Just my opinion.  I think that they are a waste of web space.

Gina, eventually the tags will be useful for searching purposes.  For now they may seem pointless for everyone but the people using them on their particular books, but that will change in time!  I was skeptical at first but after reading about tags I've become a big fan.

Gina I agree since they are not being used correctly... I don't know how many of them I've seen where the user is using them to keep track of where they are on the wish list for that book.. 

I, too, see absolutely no use for them.

Actually, there is no "incorrect" way to use a tag, each person is supposed to use them as they want to.  The idea is that the majority of people will eventually use them in a way that is useful to the majority of people.  I don't really have a use for them personally, but I've been trying to tag books that I'm entering into the system with a tag that will be helpful later if someone is looking for that type of book.  Books at PBS are in broad genres, but when you look for narrower themes, the only way you'll be able to find them is with tags.   For example, although I love mysteries, I prefer ones set in specific locales and professions--if most of the books here were tagged with this kind of information I would be able to find those books easily.

Tagging is as essential to Web 2.0 as blogging.  It will only begin to make sense when there are enough tags in the system for them to make sense.  Have patience.

It also works if you can find people, just a few, who share your reading interest and agree to tag books with some label.   It seems others catch-on after enough uses of a label.

I agree that at first I was annoyed with all the- so and so's reminder list, so and so's wish list- I was like who cares?? but then I saw some books tagged as cozy or paranormal and I found a ton of books that I never would have without the use of tags- I am for the use of tags for that reason-

I was against them to begin with. But then I started tagging.  Yes I am one of the personal taggers who tags their RL books.  I like to look at the deals people offer and if I see more than one I can make an order.  I barely notice other people's personal tags now. Although there is someone name Jen out there with basically the same RL as me. I've really made an effort to tag w/common tags as well to help push the personal ones back further.  Maybe I'll go tag some now. 

I do want to add that I don't think tags should be used for book condition.  Simply because it might put someone off ordering a book.  The condition only applies to that one specific taggers book.  Where as my tagging the book RL applies to any of that book on anyone's shelf. 

I'm still on the fence about tags.  I wish there was a way that only those tags actually useful to other members would show and all those using personal codes, etc., wouldn't.

I really like the tags for book series.  I read series in the order they were written and having the tags helps me to track the order of each individual book in the series without having to do it manually. 

I have seen some tags that I consider worthless but  I just ignore them.  The tag means something to someone else so who cares if it means nothing to me.

I love the idea of tags, and the searchability inherent in their use.  But I wish the system would let us distinguish whether a tag was a community tag or a personal tag, and only display the community tags to the entire group, and display the personal tags only to the creator.  I can only assume the programming to make that happen is prohibitive, and that's why the tags are set up the way they are.

I am using tags both ways currently, trying to tag community tags on all books, as well as utilizing personal tags for my own usages (normally, listing a publishing date for books not yet released). 

I like the tags.  I use them to figure out the order of books in a series.  I also like being able to find more specific genres (like cozy, paranormal, etc.)  If a tag is meaningless to me (I see that Jen's reminder list one a lot... I wonder just how long that reminder list is?), I just ignore it.  No problem.  I would agree that condition ones may be annoying for a while, but the more you tag, the sooner those will go away, so ::shrug::

Eventually when more people tag more books with more useful tags the personal ones will be only visible by the person that made them. When there are more than (I believe) 15 tags per book only the most used ones will show up in a search. All the others will become visible only to the person that created the tag.

no way! i love tags!

I think the tags are like other features of the site.   Right now it's now one that I need or find useful.   But then I don't find Box of Books or Journal useful or helpful to me either.   But all of them are useful to a lot of people.   The tags certainly are not slowing down the way I use the site.   I may even get around to using all the features of this site someday - in the meanwhile others are happy with those features.

I've used them to tag books that are required reading for my curriculum with my kids, or recommended reading for our history curriculum.  For these uses, I find that they are very useful, not only to myself, but to others who use that curriculum.

Dawn

i've only started discovering their uses. I go either way at this point, but I see the potential for future value.

The more I read about tags, the more potential I see in them.  On the personal level and the group level.  So, yesterday, I tagged all my wishlist books with where I stand.  Now, I'm slowly working my way back through the list to put the release date on each book.  Why?  Because often when the book was released has helped me realize why the wishlist might be so high.  I'm also working on tagging certain series that I have on the TBR pile, wishlist and reminder list.  My goal is to tag each book I finish with 3 useful tags to help others.  Which reminds me, I forgot the most obvious tag for the book I finished this morning.

Kerry