<pclass="warning">This is another area under active development right now. I will expand this as I add remote siblings.</p>
<h3>what's the problem?</h3>
<p>It is a common problem, in communal tagging, for ambiguity to arise when different tags with the same meaning are applied non-uniformly.</p>
<p>A great example is in Japanese names, which are natively written surname first. <i>character:ayanami rei</i> and <i>character:rei ayanami</i> have the same meaning, but different users will use one, or the other, or even both.</p>
<p>Other examples are tiny syntactic changes, common misspellings, and unique acronyms:
<ul>
<li><i>smiling</i> and <i>smile</i></li>
<li><i>staring at camera</i> and <i>looking at viewer</i></li>
<li><i>pokemon</i> and <i>pok<EFBFBD>mon</i></li>
<li><i>jersualem</i> and <i>jerusalem</i></li>
<li><i>lotr</i> and <i>series:the lord of the rings</i></li>
<li><i>marimite</i> and <i>series:maria-sama ga miteru</i></li>
<li><i>ishygddt</i> and <i>i sure hope you guys don't do that</i></li>
</ul>
<p>A particular repository may have a preferred standard, but it is not easy to guarantee that all the users will know exactly which tag to use or search for.</p>
<p>After some time, you get this:</p>
<p><imgsrc="tag_siblings_venn_1.png"/></p>
<p>Without continual intervention by janitors or other experienced users to make sure y⊇x (i.e. making the yellow circle entirely overlap the blue by manually giving y to everything with x), searches can only return x (blue circle) or y (yellow circle) or x∩y (the lens-shaped overlap). What we really want is x∪y (both circles).</p>
<p>So, how do we fix this problem?</p>
<h3>tag siblings</h3>
<p>Let's define a relationship, <b>A->B</b>, that means that any time we would normally see or use tag A or tag B, we will instead get the union of tag A and tag B, and this union will be labelled as tag B. In short, we fold A into B, unioning the two tag spaces.</p>
<p>Note that this relationship implies that B is in some way 'better' than A. For instance, I might say that I prefer <i>character:ayanami rei</i>, as I think Japanese characters should probably get their names in the Japanese fashion. So, I would say <i>character:rei ayanami</i>-><i>character:ayanami rei</i>. This means that whenever I might see or type the Western arrangement of Rei's name, I'll automatically get the Japanese instead. Any search will return files with either tag as if they were all tagged <i>character:ayanami rei</i>.</p>
<p><imgsrc="tag_siblings_venn_2.png"/></p>
<h3>ok, I understand; now confuse me</h3>
<p>This relationship is transitive, which means as well as saying A->B, you can also say B->C, which implies A->C and B->C.</p>
<p><imgsrc="tag_siblings_usa.png"/></p>
<p>You can also have an A->C and B->C that does not include A->B.</p>
<p><imgsrc="tag_siblings_what_is_a_man.png"/></p>
<p>The outcome of these two arrangements is the same (everything ends up as C), but the underlying semantics are a little different if you ever want to edit them.</p>
<p>Many complicated arrangements are possible:</p>
<p><imgsrc="tag_siblings_yo_dawg.png"/></p>
<p>Note that if you say A->B, you cannot say A->C; the left-hand side can only go to one. The right-hand side can receive many. The client will stop you from constructing loops.</p>
<h3>how you do it</h3>
<p>It is easy. Just open <i>services->manage tag siblings</i>, and add a few.</p>
<p><imgsrc="tag_siblings_dialog.png"/></p>
<p>The client will automatically collapse the tagspace to whatever you set. It'll even work with autocomplete, so when you start to type in 'rei ayanami' in search, it will show <i>character:ayanami rei</i> instead:</p>
<p>It will not collapse in anywhere you 'write' tags, such as the manage tags dialog. You will be able to add or remove A as normal, but it will be written in some form of "A (B)" to let you know that, ultimately, the tag will end up displaying in the main gui as B:</p>
<p>Although the client may present A as B, it will secretly remember A! You can remove the association A->B, and everything will return to how it was. <b>No information is lost at any point.</b></p>
<p>At the moment, this only supports local siblings. Just like tags, don't go crazy and try to do everything yourself. Have a play with local, but please wait for remote support so your efforts are shared.</p>
