You need to say it before people type in something that's against the rules, and then passwords, only to be thrown back again and have to do it all over.
> I'm drawn to things that transcend any particular language
You have control over it. You can add to your filter tags "algorithms", "programming", "compilers" and see more wide set of posts. In addition, you can exclude posts with unwanted tags. For example, you can see posts with the tag "web-development" except posts with tags "php", "asp.net" etc.
This was completely unclear to me from your site, although having re-visited it's less unclear. It's certainly unclear what tags exist, how you deal with synonyms, how I edit my tags, whether I can change the order of filter-out and filter-in, and so on.
You need a much better interface to the editing of the tag-based filters.
And content.
Another question - suppose there's an item about an algorithm in PHP. How do I know it will get given the "algorithm" tag? How are tags assigned/chosen?
It's about filtering posts submitted by users on Tagmask.
Tagmask is a community site for programmers.
So, content should be created by users. It's a problem of chicken and egg.
> How are tags assigned/chosen?
If you submit a post you should give it correct tags. For example, if you submit a post about some algorithm on PHP you should attach to it tags "php" and "algorithm". And in this way any user who subscribed to tag "php" or "algorithm" will see it in his feed.
For now, nothing. It's a problem of the user who submitted the post. If he submits a post about "node.js" and give it just tags "programming" and "web-development", it's just his problem because people who are interested in node.js will not see his post. And, probably, it also means that quality of a post is not so good.
Actually, no. I just wanted to share this idea of tag-based approach and to get a few comments that it's absolutely stupid and useless, and I should stop working on it.
I am working on Tagmask for over a year and I am almost burned, it seems that it's absolutely useless idea because nobody cares.
Thank you for your comment. Now I'll stop posting on HN.
Well, to my naive way of thinking, there's your first problem. You've done the usual thing of creating a site, and then wondering why no one turns up. You need to "market" your site.
And that doesn't just mean telling HN about it several times. You need to create content, you need to get a few people to play with it, you need to make sure they immediately find something interesting and useful, you need to engage with them, etc.
And to me, the problem is as I say in my other comment - I don't see how tagging items with language names helps. Binary Search is Binary Search in any language, and most of the important and interesting things to say have nothing to do with the language of implementation.
So you have three problems:
* Content - you need to work harder to create more
* Marketing - you need to get a few users who immediately see the value
* Tags - I know they are the basis, but I'm not convinced language tags are the way to go.
YMMV - I'm often wrong - free advice is often worth exactly what you paid for it.
I built Tagmask. Actually, I don't like what is written on Killerstartups.
The main feature of Tagmask is tag-based approach to filtering posts, some people find it useful.
But I never told that Tagmask is a revolutionary community for programmers.
And I am very upset and frustrated about Killerstartups article.
Btw, I sent an email to you about Tagmask, did you miss it?
Thanks for the suggestion. You are probably right. I see tagmask uses them. Have you noticed an effect? Community sites are always plagued by the chicken/egg problem, so removing any friction is probably worth the effort.
In the case of Hubski, a lot of the functionality comes as a result of using the site, and I think I can do better translating that to non-users. I see tagmask has a video. That's probably a good idea too.
