What is meta? ×

With the inclusion of Doctype into the discussion, the suggestion that we simply ignore the tags came to the forefront. This has me wondering if users of stackexchange would need to explicitly ignore every new item each day simply to keep their list of visible items clean and un-cluttered.

Could we have an opt-in option for cleared-tags? Meaning, you only show me what I explicitly state I want to see until I decide otherwise. That way, users don't have to login, ignore all the new tags for the day, and then get back to familiar browsing. Day 2, repeat, etc.

Basically, every tag is uninteresting if it's not in the interesting list. I don't mean to suggest this as default behavior of SO. This would be a preference for users. And opt-in service.

share|improve this question
Since the hiding is done with JavaScript anyways, it should be possible to create a Greasemonkey script that will only show tags you've marked 'interesting'. –  Kyle Cronin Aug 12 '09 at 17:00
Pretty sure this script alread exists as a matter of fact. –  EBGreen Aug 12 '09 at 17:01
Regardless of whether or not hiding is done with JS, it's possible to do with JS, but that doesn't make it the most ideal solution. –  Ian Elliott Aug 12 '09 at 17:06
It turns out I have a bookmarklet that I got somewhere that does this. I'll try to find the source, but here it is: javascript:$("div.question-summary").not('div.tagged-interesting').hide()%20&&%‌​20$('a.question-hyperlink').attr('target',%20'_blank'); –  Kyle Cronin Aug 12 '09 at 17:07
Found it: stackoverflow.com/questions/1054190/… I've also put in a moderator request to move it to Meta –  Kyle Cronin Aug 12 '09 at 17:17

3 Answers 3

up vote 1 down vote accepted

I think having to clear every user-generated tag would be unworkable. There are far too many tags for me to vet each one individually.

I also think that the underlying problem is that Jeff is bringing an outside presence into the picture, which introduces a fundamental change in the main focus of meta-SO.

Maybe a compromise would be to make a special subset of tags (like 'feature-request', 'bug', etc., here on meta) that do need to be marked as interesting to be viewed, but all user-created tags do not. This way, when new members of the LoJ are brought in, there can be new tags introduced for those members. This might cut down on the amount of tag upkeep that would be necessary for the majority of users.

share|improve this answer
That would work too. But I wasn't suggesting we manually clear every user-generated tag. That was a problem I tried to communicate in my question (sorry if it was unclear). I'm asking for no tags other than those that we explicitly show an interest in be shown. Auto-ignore of all tags that aren't white-listed. This would be a preference, not default behavior. Your suggestion is good too - I think either one is a large step ahead of where we currently are. –  Jonathan Sampson Aug 12 '09 at 17:27
Yeah, you would definitely want this to be a preference that people have to opt-in to. –  Bill the Lizard Aug 12 '09 at 17:32

I think the tag cloud changes too much for this to really be practical.

share|improve this answer
I'm suggesting that everything be ignored, with the exception of that which matches your interesting-list. Mine being "PHP jQuery CSS HTML MySQL". That would keep me from having to clear any new items that may come in. –  Jonathan Sampson Aug 12 '09 at 16:59
I suppose that could work. Conflicts would have to be worked out so that includes had greater precedence (I don't think they do right now). –  EBGreen Aug 12 '09 at 17:00

I disagree with this completely. I do not personally use the interesting/ignored tags much at all so this would suck for someone like me. If anything, this should be a user preference instead of a default.

share|improve this answer
I didn't mean to suggest it as a default behavior. Updated. –  Jonathan Sampson Aug 12 '09 at 17:02

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .