Finding "Fire Tone Out" Wiki articles -- State-specific categories vs "Search" tag

[QDP2012]

Finding "Fire Tone Out" Wiki articles -- State-specific categories vs "Search" tag

Good afternoon,

(The following question and thoughts are for the Wiki admins and anyone who uses the Wiki to find or use Fire Tone Out (FTO) information.)

Now that the Wiki has categories for each state's FTO information, like Category:Ohio Fire Tone Outs, do we still need the "Search" tags for FTO articles, like Search:OhioFTO?

Thoughts behind the question:

• From earlier threads, it seems that the "Search:...FTO" tag was implemented in 2009 during the effort to move the FTO data from the DB into the Wiki. (In 2009, the Wiki category-tree was based upon large geographic regions, not specific states or provinces.)
  
  
• Now that the category-tree has a "(state) Fire Tone Outs" category for each state and province, it seems like the usefulness of the "Search" tag has been reduced significantly, especially since the Category pages produce (in my opinion) an easier to read, sorted, multi-column list of article-names, instead of the unsorted multi-line list produced by the search-engine.
  
  
• While updating category-assignments in the Wiki, I've noticed that many articles which have the state-specific "Category:...Fire Tone Outs" category have been missing the state-specific "Search:...FTO" tag. There also were/are quite a few articles that have been missing both.
  
  
• I've also noticed incorrectly spelled Search tags, and tags that are plural instead of singular -- with "...FTOs" instead of "...FTO".
  Incorrectly spelled category-names are more obvious, and thus more quickly corrected, because they are shown as red (as a non-existing category).
  
  
• A while ago (more than a year), while updating certain FTO articles with both the appropriate category and search tag, I received some push-back via PM, from someone who regularly updated those same articles, letting me know that they disliked the look of the Search-tag at the bottom of the article, and did not want them used on those articles.
  
  
• Wrapping the Search tag with HTML-comment-tags avoids an "unsightly" tag being visible at the bottom of the article, but doing so makes it unclear as to which articles have or do not have the search tag applied, thereby making it more difficult to find articles that need and do not have the Search tag applied.
  On the other hand, categories are always visible; every article has at least one.

So, back to the original question, can we remove the "Search:...FTO" tags? ...or do people highly-depend on them? If people do depend on them, can we help introduce and encourage those people to use the state-specific "...Fire Tone Outs" Categories instead?

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks for all input and advice,

 

[ka3jjz]

Yeah those tags were from the days when we didn't have a good search tool, and also didn't have the current category structure that includes FTOs. In those days it was a bear to try to find FTO information in the wiki

To me, those things can be dropped safely...Mike

 

[QDP2012]

Thanks Mike.


Bob/W9BU, if you also agree, then while I continue updating articles with recently-created categories, I will also begin dropping the Search tags.

Your thoughts?


Thanks,

 

[AK9R]

I agree. The search terms in Wiki articles can probably be deleted as articles are edited.

There was a time when the Wiki used the Google search engine. The indexes sometimes took a day or two to update and searches would yield results from all over RadioReference, not just the Wiki. We have reverted to the MediaWiki search tool. The indexing remains more current with article changes and the search results are just from the Wiki.

 

[QDP2012]

I'll start dropping the Search tags as I find them.

Thank you, sirs.

 

[ka3jjz]

Let me know where you start to drop the FTO search tags. I am currently working my way down the list to 'meet' you. That way we don't walk all over each other. I just stopped in Delaware

Mike

 

[QDP2012]

Let me know where you start to drop the FTO search tags. I am currently working my way down the list to 'meet' you. That way we don't walk all over each other. I just stopped in Delaware

Mike

I started removing them from Yukon going "from Z to A" and am currently on Kansas.
So, the only thing that should need tags removed should be between A and Kansas.

I'll focus on removing the search tags until we meet-in-the-middle.

Thanks,

 

[QDP2012]

I think we have finished the bulk of them. There might be a stray one here and there that we might find.

I'm going to step away from the keyboard for a little while, and be back later.

Thanks again,

 

[QDP2012]

It looks like the Collaboration Guidelines might need revision since it makes reference to using the Search tags.

Even though the page is not restricted, that's probably something that should be done by an admin, not me.

Thanks,

 

[AK9R]

Mike, you wrote that article. I will defer to you for any edits that it might require.

 

[ka3jjz]

I'll look at it later today. Added to my list of chores...Mike

 

[QDP2012]

Thanks Mike. You've probably already considered this, but it looks like there might be some other parts of that article that also need adjustment, like where it mentions using "Categoryacific Region", which was deprecated quite a while ago.

Thanks again,

 

[ka3jjz]

I'll look at this later. I'm taking a break from chores...Mike