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Cliff C.rodas's Blog

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Trying to Blog

By Cliff C.rodas at Feb 19, 2009

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Ahhh... my first 24 hours of on-going interconnectivies in the ZedShed.

Bloggin'! <- That's an interjection of catharsis? I need to network. I'm an extra-social animal and I have the need to connect and be connected to. It can be chit-chatty, it can be social liberatin', it can be technical and it can be a lot of others things. The more of these interconnected the better.

But, bloggin' and forums and databases are still too separate. I send a blog comment, but I can't get a subscription to see ongoing discussions there. If someone wants to get back to me on a comment they'll most likely post a comment I might never see or - to ensure my seeing it - have to click on my name and then on an e-mail. I'm on the wickedest-dialup/home-kit-in-the-Great-Lakes and so these things connections - from my perspective - are even less seamless to me. And we're all going to have so many of them. Sooo... we'll probably need a tag/metatag/tag cloud system of some sort.

Man! I wish I could program way beyond insertin' simple html tags, 'cause I can feel (if I can't articulate yet) where I wanna go. I want to drag stuff around a virtual desktop and have a 'seamless' feel like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. A litle like the boardgamegeek.com.  I want to wiki (arrived just in time to see it down)! I want to immerse and then figure it out from there.

This site is x3 (outta 4, for me technically, and in my limited dilettantish experience), but I wanna (us and me) connect , grow and move around here like Michael Jordan. (the smiley influenced this funky metaphor ->)

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By Albert, Michael at Feb 19, 2009 10:16 AM

> But, bloggin' and forums and databases are still too separate. I send a blog comment, but I can't get a subscription to see ongoing discussions there. If someone wants to get back to me on a comment they'll most likely post a comment I might never see or - to ensure my seeing it - have to click on my name and then on an e-mail.

Both very good suggestions, and both being dealt with - (a) the forums, blogs, and everything else will soon be far more integrated, all with the rest - including forums being entirely rebuilt - and (b) everyone will get comments meant for them by email - and, as well, easily see them very clearly linked from your zspace page - as well as see all your own materials and preferences visible in whatever pattern you like, and one click access to everything your friends are up to, as well. 

> I'm on the wickedest-dialup/home-kit-in-the-Great-Lakes and so these things connections - from my perspective - are even less seamless to me. And we're all going to have so many of them. Sooo... we'll probably need a tag/metatag/tag cloud system of some sort.

This tag thing - beyond the categories approach that we have - we are looking into - but so far, honestly, I don't quite get it...

> Man! I wish I could program way beyond insertin' simple html tags, 'cause I can feel (if I can't articulate yet) where I wanna go. I want to drag stuff around a virtual desktop and have a 'seamless' feel like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. A litle like the boardgamegeek.com.  I want to wiki (arrived just in time to see it down)! I want to immerse and then figure it out from there.

It is a lot to ask from a tiny little operation, with a staff of two - and yet - it is coming.

Really. For example, you will be able to control the look and contents of your own personal zspace page - of how you see your own version of the ZSpace top page (as well as being able to toggle to our default version) - and even of how the contents and look of your own version of the ZNet top page, again, able to toggle to our version too.

More, when you are working on your versions of the two big pages, or on your own page, yes indeed, you will be able to turn on quick edit and not just enter a blog or change data like your address or bio, or add photos all seamlessly - but you will also have drag and drop control over the contents and their location.

For example, look at the top page of ZNet. If you wanted to move the boxes that are in the second and third column, you could - just by dragging them around. More, you could change their labels - and, yes, you could change, again quite easily, what they display opting in each for any combination of types of content, topics or places addressed, and authors of your choice. You will be able to add and delete such featured content boxes, too so you can opt for more or less than we have on the default version of the page. And yes, you will even be able to alter the menus, so they highlight what you are interested in, having fewer or other tabs, if you like, and sub tabs, and entries in the left menus, as well - including links you want and leaving out links you don't care about. There is more coming too - much better chatting and messaging - search, friends facilities, etc. etc.

> This site is x3 (outta 4, for me technically, and in my limited dilettantish experience), but I wanna (us and me) connect , grow and move around here like Michael Jordan. (the smiley influenced this funky metaphor ->)

Jordan may be setting our sties a hair too high - but well, we can go for it and see what emerges!

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Re: tags

By C.rodas, Cliff at Feb 19, 2009 11:20 AM
Michael, thanks for your comments. Can't wait! I've only come to tags this past year after eyeballing them. But they internal bookmarks. If I want pages of a certain subject then I go to a bookmark. If I want them organized from within the website (at least, given my current usage) instead of going to a bookmark on my browser I use the tags on the website. On top of that my browser (Firefox) can tag my bookmarks, too. With tags I can use multiple tags for one webpage so that, for example, a speech by bell hooks can be tagged - 1) white supremacism, 2)capitalist and 3) patriarchy 4)constructive rage and 5)bad ass lecture and 6)best of and 7)2008 8)!Gotta_take_notes. Later on when I click on any of these tags anything I else clicked on with those terms will pop up. Clicking on '!Gotta_take_notes' will bring up bell's speech, (and previously tagged) a ZDaily Com, someone's tagged blog, etc. It's a useful classifying organizer. And then some tags are organized by clouds (instead of a simple tag list). Tag lists can be organized by height to show the "weight" of the issue. bell might be talking heavily about feminism in the lecture so the 'patriarchy' tag would be taller. If 'white supremacism' was barely mentioned then it would be a smaller font size. I don't know tag clouds to know how and what implements them, though.

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Re: Re: tags

By Administrator2, Site2 at Feb 19, 2009 12:18 PM

> Michael, thanks for your comments. Can't wait! I've only come to tags this past year after eyeballing them. But they internal bookmarks. If I want pages of a certain subject then I go to a bookmark. If I want them organized from within the website (at least, given my current usage) instead of going to a bookmark on my browser I use the tags on the website. On top of that my browser (Firefox) can tag my bookmarks, too.

This is what we call categories - which groups content by topic and place focused, etc. Or so it seems to me....

> With tags I can use multiple tags for one webpage so that, for example, a speech by bell hooks can be tagged - 1) white supremacism, 2)capitalist and 3) patriarchy 4)constructive rage and 5)bad ass lecture and 6)best of and 7)2008 8)!Gotta_take_notes.

Where are the tags being stored? Is it on the site? Does everyone see every tag, can everyone click any tag and see everything anyone put under it? If you spell supremacy like so, and someone else spells it wrong but close, and someone else uses the label racism - does each tag display only a part of what it should?

> Later on when I click on any of these tags anything I else clicked on with those terms will pop up.

So they are your personal tags? Things you have personally grouped - where access is yours too? And only yours? Is that the idea of it?

> Clicking on '!Gotta_take_notes' will bring up bell's speech, (and previously tagged) a ZDaily Com, someone's tagged blog, etc. It's a useful classifying organizer.

Yes, but for you, or does everyone use any tag anyone enters -

> And then some tags are organized by clouds (instead of a simple tag list). Tag  lists can be organized by height to show the "weight" of the issue. bell might  be talking heavily about feminism in the lecture so the 'patriarchy' tag would  be taller. If 'white supremacism' was barely mentioned then it would be a smaller font size. I don't know tag clouds to know how and what implements them, though.

Honestly, I have to tell you, maybe this is my partial techno adversity speaking, but it seems very odd to me. If I want something I read, I might take it, might put it someone where with other stuff I read...but mark it with tages that are lines of different lengths?

I understand the idea that a user would like to and benefit from being able to generate batches of content of special attributes he or she likes - listed in easy to get places, etc. That makes sense to me - and it is coming...in a big way.

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Re: Re: Re: tags

By C.rodas, Cliff at Feb 19, 2009 13:50 PM
Yep, tags are stored on-site. They, in the case of Firefox, are also stored with the browser application. I suppose I could create my own tag system on a personal webpage and do it from there, too. You know, I only have my extensive use of tags on www.boardgamegeek.com or BGG (which is a community-run, wiki-based site, btw): the site will store my personal tags that I will only see, but I recently noticed that if I enter a brand-new tag (or a mispelled one) then a separate 'Popular Tag' field would display my tag for all to see. So, on BGG, it seems any tag commonly typed can be seen. On the other hand my tags are personal and are tailored only to me. BGG's tag system will 1) show (with hide option) personal tags (and therefore no one else sees this list), 2)show a handful of popular tags (if they have any) and 3) give you the option to add tags. Any popular tags will have a (+) symbol next to them so I can add it easily. And the 'Add tag' option will autoload your tags and also give you an empty field if you'd like to type in a new one. Any of your displayed tags would each have a (x) next to the word for deleteing that particular tag from that tag list. Clicking any tag will take you to a new page with that tag at the heading and a list of any item (file, photo, game page, geeklist, etc.) that had been tagged with it. Anything mispelled or altered by any alphanumeric would create a brand new tag with spelling. For sure, the general function is a personal tag system - the only commonality between users seems to be the popular tag field. Hmm.... some extra notes on a quick visit to BGG. Before a recent new code upgrade I had my 'add tag' autolist automatically alphabetized and now in v2.0 it's not. And with the 30-40 tags I'm using it's driving me batty to look for tags that are organized by frequency as opposed to alphanumerically. But it's only a month old and there are much bigger bugs to fix, still. Also, when I click on a popular tag it takes you to a tag page with that tag and seems to display items (games, photos, etc.) that have been assigned by others (and myself) with those tags. But no other information besides those links are displayed. Hmmm... if your quote of "but mark it with tags that are lines of different lengths?" refers to tag clouds, then I'm afraid I don't know have any experience besides seeing them on different little-used websites. If not, then I'm unsure. But you saying some form of a personal classification system is coming, so woo-HOO anyhoo!

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