Der Tag

[scarfman]

About a month away from my first anniversary on LJ. After choosing at the outset only six tags which I figured would be all-encompassing enough to cover everything I'd write about (akotas, blogging lj, fanfiction, heroes, me, memes), and having added only one to the list in eleven months (flash), I've realized that they're so all-encompassing and unspecific as to be pretty useless after almost a year of an average (I suspect) of more'n an entry a day.

• Among the tags I've added are cartoons and writing, so the difference can be told between discussion posts about akotas and fanfiction and the weekly reprints and GARPs from my websites.
• On the only such entry to date, the tag stories has been created for non-cartoon fanfiction reprints.
• I've added tags for properties borrowed by the fanfiction cartoons and discussed frequently in the heroes posts (e.g., drwho, bvs/a, sg1/a, superman, trek [and for each of the five series, st, tng, ds9, voyager, enterprise]), but in many fanfiction and cartoons posts borrowed characters appear in sketches that don't really depend on the characters being in character, mostly as randomly-selected straightman for the character who is the thrust of the day's gag. Property tags on fanfiction, cartoon entries only appear for properties whose characters get at least minimal development in that entry's cartoon(s).
• There's a tag tv as a catch-all for properties I enjoy but don't write or draw about often.
• Some people's LJ usernames are now tags, like qtrhorserider, billroper, and demiurgent.

I have no idea whether any readers have need for more specific tags in my LJ - certainly I've had no comments on the subject, plus I'm not certain myself how one searches another's LJ by tag - but it's got to the point I need'em.

Comments

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

...plus I'm not certain myself how one searches another's LJ by tag...

If I see the tag fanfic on one of your posts, and I want to read more of your posts on the subject, I just click on the word.

If I'm viewing your journal at scarfman.livejournal.com, there may or may not be a displayed list of tags. It depends on your layout. My layout shows all the tags I use, and you can click on any of them to read. If your layout doesn't show that, someone could go to scarfman.livejournal.com/tag to see a list of all of them.

It's not very comprehensive. For example, there's no way to search for posts that are tagged with both fanfic and doctor who while excluding posts that have one but not the other.

The most useful thing I find to do with them is just to use all tags I feel are appropriate on a given post, so that I (or someone else) can go back and find everything I've said on a particular subject.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

If you get any more OCD, you're going to have to change your name to Ryan Wolfe.

[scarfman]

Heh. If it were OCD, I'd've done it from the beginning. I don't think it's compulsion to want to be able to find a specific post with a keyword that pulls up fewer than sixty posts at a time.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

At least you seem to recognize the reference. I was afraid that you might might pull a Temperance Brennan on me.

[scarfman]

One needn't recognize the reference to know what OCD is.