The thing is with a static hierarchical directory you get stuck with the
hierachy you built. Tags, even reddit semi permanent tags, are more
dynamic and finer grained. By letting a site like Reddit create the
categories you help stay on top of what topics are new and fresh. It’s
like suggestions coming from the grass roots rather than top-down.
So, perhaps tags (or subreddit-style categories) are good for initial categorization
and then a more detailed hierarchy is good for a competent editor. I also wonder:
how did you track expired links? Changed links? Would you indicate that a story
got an update?
Reddit has done a similar thing with wikis. By giving each subreddit a wiki,
many are able to arrange a heirarchical directory of links. I guess I’m wondering
if a wiki is a suitable replacement for a directory. Or if the only difference
is having a crawler attached. (Which is a formidable difference.)
An idea I’ve had with Indieweb.xyz is to have users submit a finer-grained
category using the u-category class. So they could submit:
And it would place it in the permanent hierarchical directory (which crawls
links to keep them fresh.) It feels like some moderation would be needed. But
I am trying to stay away from that.
I appreciate your thoughtful replies. I am starting to both see how directories
are present in our modern incarnation of the Web and desire some innovation
for them.
Reply:
So, perhaps tags (or subreddit-style categories) are good for initial categorization and then a more detailed hierarchy is good for a competent editor. I also wonder: how did you track expired links? Changed links? Would you indicate that a story got an update?
Reddit has done a similar thing with wikis. By giving each subreddit a wiki, many are able to arrange a heirarchical directory of links. I guess I’m wondering if a wiki is a suitable replacement for a directory. Or if the only difference is having a crawler attached. (Which is a formidable difference.)
An idea I’ve had with Indieweb.xyz is to have users submit a finer-grained category using the u-category class. So they could submit:
And it would place it in the permanent hierarchical directory (which crawls links to keep them fresh.) It feels like some moderation would be needed. But I am trying to stay away from that.
I appreciate your thoughtful replies. I am starting to both see how directories are present in our modern incarnation of the Web and desire some innovation for them.
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