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Issue tracker for Backdrop core.
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[UX] Rename vocabularies & terms #4222

Open jenlampton opened 4 years ago

jenlampton commented 4 years ago

Naming things is hard. Let's debate vocabulary and terms for the next 2 years :)

Proposal:

Vocabulary => Category Type / Group / Set / Collection Term => Category

History:

Is it worth renaming "Vocabularies" and "Terms" or would that do more harm than good?

Brainstorming of Issues

  1. Taxonomy A. English speakers do not regularly use or understand the word "taxonomy"; it should be avoided wherever possible in Drupal. B. "Taxonomy" is largely equivalent to: classification, ontology [yes, a word even worse than "taxonomy"], categorization, organization, etc.
  2. Vocabulary A. English speakers do not regularly use or understand the word "vocabulary" in any sense other than one's use of words in a given language; it should be avoided wherever possible in Drupal. B. "Vocabulary" is largely equivalent to: category, order, group, set, division, class, structure, cluster, hierarchy, tree, graph, network, etc.
  3. Term A. "Term" isn't terrible but is also used rarely in English; when it is used, "term" frequently signifies time rather than an element. B. "Term" is largely equivalent to: tag, label, node [this goes to show how undistinctive, i.e. useless, "node" is], mnemonic, key, keyword, element, item, designation, etc.

Principles of Assessment

  1. What is most intuitive to the beginning user?
  2. Intermediate and expert users will adapt to any terminology that labels a set of features and is sufficiently described or discoverable, but for beginners the terminology is very important to the learning curve.
  3. Don't worry about the exact definitions for any particular word: worry about perception, first impressions, and standard practice.

Let's Look to History (aka, there is nothing new under the sun)

This is a spin-off from https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/203

ghost commented 4 years ago

As I see it, taxonomy (as used 80% of the time) is used for categorising content. Therefore I like 'category' for term and 'category type' for vocabulary.

klonos commented 4 years ago

...I like 'category' for term and 'category type' for vocabulary.

I'm OK with category for term too, but I see vocabularies as category collections (rather than types).

klonos commented 4 years ago

...might be worth seeing what other CMSs do; especially Wordpress, since that seems to be a popular option.

klonos commented 4 years ago

https://www.wpbeginner.com/glossary/tag

Tag is one of the pre-defined taxonomy in WordPress. Users can add tags to their WordPress posts along with categories. However, while a category may cover a broad range of topics, tags are smaller in scope and focused to specific topics. Think of them as keywords used for topics discussed in a particular post.

In WordPress, if a user does not select a category for a post, then it is automatically filed into the default category. However, tags are not automatically added to a post unless a user adds them, which makes them completely optional, but there is not limit as to how many you can add.

Example: A post filed in the Book Review category can optionally have tags like Fiction, Mystery, Stephen King.

When a visitor clicks on a tag they are taken to the archive page where all the posts with that tag are listed. Tags can also be displayed in one of the sidebars using a widget.

Taxonomies provide an easy way to sort contents into topics. This helps website administrators and content publishers to organize their content. This also helps visitors in finding the topics that they might be interested in.

klonos commented 4 years ago

...and from the above, I have concluded that I like terms to be called "keywords" or "tags", and vocabularies to be called "categories" 😅

olafgrabienski commented 4 years ago

from the above, I have concluded that I like terms to be called "keywords" or "tags", and vocabularies to be called "categories"

That would be quite misleading in my opinion. Maybe a misunderstanding of the "wpbeginner" text? Apart of that, let's also look for an official WordPress source, e.g. https://wordpress.org/support/article/taxonomies. IIRC, what in Backdrop is (still) a Vocabulary, seems to be a Taxonomy in WordPress:

Also interesting, that WordPress uses the word "Taxonomies". It's however mentioned in a support text, not in the user interface. (Didn't test the latter, tbh.)