[Tagging] A system structured approach rather than piecemeal

Colin Smale colin.smale at xs4all.nl
Sat Jun 9 23:50:44 UTC 2018


On 2018-06-10 01:30, Warin wrote:

> One of the problem is that these main tags don't come through the tagging group .. they arrive through common use that sees a demand and satisfies it.
> 
> A problem with that is that the initial users see only their local issues and don't see it on a global scale ..
> so it gets used in ways that were not part of the initial use/intent.
> Tight definitions are hard to do when you only see what you are wanting to map, not seeing the wider picture.
> 
> Thus we have a mess to fix up.

Absolutely agree. Inherent in this is the fact that sometimes we go down
a path with tagging which, with hindsight, proves to be "wrong," for
example 
because it is insufficiently flexible or based on a misunderstanding of
a term (given that many mappers use English as a second language). When
such a 
situation arises we must be bold enough to acknowledge that the original
tagging should be replaced with new tagging. This is not an unexpected, 
unwanted situation - it should be a mainstream activity to apply more
recent thinking to outdated tagging. It should not cost so much energy
to make 
the case for this. Compare it with allowing for refactoring and
reworking in an Agile project - it is not a bad thing, it is a fact of
life. Fail fast 
and often - that leads to progress in the end. 

Colin
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