Tag based system vs. Categories

[sweeps78]

Hi,

I was wondering if there was some option/mod/plugin that would allow me to use tags, instead of having entire forums dedicated to a particular topic. If you check out our forums:

http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/

You'll see that it is quite a bit overwhelming. Tags would greatly simplify our forums in that I could, for example, have "Robotic Field Discussions" as a forum instead of a category, and all the forums currently under it (RFGD, Animatronics, Nano, Robotics and our Children, etc.) would then become tags that users could select. This concept would be applied all across my forum.

If this is a topic that has been throughly discussed and an answer has been resolved/not resolved could somebody please tell me? I've searched on both this forum and vBulletin.com, and have not found anything definitive enough to tell me either way.

Thank you in advance.

If this is a topic that has been throughly discussed and an answer has been resolved/not resolved could somebody please tell me? I've searched on both this forum and vBulletin.com, and have not found anything definitive enough to tell me either way.

Thank you in advance.

[Zachery]

IMO,

really one or the other wouldnt cut it, both make a system highly useable.

[sweeps78]

Could you elaborate on:

Originally Posted by Zachery

IMO,

really one or the other wouldnt cut it, both make a system highly useable.

Also, if you have some advice, I'd love to hear it I'm a virgin at setting up a forum, so I'm pretty lost.

[Zachery]

Lets say you have a general forum,

So you have

Main (Category, main one)
Chit Chat (nonsense forum, whatever goes)
Popular Media (videos, flash, movies, etc)
Video Games ( consoles, pcs, etc)

Now, for some, you may further refine this, lets say in the video games
You could have subforums for each type of console, or perhaps each company for console makers Nintendo Sony Microsoft. Instead here we have a category, now you can also add tags.

Having both offers users who arnt quiet up to par on what tags are and how they work, and anyone who cant be bothered doesnt have to learn them.

The tags would show up under the topic name,

For example, a game like Mega Man X Command mission appeard on both the PS2 and the GAmeCube

So in the category of Video Games, you've got

MMX Command Mission help!
PS2 NGC

I would imagine there are differnt types of robotics and possibly these could be seperated over the board topics, then refined via tags.

[sweeps78]

Thanks for the explanation

I definitely agree with you that a combination of both would be the best choice, which is sort of what I am intending to do. I do not wish to have a purely tag based forum system by any means. What my main goal is to do is bring my forums down to a 2 - 3 tier system, which it is currently at a 4 - 5 tier system. All of my forums have been analyzed efficiently to determine that what I currently have are the most appropriate categories. However, I just have way too many forums nested inside of other forums, many of which can be eliminated by the use of tags.

So, are you saying that there is a plugin/hack that would do what I'm asking, which would be to allow my users to "tag" certain posts?

I guess I should clarify something, because the only tag-based plugins/mods I've found are not what I am looking for. I do not want the users to be able to write in their tag for each post. This would get way too ugly way too fast, as I've seen in many forums already. What I am looking for, is when they find the forum that they want to post in, when they go to post a new thread/reply, I want them to have to select a pre-defined tag from a drop down, that I had defined for that particular forum.

[Zachery]

I believe Zoints released a tag system that may do what you want. I know I'd like to see tagging implimented personally, a few months ago I would have been agasint it though, its a new way of looking at things.

[sweeps78]

Zoints does look like it would be greatly beneficial to my forum. However, I plan on installing vbSEO as well. Do you or anyone else have experience with either one of these products? If so, what are your opinions on them?

[Domenico]

Originally Posted by sweeps78

Zoints does look like it would be greatly beneficial to my forum. However, I plan on installing vbSEO as well. Do you or anyone else have experience with either one of these products? If so, what are your opinions on them?

I use both and love 'm both.