Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Index

The Signpost index

This page is an explainer on the new indexing method used for organizing "stories" into "series" via "tags". These are incorporated into Signpost stories to help readers understand continual and re-emergent threads in the history of the movement.

Tagging articles
Anyone can tag an article, and the process is made easy using the signpostTagger.js user-script tool. To install it, add the following to your Special:MyPage/skin.js:

With the tool installed, when viewing a Signpost article you will see a "Manage tags" tab among your top tabs. This tab only activates on Signpost articles, and only when viewing the page (not in "edit" or "history" mode):



In order for an article to appear in the lists, it must first be tagged. On clicking the tab, you should see a window like this one:



This interface allows you to easily add and remove article tags. To create a new tag, you can simply add it to an article using the tagger tool and save the page. Likewise, in the unlikely scenario that you mean instead to delete a tag, you may simply remove it from all of the pages on which it currently appears. The process for renaming a tag is similar.

Note that all tags follow a particular convention: they are all lowercase, without spaces or other punctuation marks (including – and &mdash;). Thus  becomes   and and   becomes. Foreign characters are also not allowed:  becomes , not.

Invoking tags
We use Signpost series to link to Signpost tags. This template comes with a range of configuration options:

For information on how these templates are used within the Signpost see our style guidelines. For information on how these templates are used elsewhere, see a forthcoming FTE (?).

Browsing tags
There used to be a semi-autonomous process for defining and scoping tags. However, this proved to be too complex to be maintainable, and was ultimately scrapped. At the moment the list of tags maintained by the Signpost is confined to a relatively small number of reasonably popular and common topics, the contents of which are at the discretion of the editor-in-chief and the rest of the editorial board.

A way of browsing valid Signpost tags is a TODO, pending discussion.