Usage of tags

[Jorge Eduardo Perez Perez]

So far nobody seems to be using any tags when starting new topics. I suppose they will arise later on. However, as early adopters of the forum, can you suggest what would be good tags to be applied to topics? I can think of some:

• Estimation methods, e.g. OLS, Two Stage Least Squares, Maximum Likelihood ...
• Economics applications, for us economists, e.g., demand system estimation, impact evaluation ...

[Phil Clayton]

The names of the PDF manuals might be a simple but useful starting point, eg:
- Data Management
- Graphics
- Multilevel Mixed Effects
...
- Programming
- Mata

[skolenik]

Tags do not seem to do much on this forum so far. On StackExchange, for instance (see stats forum as the most closely related one), tags are prominent in a number of ways.

1. In some posts, you are forced to enter at least one tag
2. You can easily browse posts by tag
3. Tags have wiki summaries that go along with them
4. You can designate some tags as favorites, and they are highlighted in the list of posts; also, you can receive email notifications about posts with your favorite tags.

Does any of this functionality work on statalist.org? I simply don't know, I honestly ask.

The plain text email statalist did not have tagging functionality, so if the forum users simply transfer their email statalist habits (including NOT using the tags) to this forum, tags will not be used.

[Jorge Eduardo Perez Perez]

Browsing posts by tag works by clicking the tag in the tag cloud on the home page. That by itself is useful enough to encourage usage of tags.

Maybe we could start encouraging assigning a tag when we answer questions, the same way we are encouraging users to post using their real name. But it's not my call to make.