Should tags be singular or plural?

[si]

When using tags to indicate "types", which do you prefer and why?

Trivial question I know. Just wondering if people have a preference, and if there is any good reason to pick one over the other.

E.g.

• Task vs Tasks
• Source vs Sources
  
• Book vs Books
• Idea vs Ideas
• Template vs Templates
• Definition vs Definitions
• Song vs Songs

[PMario]

On Thursday, April 22, 2021 at 3:58:35 PM UTC+2 si wrote:

When using tags to indicate "types", which do you prefer and why?

I do use singular, because it describes the tiddler eg : Idea .. 1 tiddler 1 Idea.

Idea can be tagged Ideas .. Which holds a "dashboard like" overview about ideas.

Idea text initially contains {{Ideas}} or have some other text, which explains the tag itself. For me the plural indicates, that there is a list involved somewhere. eg: <<list-links "[tag[Idea]]">> or the "draggable" version, which I prefer!

This gives me maximal freedom, and I the search term "idea" will give me all the relevant results anyway

But that's just me

-mario

[PMario]

On Thursday, April 22, 2021 at 3:58:35 PM UTC+2 si wrote:

...

Trivial question I know. Just wondering if people have a preference, and if there is any good reason to pick one over the other.

I think it's not really trivial, because finding good names is relatively hard. Especially if you do create content for others.

What helps me is, thinking about "what it is" instead of "what it does". eg.

An Idea is an idea. Ideas could be serval things (plural) eg: a dashboard that lists ideas ... So I can tag an idea with Idea and I can name my dashboard "Ideas Dashboard" and give that tiddler some aliases. eg: ideas

Since my aliases are case in-sensitive I can write [[Ideas|?]] or [[ideas|?]] or [[iDeAs|?]] if I want to link it. ... The link will open "Ideas Dashboard"

Just some thoughts, that are specific for me.

-mario

[Mark S.]

I go in circles on this too!

It depends whether you're thinking that each item is a "Task", or if you think of each item as part of a "folder" called "Tasks" . "Tasks" makes it easier if you want to display categories without using a description field. 

Logically the singular makes sense. But when you display or click on a tag, the plural makes sense.

Which I choose depends on what day it is ...

[TiddlyTweeter]

> @si Trivial question I know. Just wondering if people have a preference, and if there is any good reason to pick one over the other.

> @PMario : I think it's not really trivial, because finding good names is relatively hard. Especially if you do create content for others.

Right. 

Simple question. 

My answer is simple too: "It DEPENDS" on the application/purpose.

For instance, in a TW site for teaching English, I use the tag "poems" rather than "poem". 

WHY?

Because I use tag pills to construct menus and having a menu heading "poem" would make no sense but "poemS" does, as there are many.

Just a comment

TT

 

[TiddlyTweeter]

Mark S. wrote:

> Logically the singular makes sense. But when you display or click on a tag, the plural makes sense.

Right! It is to do with PURPOSE. What is the wiki FOR?

BOTH  (sing., plural) are correct, in context. BOTH could be wrong.

I think the simple question in the OP is good because it actually highlights both semantic & structural issues.

Mark S. wrote:

> I go in circles on this too!

Indeed, the final "naming of parts" is an issue firmly of the liminal! :-)

Best,  TT

[PMario]

On Thursday, April 22, 2021 at 5:22:34 PM UTC+2 Mark S. wrote:

Which I choose depends on what day it is ...

hihi, I like this one!

-m

[Mark S.]

This discussion isn't entirely academic. On Tiddlylinks there is about 1 tag for every 3 URLs ! One of the reasons is singular/plural. Should it be "Plugin" (19), or "Plugins" (59) ?

[PMario]

On Friday, April 23, 2021 at 6:37:52 PM UTC+2 Mark S. wrote:

This discussion isn't entirely academic. On Tiddlylinks there is about 1 tag for every 3 URLs ! One of the reasons is singular/plural. Should it be "Plugin" (19), or "Plugins" (59) ?

Yea, I know, the "plugin (19)" are mine. ... For exactly the reason, I posted here.

And my tags are lowercase, for a similar reason.

I did add some tags to my plugins, that use the "TW links" convention to play nice.

The good thing is. The page search finds them. So IMO we can live with it ;)

-mario

[TW Tones]

We could automate the use of singular and plural tags at least in some wikis.

Ie any tiddler that has a title tagname+s lists the tiddlers with tagname.

Tones

[TiddlyTweeter]

 TW Tones wrote:

We could automate the use of singular and plural tags at least in some wikis.

Ie any tiddler that has a title tagname+s lists the tiddlers with tagname

Could you give an example where auto-convert of tag would add value? 

It could help clarify the issue.

Best wishes

TT 

[Jeremy Ruston]

A useful technique to help us harmonise the tags on the links aggregator might be for the scraper to define a list of tag aliases to be applied when the links are gathered. So, a contributor might use the tag “Plugins” with the aggregator aliasing it to “Plugin”. That way we can clean things up quickly, in one stroke. We could also build a little tool to generate a JSON file for each contributor to import containing their links with the “fixed” tags. It would be optional whether the contributor wanted to apply the changes, or stick with their own idiosyncratic tags.

Best wishes

Jeremy

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tiddlywiki+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tiddlywiki/e0b1d67d-294e-405d-99d9-b6962faee626n%40googlegroups.com.

[Hans Huber]

Si

I pondered   over this some time and apply the following practice:

A tag is singular like "Task"

The plural "Tasks" is a tiddler that lists all stages tiddlers or offers editing functions of some sort

Pit.W

On Thu, Apr 22, 2021, 15:51 si <matthew...@gmail.com> wrote:

When using tags to indicate "types", which do you prefer and why?

• Task vs Tasks
• Source vs Sources
  
• Book vs Books

• Song vs Songs
  

• Idea vs Ideas
• Template vs Templates
• Definition vs Definitions
  

Trivial question I know. Just wondering if people have a preference, and if there is any good reason to pick one over the other.

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tiddlywiki+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tiddlywiki/ed050300-f345-4f88-bb2c-aea6b44cfe3fn%40googlegroups.com.

[Charlie Veniot]

On Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 5:51:48 AM UTC-3 note2... wrote:

Si

I pondered   over this some time and apply the following practice:

A tag is singular like "Task"

The plural "Tasks" is a tiddler that lists all stages tiddlers or offers editing functions of some sort

Pit.W

Ditto for this kid.

What kind of ship is this?  It is a battleship.  "battleship" is my tag.   "Battleships" is my tiddler listing all tiddlers tagged "battleship". 

Yeah, I've got the game on my mind...

[si]

I used to do this, but I felt it was kind of redundant. It seemed a bit much to be creating two new tiddlers every time I wanted to introduce a new category.

[Charlie Veniot]

Why two tiddlers?  A tag doesn't necessarily need to have a matching tiddler.

That said, I sometimes do create the two tiddlers.   For example, a tiddler for the "battleship" tag, and a "Battleships" tiddler to list the tiddlers tagged "battleship".

My reason to create a "battleship" tiddler: as documentation for the particular tag, including a lenghty description about the tag (purpose etc.), maybe some links to external information related to battleship, and a transclusion of the "Battleships" tiddler that lists all of the tiddlers tagged "battleship".

Why a distinct "Battleships" tiddler?  For each and every spot I want to show the list of Battleships (sidebar, transcluded in whatever other tiddlers).  Just the list and not all of the documentation that exists in "battleship".  More likely, I'd use something like "Battleships List" instead of "Battleships".

Something like that.

[TW Tones]

TT,

In a wide range of applications the plural and singular help guide the meaning. An example may be a book(s) database. So if I tag something as a book then there will be a view/tiddler called books that lists them. Perhaps a plugin to handle this would make sense, so it can be adopted when appropriate. As we know a tag need not have a tiddler by the same name, but what if that tiddler if opened listed all items so tagged (unless defeated), or a virtual plural tiddler existed eg books when book exists listing all items tagged book?

Perhaps we could just flag tags that represent instances of items so tagged eg contact if named/flagged automatically creates a contacts list. One which will be listed if you open/create the contacts tiddler.

Personally I would be inclined to move this into a field such as object-type which on giving it values of "contact or book" a suite of tools become active for handling contacts and books.

• Tiddlers that list tiddlers so tagged (selectable sorts)
• Filter that refers to all items so tagged
• A view that shows all other fields associated to tiddlers so tagged

The point being when I use tiddlywiki to undertake a wide range of functions there immediately arises the need to add predictable support from templates, to lists, filters and statistics which I think we could automate, making the solutions design process somewhat automatic.

Tones