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Apr. 7th, 2006 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI had a thought, in response to someone saying "Pick a genre!" about 'too much' labelling in fandom.
This 'pick a genre' reaction is maybe a category vs keyword thing?
I read an essay about the development of internet search engines compared to libraries. The internet has no shelves, but Yahoo put the shelves back in, by making links be in one place only and not any others (well, I think it was 2 or 3 actually, but, shelved).
Categories mean you need to know precisely which category the thing you are looking for is in. The categories need agreeing in advance, so everyone knows where to look. They were developed for handling 3D objects that have to be in one particular place only. Similar with lists with headings - have to pick where you put something, or maybe type it a bunch of times.
Keywords need no shelves. Can find everything with that keyword in.
Some people use tags like categories, some more like keywords.
The thing is, with categories you need one and only one place, so one and only one category. With keywords you need every keyword that might be applicable, to make sure you get all the audience that might want to see your page(or story).
Picking a dozen genres is bad library but good internet.
I had also the thought this might apply to arguing about warnings, or categories such as slash (erotica, gay romance, all the other ways that could be phrased). One way of using data says its a top level split, put things in one box or the other, must not have stuff labelled fluff with a death in it without a death warning for those are contradictory, must not have het stories with teh gay in them or gay stories with teh icky het. Boxes, categories, mutually exclusive.
*insert picture of Janus here, two faces on one entity*
life tends not to be clearly categorised.
and on the net it don't have to be.
just put all the keywords somewhere easy to pick them up from, ie a Warnings box, or Genres, and people who want that kind of data can find it from there.
I label m/m stories slash, for I have been brought up proper in fandom and told this is the One True Way. But if I also labelled it gay erotica, or romance, or queer, or a bunch of other applicable words, that would be a bunch more ways a keyword search could find it.
But all those words have different connotations, communicate different things (and different for every reader, which is where language gets everse frustrating). And some keywords I wouldn't want associated with my fic. Would I call slash faggot lit? I think not. Because not a nice word. Nor fairy, for it has meanings with wings and pointy ears not related to what I mean.
But then people get into arguings, like for some queer is not a nice word either. Me, I think it covers all the bases and describes me far better than 'bisexual' would. Plus it gets some interesting books in the library if you search for it.
The 'is slash gay' argue wasn't about keyword searches (that I found, I skimmed very small parts only), more about politics. Which is where words meet people and get important.
But the category/keyword thing seemed a useful way of looking at some disagreements. So I write it here.
This 'pick a genre' reaction is maybe a category vs keyword thing?
I read an essay about the development of internet search engines compared to libraries. The internet has no shelves, but Yahoo put the shelves back in, by making links be in one place only and not any others (well, I think it was 2 or 3 actually, but, shelved).
Categories mean you need to know precisely which category the thing you are looking for is in. The categories need agreeing in advance, so everyone knows where to look. They were developed for handling 3D objects that have to be in one particular place only. Similar with lists with headings - have to pick where you put something, or maybe type it a bunch of times.
Keywords need no shelves. Can find everything with that keyword in.
Some people use tags like categories, some more like keywords.
The thing is, with categories you need one and only one place, so one and only one category. With keywords you need every keyword that might be applicable, to make sure you get all the audience that might want to see your page(or story).
Picking a dozen genres is bad library but good internet.
I had also the thought this might apply to arguing about warnings, or categories such as slash (erotica, gay romance, all the other ways that could be phrased). One way of using data says its a top level split, put things in one box or the other, must not have stuff labelled fluff with a death in it without a death warning for those are contradictory, must not have het stories with teh gay in them or gay stories with teh icky het. Boxes, categories, mutually exclusive.
*insert picture of Janus here, two faces on one entity*
life tends not to be clearly categorised.
and on the net it don't have to be.
just put all the keywords somewhere easy to pick them up from, ie a Warnings box, or Genres, and people who want that kind of data can find it from there.
I label m/m stories slash, for I have been brought up proper in fandom and told this is the One True Way. But if I also labelled it gay erotica, or romance, or queer, or a bunch of other applicable words, that would be a bunch more ways a keyword search could find it.
But all those words have different connotations, communicate different things (and different for every reader, which is where language gets everse frustrating). And some keywords I wouldn't want associated with my fic. Would I call slash faggot lit? I think not. Because not a nice word. Nor fairy, for it has meanings with wings and pointy ears not related to what I mean.
But then people get into arguings, like for some queer is not a nice word either. Me, I think it covers all the bases and describes me far better than 'bisexual' would. Plus it gets some interesting books in the library if you search for it.
The 'is slash gay' argue wasn't about keyword searches (that I found, I skimmed very small parts only), more about politics. Which is where words meet people and get important.
But the category/keyword thing seemed a useful way of looking at some disagreements. So I write it here.