Korean Job Discussion Forums

[huffdaddy]

As we all know, the search function is no good. How about we come up with a system to give threads tags which can be searched for. Tags which will not otherwise naturally occur.

for example, a thread about what to do in Busan would have a

busantag

Anyone wanting information about Busan would just do a search for 'busantag' and find much more relevent threads than doing a search for 'busan'

Information about getting to or from the airport would have

airporttag

Multiple tags could also be used. A thread about Wonderland contracts would have the tags

contracttag wonderlandtag

Anyone wanting information information about Wonderland would search for 'wonderlandtag' and find the thread. As would anyone looking at contract examples who searched for 'contracttag'.

Etc.

These tags would be added by either the original poster, or a responder "in the know". People could add tags to old threads if they see fit, but it wouldn't be required. Considering that most questions get answered every week, a few weeks of tags would provide the answers to most questions.

Anyone else game?



searchtag

[SeoulnPepe]

That would be cool. Certainly a much better way to organize this site.

[rakuan]

Yeah... the search function has been the bane of my existence for the past 3 years.... i'm only oh so eager to defeat it.

for the sake of uniformity, how would suggest we tag new entries? Putting the tag in the title or in the body of the post?

[huffdaddy]

[billybrobby]

do you know how the search function works? How do you know it would respond effectively to busantag when it doesn't respond to busan? Isn't PHPBB open source? maybe you could look at the search function code and figure out why it sucks.

[missg]

I'm all for tagging, but why not fix the original search function first??

In the meantime, Google can search Dave's ESL pages easily.

Just make sure there are no spaces between site, the colon, and the web address.

For example, this is a search for threads with the word itaewon:

[huffdaddy]

[huffdaddy]

An initial rough draft of tags. Suggestions or comments welcome.

City tags

seoultag - life in Seoul, we should probably also have neighborhood breakdowns as well
daegutag - life in Daegu
busantag - life in Busan
incheontag - life in Incheon
ulsantag - life in Ulsan
etc.

General tags

foodtag - threads about food - restaurants and groceries
languagetag - threads about Korean language
womentag - threads about women
mentag - threads about men
babytag - threads about pregnancy and babies
clothestag - threads about clothes
drinkingtag - threads about alcohol
drivingtag - threads about cars and motorcycles
moneytag - threads about ATMs, converting money

Legal issues tags

contracttag - contract reviews
visatag - threads about visa issuance (not including visa runs)
fvisatag - threds about F-2 and F-5 visas
f4visatag - threads about F-4 visas
visaruntag - threads about visa runs
privatestag - threads about teaching privates
releaselettertag - threads about release letters
midnightruntag - threads about midnight runs
immigrationtag - threads about the physical immigration office

Teaching tags
kindytag - threads about teaching in a kindy
publictag - threads about teaching in a public school
hogwantag - threads about teaching in a hogwan
universitytag - threads about teaching in a university
adulttag - threads about teaching adults
grammartag - threads about grammar

Schools and recruiters tags

wonderlandtag - threads about Wonderland
(plus other schools)
recruitertag - threads about recruiters


Misc tags

baseballtag - threads about baseball
hockeytag - threads about hockey
footballtag - threads about American, Canadian, or Australian football
soccertag - threads about everyone else's football
tvtag - threads about TV shows, watching TV

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

This is a capital idea, H. Diddy, but what about multiple word searches? Let's say I want to help people looking for info on the Seoul Immigration Office's operating hours, should I tag the post seoulimmigrationtag, seoulimmigrationofficetag, seoulimmigrationofficeoperatinghourstag, or should I separate each word and add 'tag' to the end of each one? I assume that since the person searching would put a space between words, something such as seoulimmigrationofficeoperatinghourstag wouldn't be of much help, and would make me look like a weirdo. And I could do with less evidence of that, thank you.

Also -- and I hate to bring this up -- there's the potential for misuse. Let's say I read a post I dislike or think is an obvious troll; what's to stop me from adding 'gaytag' to it, and then when someone wants to search for information on the gay experience in Korea, they have to deal with my juvenile prank? I certainly hope that wouldn't be the case, but never overestimate the maturity of the majority of Dave's posters (myself included, for I recall last night doing the subterfuge I just mentioned, albeit satirically).

[huffdaddy]

[heydelores]

And now this thread has been "tagged" with thirty tags already.

[eamo]

A lot of people are typing multiple words into the search function without using "and" between each word. Read the instructions in smaller print on the left of the search page and you will get much better results. I'll paste then here actually....

You can use AND to define words which must be in the results, OR to define words which may be in the result and NOT to define words which should not be in the result. Use * as a wildcard for partial matches

The biggest problem with the search function for me is that after you have chosen a result, clicked it, read it, then want to go back to all search results, the back page button only brings you to a "page expired" warning. Useless. Why should I to go back and type in the search words again and get fresh results?

[The King of Kwangju]

As someone who makes websites for a living, and who spend a lot of time working with search engines, this thread is fascinating. It mirrors the history of internet search and is a microcosm of its problems and solutions.

So far you guys are up to about 1998.

I know how this ends, so I'm going to keep quiet.

[JeJuJitsu]

With as much money as he makes, it's quite embarassing that the Dave guy wouldn't spring for proprietary message board software. Particularly surprising when the better ones allow for even more revenue to be generated .

[huffdaddy]