This was originally intended as a post for a github discussion on "Hidden
tags
<https://github.com/Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5/issues/1366#issuecomment-70085704>"
but I figure it could be of general interest.
[...]
I think a lot of what has come up [in that github thread] reflects
different ways of using a TW: There are different applications - however,
more fundamentally, there are simply different ways of thinking. It is not
strange that we have different needs for TW considering the close
connection between TW and ones brain. I partly think of tags as an analogy
to cognitive *associations*. Sometimes associations function as
transitional segways ("that reminds me of X") but other times it is just a
flash triggering into something. We can use tags to *categorize* and
elegantly *structure* tiddlers,. This takes logic and *thinking* to do. But
quite as often, tags are used in the much more ephemeral activity;
*searching*. Tagging is of course a key feature for effective search. But
the *best* tags for search efficiency are not at all necessarily those
carefully thought out and pretty "category tags" but instead actually
whatever pops into your mind! If I say "yellow" and you say "banana", then
you just demonstrated that this is a more *natural* association than e.g
"colour". If I want to trigger "banana" in your mind, then it could well be
that "yellow" is a more efficient word than the "logicially" much closer
word "fruit". This aspect is not human irrationality, it is part of our
cognitive power and extremely efficient for our thinking processes and IMO
we should take advante of this in TW.
Let me give you a concrete example of this:
Just an hour ago I came up with a brilliant idea (yes, they're all
brilliant ;-) that we should have a "TW mockup notation" consisting of
graphic images, such as a generic "blank tiddler", a "blank button", a
"blank tab", a "blank tagpill" etc so that anyone easily can create nice
mockups *in TW* to illustrate ideas (primarily for the TW community, I
guess). The idea is still very rough and I've pretty much only made a quick
tiddler to note down a few words so I don't forget the idea when my brain
whizzes off in other direction.
Where does this idea come from? Well, other than that I illustrate a lot of
my ideas to explain them, this is probably inspired by Astrids railroads
and Jeremys talk about different notations in TW. And quite possibly also
by the poster hullabaloo. These are associations *I* make, and it gives the
concept a context both in content and time.
Now, how should I tag this tiddler? Well, with some *category* tags for
sure; TWconcept, IdeaRank4, mockup. But I would really also want the much
more associative aspects: graphics, illustration, paint.net, railroad,
Astrid, draft, sketch, notation, model, Duarte, .... I fully understand
that not everyone can identify with this workflow, not to mention my
associations. But TiddlyWiki *is* for noting down things so this is not
about trying to shoehorn TW into something it isn't "supposed to be", at
least not as far as I can tell. [Wanting to] tag like this is *really*
about making TW fit around your brain <http://tiddlywiki.com/#TiddlyWiki>.
If TW doesn't allow for this... it probably should.
However [referring to the github thread] a consequence of this is a lot of
tags that you don't want to see immediately - for (exactly) the same reason
that you don't want your brain to flash around if you're actually focussing
on a subject. Tags (associations) call for attention. For this reason it is
desirable to be able to hide tags from view mode(!) on command.
...
I'm reminded of the early search engines (was it Altavista or even before?
And *alt.net* or whatever it was called?). They tried to *structure* the
internet into categories. This was bound to fail and within a few years
this was totally replaced by the ad hoc search we still have (even if much
refined). Also the early email-boxes with strictly hierarchical folder
structures. Feels "logic" and things are in order... but it turns out our
minds don't quite work like that. We cross-correlate things. In the case of
email, I think it was google that first came up with tags for making things
less rigid.
<:-)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"TiddlyWiki" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to tiddlywiki@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
