year nobody will even care, so let them do the multiple searches instead of trying to impose one official tag.