Hashtags

Last Updated: 19/03/2024 - This feature is now live for everyone 🎉

You can find the original feature proposal below, and if you have ideas for improvements please do leave a comment.

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Background

The current list of tags for tools & stories is fixed and set by the DEAL Team. These tags are also specific to tools and stories such that news, for example, has a separate list of tags. Other parts of the site (such as events and users) don't support tags at all.

Analytics also shows that the current tags are not used very often. When they are used, they often break in unexpected ways (unusual combinations of tags, for example) and take a long time to return results.

What is the essence of this suggestion/idea?

Create a flexible hashtag system that allows all users, not just the DEAL Team, to create tags in any piece of content they are creating (tools, stories, events, user profiles, comments, etc.) similar to how social media platforms such as Twitter operate.

An auto-complete system - activated by typing '#' in any rich text field - would improve re-use of tags and help prevent typos / duplication of tags. It would also be possible to search for hash tagged content

What are the potential benefits of this suggestion/idea?

Potential to massively improve discoverability of community members and content that are relevant to a given user, by ensuring that tags are consistent across the entire platform, are more interactive, and are relevant to community's needs.

Who would benefit from this suggestion/idea?

Anyone who has struggled to find content relevant to them on the DEAL Community Platform.