So what really is the difference between WordPress categories and tags?
Posted on August 31st, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,823 views
When version 2.3 of WordPress was released, the WordPress World got something they had been wanting for for a very long time – tags.
Prior to this watershed release of WordPress, which is still considered the best recent release of WordPress by some, tags were not implemented in the WordPress core code, instead individual bloggers had to rely on third party plugins developed to fill this gap, such as Ultimate Tag Warrior.
Version 2.3 made all these third party tag plugins obsolete. Finally, at last, WordPress had tags built right into the core code! It truly was a huge advance and many WordPressers raced over to download it.
However, before all this happened, many WordPressers (including this one) misused categories as tags, and the number of categories ballooned out of control. SEO plugins also encouraged WordPressers to adopt this malpractice.
Since then I’ve never taken the time to tame my WordPress categories and put them to the use they were originally designed, until now, that is.
So what really is the difference between WordPress categories and tags?
First of all, I’ve read a lot of posts which tackle this subject and still come away scratching my head and not fully comprehending.
Until I got stuck into playing with them directly and setting up a coherent browsing strategy, I never understood the BIG PICTURE that would allow me to just create them on the fly as I blog.
If you’ve never sat down and focussed your attention on just analysing your categories, you have probably missed what I always did.
The fundamental difference between categories and tags is this:
Categories are hierarchical structures whereas tags are flat.
That is the power that categories have that tags will never have. Categories form groups and super groups and super super groups etc., whereas tags just form groups.
If I have a category structure of World->Africa->South Africa->Cape Town and I place a post in the Cape Town sub-sub-sub-category, that post is included not only in Cape Town, but also in the South Africa sub-sub-group, the Africa sub-group and the World group.
People (your site readers) can use a coherently structured category list to drill down to exactly what they want in ONE CLICK or back up a bit, up the hierarchy, and take in a larger group of posts.
Categories are structured with the most broadly encompassing container at the top and the most specific container at the bottom.
In other words, a person can take in Africa as a whole or zero in on a particular house in a street in a town in a region in a province in a country in Africa. That’s the power and directness of categories.
Categories are not meant to be loosely structured and lying all over the place. They are meant to be tightly organised and logically put together under each other to give you the structure you need.
On the other hand, while categories represent order and logical structure, tags represent anarchy and chaos.
There is no structure or hierarchy to tags. Tags are one long list of attributes, that you assign to posts as they relate to them.
I have heard some bloggers opine that tags should represent keywords that are NOT present in your post. WRONG, oh WRONG WRONG WRONG. No, no, no, no! Do not do that!
Au contraire, go find the juiciest most important keywords in your posts and tag your posts with those. This will allow people to quickly zero in on exactly those posts where those important concepts are discussed.
To enhance your archive pages which list posts in the various categories or tags, there is a useful WordPress plugin, WP-SNAP!, that will alphabetize your posts and give you a clickable A – Z index at the top of each page.
To conclude this post, I will add that if you make it easy for visitors to browse your site by category or tag, you will retain their readership longer by giving them a more satisfying experience.
This site is in the process of optimising its category structure.
Tags: Categories, Tags, Ultimate Tag Warrior, WordPress, WordPress plugin, wp-snap
Filed under 2.3, Categories, Tags, wp-snap | 2 Comments »
University of Lexington, KY invents cocaine flush therapy
Posted on August 30th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,991 views
A chemist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Dr. Chang-Guo Zhan, and his team have invented a new drug therapy to flush cocaine out of a body.
This treatment could be used to treat cocaine overdoses in humans. Human trials have not yet begun, but in a study with laboratory mice, the therapy prevented the deaths of all test cases, whilst the control cases died from the toxic effect of a cocaine overdose.
Currently doctors treating cocaine overdose cases aren’t able to do much for their patients. Current therapy consists merely of lowering the patient’s body temperature and administering drugs to slow their heart rate.
Cocaine in the body, affects the central nervous system. Too much can cause irreparable damage which often leads to death. The body has a natural enzyme which neutralises cocaine by combining it with water and through a process of further reactions breaks it down into two harmless byproducts. However the process is slow – it can take up to 90 minutes to dispose of even a small dose of cocaine, much longer for a large overdose.
What Zhan’s team has done is to take the natural enzyme responsible and enhance it to speed up the process of breaking cocaine down by 2000 times. The enhanced enzyme changes only 5 of the 574 amino acids that comprise the naturally occurring enzyme and therefore it is thought that side effects from the treatment should be minimal.
A pharmacologist from King’s College London, Stewart Paterson, feels that the new therapy is promising but cautions that it needs to be established first that it does not break down other usual compounds in the body.
Source document: PDF
Tags: Addiction, Cocaine, cocaine overdose treatment
Filed under Cocaine, Drugs | 3 Comments »
Seven weeks, bitch! Seven FUCKING weeks!
Posted on August 27th, 2008 by Richard Catto 3,138 views
"It's a miracle, I'm a strong believer, I think she must have had a guardian angel. I'm so happy."
60 year old widow’s cat found bricked up under bath tub after 7 weeks
Monika Hoppert a batty old German lady from Stadthagen, Germany, lost her cat and couldn’t find it for seven weeks.
What had happened is that her neighbour was redecorating her bathroom and the poor little kitty cat had crawled in under the bathtub and then was unceremoniously walled in, for SEVEN weeks.
Bonny (our hero cat) was finally heard miaowing by the neighbour and alerted Monika. When finally rescued Bonny had shrunk down to 1.8 kilograms from her original 5.9 kg!
Monika was advised by a vet to put Bonny down because the cat was so weak, but Monika refused and instead nursed her beloved kitty cat back to health by feeding it watered down kitten food.
“She’s almost back to normal now. This morning was the first time she’d jumped onto my bed again,” gushed a grateful Monika.
Bonny showed her gratitude for her rescue as can be seen above.
I used icanhascheezburger.com’s LOLLERCAT builder to create the above tender moment.
Tags: Lolcat, Monika Hoppert
Filed under cats | 4 Comments »
Intel uses Resonant induction to power a device without wires
Posted on August 26th, 2008 by Richard Catto 2,054 views
On Thursday August 21 2008, Intel demonstrated lighting a 60 watt light bulb on stage using a fancy get up of two circular coils aligned about three feet apart.
They’re using what is called a Wireless Energy Resonant Link and instead of transferring power with bolts of lightning, Intel’s device uses resonant induction to induce a current to flow on the receiving coil which in turn powers an attached device.
A 60 watt globe draws more power than the average laptop so this device could be used in lieu of a standard recharger.
Intel’s device is 75% efficient, meaning that 25% of the power is lost during the wireless transfer process.
Readers on slashdot have idly wondered if this magnetic field might have unintended side effects such as wiping hard drives clear of data.
Intel is also researching a robotic application called an electric field sensor that allows a robotic hand to gauge the size of an apple, grasp it and then drop it into an outstretched human hand that it is also able to sense.
FURTHER READING:
Wireless power ‘eliminates chargers’
Intel cuts electric cords with wireless power system
Intel Claims an Advance In Wireless Power
Intel Moves to Free Gadgets of Their Recharging Cords
Tags: electric field sensor, Intel, resonant induction, robotics, wireless power
Filed under Intel | 5 Comments »
Guy McLaren is Bolton DeVenter
Posted on August 26th, 2008 by Richard Catto 3,014 views
I’ve kept his secret too long. I’ve known this from almost day one.
Sorry for not busting him sooner.
People are still being duped by McLaren, so it’s time to out him.
He was also the Shirtless Blogger. And a couple of other identities who never became famous.
McLaren is an Internet chameleon, prepared to do anything for a bit of fame.
It’s quite sad really. Poor little guy.
If I told you the lengths he is prepared to go to for fame, you probably would not believe me.
Tags: Bolton Deventer, Guy McLaren
Filed under Bolton Deventer | 9 Comments »
