current 101: all about tags
So, you've found a great story and you're ready to post it to Current--but how will people find it? There are lots of ways to make it easier to find a story, but the most important one is adding topic tags -- especially if you wish to make to the homepage of Current.com.
Adding tags to a story is not just a great way to get it noticed, tags place your story into channels on Current.com. In addition, tags help determine what surfaces when people search for items on Current. But keep in mind, adding too many tags could run the risk of becoming spammy and non-relevant tags will be removed.
For example, say I were to clip this tutorial on making tulle blossoms. Since it's a tutorial, I'll tag it with DIY.
But that's just one tag--and having only one tag limits the number of places that this will appear on Current. It also won't show up on any of the homepage channels. So, I'll add a few more.
But wait--that's way too many! I happen to think these blossoms are pretty cute, but they aren't news--or movies, or music, or comedy, or green. Aside from looking suspiciously like spam, adding too many tags can hurt a story's popularity, since someone looking for news would probably red vote this just because it doesn't belong.
Aha--now these tag are just right. All of these tags are relevant, so there's a better chance that people will find this story but it's not lurking in places that it doesn't really belong.
As you can see, adding tags to your item is a great way to help people find it, or help that item to the homepage, but overtagging can backfire. If we see stories popping up in unrelated categories, we will remove those tags, and excessive over-tagging can be considered spam, which is against our community guidelines, so it's a good idea to take a couple of minutes to think about what tags really fit!
Hope you've enjoyed this first Current 101 guide. Next up, I'll be talking about homepage channels, so stay tuned!
~Steph
Adding tags to a story is not just a great way to get it noticed, tags place your story into channels on Current.com. In addition, tags help determine what surfaces when people search for items on Current. But keep in mind, adding too many tags could run the risk of becoming spammy and non-relevant tags will be removed.
For example, say I were to clip this tutorial on making tulle blossoms. Since it's a tutorial, I'll tag it with DIY.
But that's just one tag--and having only one tag limits the number of places that this will appear on Current. It also won't show up on any of the homepage channels. So, I'll add a few more.
But wait--that's way too many! I happen to think these blossoms are pretty cute, but they aren't news--or movies, or music, or comedy, or green. Aside from looking suspiciously like spam, adding too many tags can hurt a story's popularity, since someone looking for news would probably red vote this just because it doesn't belong.
Aha--now these tag are just right. All of these tags are relevant, so there's a better chance that people will find this story but it's not lurking in places that it doesn't really belong.
As you can see, adding tags to your item is a great way to help people find it, or help that item to the homepage, but overtagging can backfire. If we see stories popping up in unrelated categories, we will remove those tags, and excessive over-tagging can be considered spam, which is against our community guidelines, so it's a good idea to take a couple of minutes to think about what tags really fit!
Hope you've enjoyed this first Current 101 guide. Next up, I'll be talking about homepage channels, so stay tuned!
~Steph
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- Current.com Blog, current product blog
