Categories, and other WikiBadges, are incredibly useful for establishing relationships between topics. But entering a topic in a category isn't all that simple; you have to know the category exists, and you have to edit the topic to add the WikiBadge.

Wouldn't it be nice if badging could be automated? This might be done in (at least) two ways.

First, a BadgeButton on a page could be used by ordinary users to add a topic to "My Favourites" (personal categories), and by WikiMasters to review existing categories and add the topic to one if appropriate. Categories after all are essentially shared favourites.

Second, a button on search results could be used to add all the topics returned by a search to a Category.

Both of these operations should be possible without the page being tagged as "changed".

Q: what's the difference between a "personal favourite" via a WikiBadge and the InterestedParties form field?

A: not a lot, except that badging would be form-agnostic i.e. would not require a form field

If the EditTablePlugin worked on form tables, it would provide one mechanism for adding badges without editing. The idea of forms is attractive because then editors aren't constantly having to move the badges to the top or bottom of the %TEXT%.

Another available mechanism is CommentPlugin with a very small textarea, or even no textarea at all (a dropdown, or a personalised tag).

TagMePlugin objective is to replace the WikiBadge with tags. It is quite easy to tag a topic.

-- RafaelAlvarez - 25 Aug 2008