So in your opinion where should a tag cloud be placed? In my opinions, tags are one of the best features to be added to internet applications in the Web 2.0 Generation. I hope they get refined in the Web 3.0 generation. Anyway, where do you think tabs should be displayed on a page?
I really like to see the tag clouds on the very bottom of a forum index, but right above statistics and such. It will also look good as a sidebar, under other statistics or, at the top of the page. Honestly, any where, as long as it coincides and looks okay with a skin.
Unless the tags are really good then only in certain places. Otherwise I feel like they hurt you. Right now the only place I show my tag cloud is my 404 page with a custom search box. So if someone does end up there they can either search or click the tags.
I agree, as long as the tag cloud looks good where it is, it can be anywhere. Basically, it has to "fit in."
I like them at the bottom of the forum index, or maybe in a sidebar (which I have never seen), as Tom mentioned.
You can have the vba sidecolumns on your forumhome. they have special instructions on how to do that.
I turned on tags mostly for use just for a couple of my forums, so I have the tag cloud at the top of those forums and not in any other forums nor on forum home.
I have them at the bottom of my vBadvanced on one site and in a side column on the forum home on another site. I'm not a huge fan of tag clouds because almost everyone I talk to say that they don't use them, but who knows for sure.
I thought tags sounded like the most wonderful thing when vB offered them. However, as I see on vB's own forum as well, some members use them for amusement and have messed up the effectiveness they could otherwise have. I have to clean them up on my forum before they will work again ... lotsa 'ura pig' type tags. I agree with the above comments - a good set of tags could be anywhere that doesn't take too much space, and is handy to the members. Along the side is usually convenient. If they are below the forums they may not be on people's radar, imo.
Do they Peg? I was told contradictory information. Strange. We should dig up some articles that support that notion because if that's the case then I'll continue to develop them and add them to all of my sites.
do you use Paul's Guest Tracking mod? If you use that, and upload the latest spider.xml offered on vb.com, you'll see what spiders are on, and have recently visited, your site. When you see them on your site, click on the Currently Active Users link in the WGO box. I have spiders on my tags.php all the time.
I have actually read that is pretty bad and google has de-listed people because of this. Because it is considered a 'blackhat' method of gaining keywords in that forum. Yup! They are always on them.
I have them on but nobody uses them. They only work at all on my site because I have the auto tagging mod that sets tags based on the thread title. I don't think anyone on my site except me has ever, ever added a tag to a thread. It's just one of those things that doesn't seem to have really taken off in most forums.
