[drupal-devel] what do you call a rose?

[Larry Garfield]

For what it's worth, as of this post I have no forking idea what "folksonomy" 
means OR what "free tagging" means.  Really, neither name tells me what it 
actually does to the level that I'd be interested in.

My initial gut reactions to both names:

"folksonomy": Um, OK, geeky stupid name for something that has to do with 
people ("folks").  Um, the study of people, maybe?  Whoever came up with this 
name must think that recursive acronyms are cool.  What a nerd.

"free tagging": OK, it involves tagging something freely.  What's tagging?  
HTML tag?  Tag like a label, like on clothing?  Tag like a flag on something?  
I assume they don't mean free beer, and Drupal's already free speech, so they 
must mean "disorganized".  OK, so why the fork would I want to have 
disorganized labels???

So I don't really like either one. :-)  Free tagging feels more descriptive 
while folksonomy is far too "kitch" for me to take seriously, so that's 
better, but I still don't know what we're talking about. :-)

Hopefully that will offer some useful insight.

On Monday 03 October 2005 04:39 pm, Charlie Lowe wrote:
> Bèr wrote:
>
> "So, the original question was: should 'free tagging' rather be called
> 'folksonomy' because more people will be attracted to that term, or
> should we choose the more appropriate, yet less known term 'free tagging'."
>
> Or do you choose the term that is most usable? This is different than
> whether a term is more appropriate or more widely used (widely depends
> on audience, who is using it). So let's complicate things:
>
> "Folksonomy" may indeed be more popular in terms of Google hits because
> of social software types talking about it on the web. Consider that the
> majority of people that talk about folksonomy on the web may know what
> "free tagging" means, too.
>
> Also, given that someone may not know what either term means, "free
> tagging" is more likely to suggest what the use of the module is or at
> least will more quickly make sense. I also suspect that "free tagging"
> will catch on as a term because it's not as jargon or technical sounding
> as "folksonomy." "Free tagging" describes the action of doing something.
> "Folksonomy" is an abstract concept.
>
> Charlie

-- 
Larry Garfield			AIM: LOLG42
larry at garfieldtech.com		ICQ: 6817012

"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of 
exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, 
which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to 
himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession 
of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it."  -- Thomas 
Jefferson