You are spamming me. How do I make it stop?

Email you receive from Tagalag has a "turn off notifications or block" link. If you turn off notifications, Tagalag will not email you when you are tagged. If you block, Tagalag will remove all incoming and outgoing tags, prevent future tags, hide your profile, and will not email you.

You can toggle notifications and blocking from My Account.

Will spammers use Tagalag to collect information on me?

They will try. Your full email addresses is only visible to those who have tagged you (which requires your email) or been tagged by you.

Will Tagalag spam me?

We don't think so, and we haven't yet. If you're concerned about it, you can "block" your account as outlined in the first question.

How do I add tags?

Login then type in an email address in the search box at the top of the page. Once you're on that email's profile page, type in a tag.

How do I remove tags?

Go to a profile page and click the ^X next to the tag you want to remove.

Why are you using consecutive integers for identifiers?

Tagalag helps manage public identity, which means making profiles easy to find. This is why we emphasize our search capabilities. To that effect, we decided to use simple, consecutive integers for user id numbers. (And we really miss ICQ.)

We are aware of the ramifications of this decision. Users should know that with the exception of their email address, profiles are not obscured and available via a very public API.

Your full email addresses is only visible to those who have tagged you (which requires your email) or been tagged by you.

Is there a way to tag from within an email?

Yes. Read about our email interface in the tools section.

Who is behind this madness?

John Wehr is a freelance web application developer and editor of RFID News. You can contact him at johnwehr@gmail.com. Please make support requests in the forum.

What tools were used to develop Tagalag?

MochiKit

By encapsulating common DOM and XMLHttpRequest subroutines, developers can take advantage of the rigorous testing of MochiKit's growing user base. According to their website:

"MochiKit is a highly documented and well tested suite of JavaScript libraries that will help you get shit done, fast. We took all the good ideas we could find from our Python, Objective-C, etc. experience and adapted it to the crazy world of JavaScript."

The results are fewer cross-browser issues, readable (and thus maintainable) code, and end to the verbose, Byzantine environment that is Javascript DOM manipulation.

PHP 5

The much maligned language grew up a little in its latest release. It still has what it takes to be a viable environment for developing dynamic web applications.

Python

Python is teh awesome but poorly equipped to develop web front-ends. We use it extensively behind the scenes.

PHPTAL

Though it's a little hard to wrap your head around at first, PHP TAL is a rare templating library. With underlying ideas from Zope, TAL makes Smarty feel esoteric and outdated by simultaneously accommodating templating and prototyping. The otherwise excellent documentation is riddled with spelling and grammar errors, which we think gives it a little bit of French charisma:

"PHPTAL is a PHP implementation of ZPT work. To be short, PHPTAL is a XML/XHTML template library for PHP.

While most web developers continue to use ASP/JSP/PHP tags as the core language of their templates, the Zope community came with a refreshing idea named TAL. The idea was to move presentation actions inside XHTML attributes instead of using plain tags or elements."

TextMate

We never want to develop on a Windows machine again. Textmate is agile, convenient and well supported. According to their website:

"TextMate attempts to bring Apple's approach to operating systems into the world of text editors. By bridging UNIX underpinnings and GUI, TextMate cherry-picks the best of both worlds to the benefit of expert scripters and novice users alike. With a wealth of exclusive features like tabs, foldings, and macros, TextMate is well ahead of other native, graphical editors on OS X — and you don't have to sell your bones to afford it."

We couldn't agree more.

What browsers will Tagalag work in?

Tagalag is tested in Firefox 1.x for Windows and Mac, Safari 1.3+, and Internet Explorer 6.

Is there an API?

Yes. There is a limited XML API. Additionally, most of the pages on this site use REST-ful JSON data sources. You can see the JSON page data by adding a "?json=1" parameter.

Is there a mailing list?

Yes. See the Tagalag Google Group.

What should I do if I find a bug?

Please post bugs in the forum.

Where should I send feature requests?

Please post feature requests to the forum.