Beyond Contributions: Tagging with Purpose on Connect 🤝🏷️

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Caption: Cover page by LG @Kumaarsantosh featuring “Ghumakkad” set against a collaboration-themed backdrop showcasing the power of tags and mentions through the ‘@’ symbol, with the title: “Beyond Contributions: Tagging With Purpose On Connect.”
Caption: Cover page by LG @Kumaarsantosh featuring “Ghumakkad” set against a collaboration-themed backdrop showcasing the power of tags and mentions through the ‘@’ symbol, with the title: “Beyond Contributions: Tagging With Purpose On Connect.”1920×1080 264 KB

Hello Fellow Local Guides,

One of the best things about Connect is that it is more than just a place to share posts and contributions. It is a community where we learn from each other, build friendships, and grow together.

Among the many features on Connect, the @ tag is a simple but powerful one. When used thoughtfully, it helps connect Local Guides and fosters more meaningful conversations.

Why Should We Tag Fellow Local Guides?

1. To Bring Someone into a Conversation

Sometimes a Local Guide may have valuable knowledge or experience related to a topic. Tagging helps notify them and invites them to join the discussion.

For example:

2. To Appreciate and Recognize Contributions

A tag is a great way to thank and acknowledge fellow Local Guides.

For example:

3. To Encourage Participation

Our community is filled with Local Guides who have expertise in different areas. Tagging them can help bring valuable insights into a discussion.

Examples include but not limited to:

  • Accessibility
  • Sustainability
  • Women Empowerment
  • Road mapping
  • Inclusivity
  • Small Businesses
  • Food
  • Travel
  • Photography

Their experiences can help others learn and grow.

4. To Build Community Connections

For me, tagging is not just about notifications.

It is about creating connections. Many friendships, collaborations, and meaningful conversations in our community have started with a simple tag.

When Should We Avoid Tagging?

While tagging is useful, too much tagging can become overwhelming.

It is best to avoid:

:cross_mark: Tagging large number of Local Guides who are not related to the discussion.

:cross_mark: Repeatedly tagging the same Local Guide without a clear reason.

:cross_mark: Tagging someone who prefers not to be tagged.

:cross_mark: Using tags only to increase views or engagement.

Simple Tagging Etiquette

:white_check_mark: Tag with a purpose.

:white_check_mark: Keep the number of tags reasonable. Connect limits individual tags (mentions) per post

:white_check_mark: Make sure the tagged Local Guide is relevant to the discussion.

:white_check_mark: Use tags to inform, appreciate, collaborate, or seek guidance.

:white_check_mark: Respect personal preferences regarding tagging.

For me, tagging is much more than a feature on Connect.

It is a way of saying:

Your contribution matters.

Your experience can help.

Your presence in this conversation is valued.

When used thoughtfully, tagging helps strengthen relationships, encourages participation, and makes our community more welcoming and connected.

To better understand tagging etiquette and best practices on Connect, I recommend reading the excellent post To Tag or Not to Tag? Best practices and rules about tagging people in Connect by @ErmesT.

When do you tag other Local Guides? Do you follow any guidelines while tagging?

Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments so we can all learn from each other.

Keep building a well-informed community stronger :flexed_biceps: together.

JAI HO!!!

🤝🌍✨My Posts on Beyond Contributions in chronological order

  1. Beyond Contributions: The Power of How We Communicate :loudspeaker:

  2. Beyond Contributions: The Power of Community Collaboration :busts_in_silhouette::sparkles::world_map:

  3. Beyond Contributions: The Values That Unite Us :handshake::sparkles:

  4. Beyond Contributions: Tagging with Purpose on Connect :handshake::label:- [This post]

Community guidelines Community guidelines > The Local Guides Connect community

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Reserved for additional inputs.

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Interesting topic, @Kumaarsantosh! I usually tag people on Connect for a few specific reasons: to thank them for joining a meetup, to appreciate their help as a co-host, to direct their attention to a relevant post (for instance, helping new Local Guides find local friends), and, of course, to reply to a comment—just like I am doing now.

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My dear @Kumaarsantosh

It is always good to remind the “tag” function.
Great post!
It is not only NETIQUETTE but a strong tool we have

Thanks

Take care
Marco

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I recall writing a post about this some time ago but perhaps it was on the old Connect platform and I just cannot find it. However, having recently seen some inappropriate tagging of late, your topic is timely @Kumaarsantosh.

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@Kumaarsantosh . Thanks for this useful post. It helps clarify many doubts and provides a very engaging framework which we can all use

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A very thoughtful post. @Kumaarsantosh
I only tag fellow Local Guides when it is truly necessary and relevant to the discussion. Purposeful tagging helps keep conversations meaningful and ensures the right people are engaged without overwhelming others.

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Very thoughtful post, @Kumaarsantosh, dada! I actually don’t mind being tagged. Our Fellow Local Guides usually tag me, so I don’t miss out on topics that interest me. Without those tags, I probably would have missed them. I rarely tag others unless it’s strictly necessary for the conversation.

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Very nice post @Kumaarsantosh ji.
Tagging the right people at the right time helps us connect better and learn from each other. Thanks for sharing these helpful tips on proper tagging. :blush::folded_hands:

CM @TusharSuradkar ji helped me a lot ,
CM @MortenCopenhagen who has always helped by pointing out mistakes in my posts and guiding me in the right direction.

@KetanChhaniyara @TravellerG @Kumaarsantosh @AjitThite @shaileno @Tejal @SharmaKK @curatorofmemory @Ssiddharth2000 @VikramSingh_Valera @Hemang_Rindani @bhayani_naitik @NituGogoi @Anil6969 @PrasadVR @Roman_Ahmmed @AbdullahAM @SwetaDhondoo @Gurukrishnapriya @mahatokoushik623 @anon64801222 & the wonderful Local Guides. :heart:
Through your comments, advice, meet-ups, challenges, and shared experiences, you have made my Connect journey truly meaningful and memorable.

In my last post, I tagged many senior LGs, but only to sincerely thank those who have supported, guided, and inspired me throughout my Connect journey.

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I’ve been wondering, do we really need to tag when responding, or does hitting the Reply button already ensure that the poster gets notification of the response? I usually do it, but wanted to know if it is perhaps an unnecessary action.

Note that I didn’t tag you here. I’m replying with quoted text from your post. Let me know if that triggered a notification for you or not.

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I am asking this myself too. I did see cases, when I found the answer only accidentally. It seems, when somebody only responses, we do not get a notification, but if the quote is used, as I did here, the name is tagged there automatically and we see it.

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I think hitting reply is plenty to generate a notification. Tagging dues the same thing, so there is no need to do both.

The problem is when someone answers into the blue without tagging and not using the reply button.

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Thank you for raising this interesting point. Yes, I did receive a notification for your reply even though you did not use a tag, which suggests that replying directly to a comment serves the purpose from a notification perspective.

That said, I feel that the thoughtful use of @ tags adds value to conversations. It helps clearly identify the intended recipient, particularly in discussions with multiple participants, and makes the exchange easier to follow for everyone. Of course, whether to use a tag or not in this case is largely a matter of personal preference, as technically a direct reply serves the purpose quite well.

I appreciate you taking the time to test this and share your observation. Discussions like these help us better understand Connect’s features and use them more effectively.

I am fairly certain that my reply here, despite not using a tag, would have generated a notification for you too. Wouldn’t it?

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How do you reply without using the reply button? You have to use one: either of the button main topic or of a comment. In the latter case, only the author of the other comment gets a notification. Therefore, I was notified for your comment, but not for the one @Kumaarsantosh entered after Morten.

But it also depends on some settings in the profile and the setting for the thread, we can individually set:

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grafik451×417 22.3 KB

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I think tagging is an extremely useful feature that allows us to stay connected and get notified about the topics of interests around our own. The uses mentioned in this post are apt. Also the fact that tagging must be used responsibly, not to spam, but to make the community inclusive. A very good topic @Kumaarsantosh ji

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Thanks @WilfriedB

Indeed, I forgot about the effect of our notifications settings when writing my latest reply in this discussion.

Maybe this

Screenshot_20260624-220116
Screenshot_20260624-2201161080×984 59 KB

can explain when we get notified without understanding why. A topic can get tracked (meaning we get notified when a ny reply is added because was reading the topic for more than X minutes.

When this happens I just check what the notification bell fir the topic looks like. It it has a “!” inside the bell it started tracking.

Honestly, the amount of settings related to notifications is overwhelming and I’m not sure I understand all these settings dispite I wrote this tutorial on notifications and tracking levels… Hehe.

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Yes, I got an email notification for this one, although you didn’t tag.

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Yes it did, and your reply is different to @WilfriedB who used a quote from my post, while you only clicked Reply and didn’t quote. You both generated email notifications for me. Thank you both for helping me to get a clearer view of how this works.

Please note that beyond this simple test, I will continue to use tagging for all the other useful reasons you mentioned above. Very good post.

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I very rarely use the general reply arrow at the side of the post. I prefer to reply to a person’s specific comment. Occasionally, I might do that and tag specific persons who I’d like to see the thread.

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Thanks for linking to that October 2024 thread, although unfortunately, I see it had no engagement. Nine LGs, including myself, clicked the Like button, but none of us responded. But it is indeed relevant to what we’re discussing here at the moment.

And now, my apologies to @Kumaarsantosh for shifting the focus to Notifications rather than just Tagging. Happy to see comments redirected to the original main topic of conversation.