{"id":829,"date":"2016-02-04T11:51:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T11:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/?p=829"},"modified":"2016-03-12T06:04:39","modified_gmt":"2016-03-12T06:04:39","slug":"hashtags-and-tags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/2016\/02\/04\/hashtags-and-tags\/","title":{"rendered":"#hashtags and @tags"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently[1], the word ‘hashtag’ was added to the Oxford dictionary. For those who are unaware, #hashtags are used to ‘tag’ a post so that it can be more easily searched, or to perform a ‘promotion by crowd’, as the ‘top hashtags’ are shown in various prominent places, such as:<\/p>\n

\"#pants\"<\/a>
#pants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This brings the question: If #hashtags are meant to connect a post to a concept, and so that it can be connected to other posts connected to that concept, what are @tags?<\/p>\n

In the Slack world (and other IM), @tags are used to notify or summon a person, or to broadcast a message to a group.<\/p>\n

So, if #hashtags connect a post to a concept, and @tags are used to notify a person of something, what would $tags[2] be? Or %tags, ^tags, or *tags?<\/p>\n

!tags would ideally be used for expressing extra strong feelings about something. I imagine they would start out as the ultimate downvote[3], but then they would be culturally re-appropriated by the new generation to mean the ultimate in positiveness, or coolness, or whatever else they will call it.<\/p>\n

~tags will evolve from their original meaning as home directories or webpages on unix servers to mean homepages in general. ‘~nayrb’ would point to this site, for example.<\/p>\n

$tags[4] would be appropriated by Amazon for their new ‘one tap purchasing’, where you could purchase any goods mentioned in a post, but even the post itself, perhaps as part of a multilevel marketing scheme. You would end up with post squatters, the scourge of the internet of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

%tags are an interesting beast. Like the ‘%’ symbol, they are a link to a concept, but only for a brief period of *time*[5]. So, you could link your post to other posts posted nearby, but only for a while. Like a #hashtag crossed with Snapchat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

^tags go back to the beginning, to the root of things. ^tags are used to end an argument, where you would end a many posts long conversation by posting a final #hashtag on that topic, along with ‘^regulatorycapture’.[6] Can be used in situations similar to those immediately preceding a mic drop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

&tags (not to be confused with &amptags) are multipliers, or ‘amplifiers’. Often connected with ‘micdrop’ tags (-.), they ‘amplify the signal’ of any nearby tags, using an inverse square law to determine nearness and level of effect.<\/p>\n

*tags can be substituted for any other tag, and they change depending on context. Under RFC 7168, the implementation of *tags is browser-dependent.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned next time, for the riveting differences between (tags, }tags, and ][tags.<\/p>\n

[1]2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[2]Not $cashtags, that would just be silly.<\/p>\n

[3]in the boolean ‘not’ sense of ‘!’<\/p>\n

[4]Still not cashtags!<\/p>\n

[5]*time* as the Orz would measure it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[6]Similar to Mornington Crescent<\/a>, it is critical that the ^tag not be used too soon, or else it will not work as intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently[1], the word ‘hashtag’ was added to the Oxford dictionary. For those who are unaware, #hashtags are used to ‘tag’ a post so that it can be more easily searched, or to perform a ‘promotion by crowd’, as the ‘top hashtags’ are shown in various prominent places, such as: This brings the question: If #hashtags … Continue reading #hashtags and @tags<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":884,"href":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions\/884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nayrb.org\/~blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}