Tagmash! How to get there?

What a cool feature for focused book recommendations. I happened across it via a link in another thread. And then changed the tags (the link had the tags already filled in) to suit my own curiosity.

Where is it normally found, I mean by following traditional clicking navigation?

I've only ever found it by doing a tag search of two or more terms with a comma in between.

Maybe there used to be navigation to it? you can go to https://www.librarything.com/tagmash.php for a fresh box, instead of using the search navigation, but I'm not sure if that page is linked anywhere.

Yes, it’s easy enough to get there, but only if you happen to know about it… Another way is to go to the tag page for one of the tags you want to mash, and then simply add the other(s) to the URL, separated by commas.

>2 keristars: That's a shame, that it's something one has to stumble upon. But I do appreciate the blank link!

>3 thorold: I checked that out. The results are different and I'm not savvy enough to know why.

tagmash page

https://www.librarything.com/tag/fiction%2C%20naturalist

(site search box)>works>books

https://www.librarything.com/search.php?search=fiction%2C+naturalist&searcht...

>3 thorold: Oh, and there is yet another result that is interesting

(site search box)>works>tags
https://www.librarything.com/search.php?search=fiction%2C+naturalist&searcht...

Again, though, I'm not sure what each search technique grabs to garner those differing results.

>2 keristars: I wonder if the tagmash intended sort-of-landing page is when you search the site search box, left side, Classification>then click Tagmash.

Obviously I like the roadmap approach. I like being able to orient myself, be able to "go back," see what I missed, find it again without a link but rather by a logical system. It's my old school brain.

>5 DebiCates: Once you search for the two tags separated by a comma, you need to click "tags" on the left side of the search page. There will be a bar at the top asking if you want to do a tagmash of those two tags (or three! you are not restricted to two)

There are also suggested tagmashes on the right side of every tag page, down toward the bottom. Sometimes if I'm already on a tag page and I want to see a tagmash I will click one of the suggested tagmashes and then use the box at the top of the tagmash page to do the tagmash I actually want.

You can also see tagmashes for your catalog in Charts & Graphs > Tagmash (under the "Odds & Ends" category on the left side)

>8 norabelle414: Thanks, I'll play with those options, too.

Here's a question that might me help wrap my brain around the different results I'm getting by using these different suggested methods: the tags come from where for all these tag search results? Exclusively from LT member generated, from their own catalog tags?

It's under Classification in the left sidebar of search page, so just enter the tags separated by comas in the search box and you can click it directly once the search page opens

>6 DebiCates: Tagmash actually brings up works tagged with those two distinct tags, so people tagged them both with fiction and with naturalist. Normal searches bring up the same thing they would without a comma in there, meaning titles with both words in there, a tag with both (eg Naturalists--Fiction)

>9 DebiCates: The different methods will take you to the exact same page. Once you get to the tag search you mentioned in >5 DebiCates: are you clicking the link at the top that says "See a tagmash of fiction, naturalist. Tagmashes show the works that best represent two or more tags together." ?

>11 SandraArdnas: I've been working strictly with the two tags with commas. "fiction, naturalist") yet I get different results depending on which method I use from the suggestions. I do get the idea that there could be a tag with both terms. But I was thinking most people probably break them up, at least I do.

I'm going to play more. I'd like to figure out the reason behind different results via the same search but via different techniques. (See msg 5 & 6)

>12 norabelle414: I think I'm beginning to sort out the different results I get using the suggestions here.

1. If I go to the tagmash page (this link https://www.librarything.com/tagmash.php ), key in "fiction, naturalist" (no "s) I get one set of results: 294 book titles, with some oddballs in there, but mostly acceptable as matching my search.
https://www.librarything.com/tag/fiction%2C%20naturalist

2. If I go to the top "Search LibraryThing" and key in the same search, for book results I get 9 titles which look like results for if the book title has both search words in the title
https://www.librarything.com/search.php?search=fiction%2C+naturalist&searcht...
Those titles were mostly non-fiction titles about fiction naturalist works.

If I then instead go to the tag results on the #2 type search, I get 32 results which looks like what you mentioned @SandraArdnas, results if both search words are in the search tag itself.
https://www.librarything.com/search.php?search=fiction%2C+naturalist&searcht...
I could dig into the clicks there and see what titles I might get.

Perhaps this explains my confusion? Each one of those options would serve well for a different purpose, I'm sure. For book recommendations the tagmash is instant gratification, ha.

>14 DebiCates: Only the first one of those is a tagmash. #2 is a title search and #3 is a tag search. You can get to the tagmash from the tag search by clicking the link at the top.

Do you see a link at the top of the tag search that says "See a tagmash of fiction, naturalist. Tagmashes show the works that best represent two or more tags together." ? If you're not seeing it, that's a bug.

>15 norabelle414: I do! Another way to get to the tagmash. Sweet.

I'm slowly seeing the difference between a tagmash and a tag search of multiple tags. Interesting.

Like all LT things, it's another example where the developers have thought of many ways of what a user might want and envision. AND LT has been at it for a long time, always developing.

>10 SandraArdnas: Aha! Thank you! That's really unintuitive for me on mobile, without the sidebar. I didn't know "Classifications" expanded into more options!

>14 DebiCates: Those are all searching within different categories of data. You would also get different results if you chose one of the Talk related options. :)

Every few months the staff do a "LT Treasure Hunt" with a bunch of riddles (about 15) that are intended to acquaint us with different parts of the site. For example, a riddle might refer to a botanical book about Maine wildflowers, and we have to find out which one it means. We could use Talpa Search, the MDS categories, tag mash, regular tags, title/work search, and so on.

It's usually a fun brain-teaser afternoon for me. Member humouress has created a group to keep track of old hunts and be a place to find the hints from the main Talk threads, which often suggest which LT feature to use to find the answer. https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/23170/LT-Treasure-Hunts

We usually get one around the end of the year, so keep an eye out for it. :)

But the answer might not be a work page. It could be a tag page or a list, or something in local. The hunts really are good at helping you learn new bits of the site.

>17 keristars: >18 MarthaJeanne: I've played the 20th anniversary and the Halloween treasure hunts. I think I got half the Halloween ones. (It felt like an accomplishment!) It had me scrambling around the site to see what tools I might use to suss the answers.

I'll definitely check out that group link, Keri. Sounds like a treasure trove in itself. Thanks for sharing that.

Happy to see this thread. I happened upon tagmash the other day and was wondering what it was. So, books that correspond to a specific set of tags, like child+nature+fiction+death?

>20 purpleiris: Sort of!

I wouldn't say "correspond" so much as "have multiple tags". It's a way to search for the middle of the Venn Diagram.

Books that have been tagged with Child AND Nature AND Fiction AND Death. It looks through all the tags that appear on the work page.

You can also specify NOT. Maybe you want Children's Fiction with Rabbits but NOT Picture Book.

The LT blog has a history (of sorts) of the evolution of the feature: https://blog.librarything.com/?s=tagmash

First announcement of the feature: Tagmash: Book tagging grows up

And like a googlewhack it's fun (for some definitions thereof) to try to find tagmashes that result in only 1 hit.

>22 lesmel: Thank you! I need to go to those links and read them. Tagmash is a friend.
>23 reading_fox: LOL a tagmashwhack.

>21 keristars: Thank you!