Tags and Trackback

[Spider]

Beneath the text window when replying to a post, there is the following---

Tags
Separate tags using a comma.

You may add 5 tag(s) to this thread.


Trackback
Send Trackbacks to (Separate multiple URLs with spaces):


What are Tags and Trackback, what do they do and why should we use them?

[vangogh]

You probably won't ever need to use trackbacks. If you add a link in a post to a page that also responds to trackbacks that other page will automatically add a link back to the page with your post. Basically the post here would send out a ping to the other page which then adds a link back here. Most of the time the process is automatic. On occasions the other page may be set where you need to add the trackback link manually. It's not something you really have to worry about.

Tags are a way to further define what a thread is about. You should only see that option when starting a new thread. It's like adding meta information to describe what the thread is about. For example say you asked a question in the "Managing your Business" section and your question was specifically about the setting up a phone exchange system for your employees. You might add tags to the thread like 'phones, pbx, cell phones, VoIP, etc'

Maybe those aren't the best choices. It really depends on what the thread is about, but in general it's just adding words and phrases that help describe what the thread is about.

[Spider]

Fine. Thanks.

[vangogh]

One thing I forgot to mention is you can also search by tags. If you click on Search in the main navigation you'll see a link for Tag Search. Clicking that will take you to a tag cloud which will show the different tags that have been used on threads. The bigger the tag, the more threads that have used that tag.

I don't think a lot of people are using tags at the moment so it may not be the best way to search if you want to search every thread, but for the threads that have been tagged it can probably help find things you're looking for. It works best if everyone is tagging the threads they create, though I doubt that will ever happen.