Proper Tagging for Videos, Photos, News, etc.
RunnerSpace Help Center

We've had several questions about the proper way to tag videos and photos in a way that will help people find related things easier. This blog will explain how to properly tag items so that you can easily find things you are looking for.

Why Tag Things?

Tagging items (videos, photos, blogs, etc.) helps other users on the site find things they are looking for. It is not very useful to have a great video on the site if no one can find it because it is buried 100 pages deep on the video section. Tags are a way for users to quickly locate items they are looking for. Our search engines are only as powerful as the quality of the tags!

The Basics

Tagging items with more than one word is done by placing a dash (-) between the words with no space before or after. So if I wanted to tag a video of Alan Webb I would tag it by putting "alan-webb" in the tag box. Or if I wanted to tag a photo of a De Soto High School athlete or meet, I would put "de-soto" in the tag box.

Why a Dash?

Without getting into the details of where the web is headed with Web 2.0 and beyond, using a dash between words to link them is the internet standard. In 2-3 more years it will be the only way it is done. Not using a dash (-) separates the words as individual tags which may not be very helpful. For example, tagging a photo with michael and johnson will not help the user looking for Michael Johnson, because now there is an michael tag (not very specific) and a johnson tag (again, not specific). But the tag michael-johnson, is very specific and will not be mistaken by any search engines.

Names

Tagging names should be done by using BOTH the first and last name with a dash (-) between.
Examples: alan-webb bernard-lagat amy-hastings

Events

Tagging events should be done by using an understandable term for the meet, using dashes between words. This will help users find videos from the exact event they are looking for. For example, a person is searching for photos from the Eugene Marathon. Searching for the proper tag of eugene-marathon will yield the results they want. It is not necessary to use any sort of dates or years when tagging because all search results are automatically sorted by date, with the most recent at the top.
Examples: cascade-half-marathon pepsi-invite oregon-relays

Subjects/Topics

Tagging items for subjects or topics can be done very easily by simply tagging the item with whatever word comes to mind. Odds are that someone else would also think of that word and possibly search for it. For example, there may be a video that shows a steeple athlete falling into the water pit. You might tag that with funny and/or steeple and/or steeple-fall. Searching those tags will then bring up results for other funny videos or of videos where someone falls into the water pit.

Not Sure How to Tag Something?

If you are tagging items of a particular person, event, subject, etc. and you aren't sure what the proper tags are, first look at other items from the same place and see what tags are attached to them. If there are none and you have enough space (see next paragraph) you can tag it in both ways. For example, the Eugene Marathon could be tagged eug-marathon or eugene-marathon. Both are detailed enough to bring up the desired results in a search. Ideally, the first person tagging items from this event would chose which one would be used throughout the site and others would follow by example.

10-Tag Limit

There is a limit of 10 tags per item. This applies to the tags attached by the person who is uploading the item. After the item has been uploaded other users may add their own additional user tags (the owner of the video has the right to delete any user tags that have been added to thier video).

Have more questions or comments about tagging? Post a comment on this blog and we'll do our best to help!

~RunnerSpace Help Center