What's the difference between labels and tags?

[rslade]

I know they show up differently on the final page.  Are there differences in searching, or sorting?  Why can we add tags to replies, but can't add labels?

Enquiring minds want to know.

[SamanthaO_isc2]

Hello @rslade, 

There are a few subtle differences between labels and tags, and they are all about functionality.  

• Labels - Only available on a top-level message, as you noted. These can be used for subscriptions, so if there is a topic that you are interested in, you can be notified of any activity on the label. These should be used for categorization of posts. 
• Tags - Available on all posts within a thread. These are meant to be used as ways to help others find content. These do not have subscription ability, though. 
• Both help to improve searches both in the Community and through outside search engines. 

Here's an example, if it helps: 

For our Inside (ISC)² series, all of the posts are labeled with "Inside (ISC)²." They are also tagged with "AMA" because this is another way to think of this series.  

Let me know if you have any other questions on this. 

[rslade]

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@SamanthaO_isc2 wrote:
Labels - Only available on a top-level message, as you noted. These can be used for subscriptions, so if there is a topic that you are interested in, you can be notified of any activity on the label. These should be used for categorization of posts. 

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OK.  I'm only beginning to get a handle on subscriptions.  There seem to be lots of options, and I guess specifying a label is one of them.  At the moment I have simply gone and found every single ... "board" ... (sorry, it's hard to keep all this insider jargon straight) I can find and subscribed to all of them.  (I guess if there ever gets to be significant postings, replies, and other traffic on the "community," unsubscribing from the "boards" and subscribing to labels might be a way to cut down on email, but, at the moment, well, that's why God invented the delete key.)

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@SamanthaO_isc2 wrote:
Tags - Available on all posts within a thread. These are meant to be used as ways to help others find content. These do not have subscription ability, though. 

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OK, you can search on both tags and labels, but you can't filter subscriptions based on tags, only labels.  And you can tag anything while replying, but you can only label if you are the original poster.

(I've got to admit that, so far, I've just considered both tags and labels to be simply another "insider" form of commenting, like #CreatingWeirdHashtagsOnTwitter.)

I'll have to rethink my use of "labels" as a sort of grouping capability for a number of different posts all related to one topic.  I did something similar in using "see the amazing dancing CISSPs and all their discussions!" in postings related to privacy, but, not knowing the internal convention, I used tags instead of labels.  (I think ...)

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@SamanthaO_isc2 wrote:Here's an example, if it helps: 

For our Inside (ISC)² series, all of the posts are labeled with "Inside (ISC)²." They are also tagged with "AMA" because this is another way to think of this series.  

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Right.  I've got to say that, until now, I would *never* have have thought to search for "AMA" when looking for a series called "Ask Me Anything."  ("American Medical Association," yes.  "Ask Me Anything," no.)

[SamanthaO_isc2]

Hello @rslade, 

I wanted to provide an update to you about searching and labels. We have enabled a filter for labels on the search page. While this does not allow you to search for labels directly, here is where you can see the various labels used throughout the Community, and filter results by certain labels. 

[rslade]

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@SamanthaO_isc2 wrote:

I wanted to provide an update to you about searching and labels. We have enabled a filter for labels on the search page.

Thanks for the update.  But, I went to the search page, and couldn't find anything that allowed you to specify labels.  Is there a keyword or syntax to use in the search field?

As a test, I searched on a word I've used before in a label.  It found one post, but I know I've used that label in other posts, so I clicked on the label, that got me the page I've mentioned before, with the partial list of labels, which currently stands at:

"community" privacy strikes again
Advancement
AI
apple
Application Security
Associate
at sign
Awareness
Azure
CCSP
CISSP
Clippy lives!
Community App
CPE
CPE Portal

and no way to get a full list or go on from there.

[SamanthaO_isc2]

Hello @rslade, 

Within the search, Labels is a filter you can narrow results by. You will need to search for something, then you can narrow by the labels. You can see a screenshot below showing where the Label filter is. Currently, there is not a way to see all labels in a list format. You can scroll through the labels filter in the search and see the various labels; however, you cannot click and view all topics with a specific label.

[rslade]

Interesting.  That may be your search page, but my search page looks like:

I'm using your link for the search page, by the way.

Is this yet another admin vs peon/users interface thing?

[denbesten]

If my window is 27cm wide, it looks like @rslade's screenshot.  If 28cm, it looks like @SamanthaO_isc2's. HTH.

[rslade]

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@denbesten wrote:

If my window is 27cm wide, it looks like @rslade's screenshot.  If 28cm, it looks like @SamanthaO_isc2's. HTH.

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Holy crow, he's right.  That never would have occurred to me: this interface really is weird.