Announcing... the IFDB Tag Manipulator!

This script works, and maybe it’s a good thing, but it creeps me out, because if someone does use it in a way they regret, it could be hard for us to clean up.

As of a couple weeks ago, IFDB moderators now have a tool that can do what this tool does. The new tools are:

  • Bulk Add: Add tag X to all games that have tag Y
  • Bulk Delete: Delete all instances of a tag
  • Block Tag: Prevent users from using a tag X, instead recommending a different tag Y (e.g. “sci-fi” versus “science fiction”)

When we want to consolidate tags, we normally use all three of these tools, first adding “science fiction” to all games tagged “sci-fi,” then deleting all instances of “sci-fi”, and finally blocking “sci-fi” in favor of “science fiction.”

My intuition is that if you feel like you want to use this Tag Manipulator, then maybe you want to use it to consolidate tags, and so you might want to post about it on the Tagfest 2024: Suggested tag consolidations thread.

Someday, I hope to allow anyone to delete tags, but, in order to make that possible, I think we’ll need to track tags in game history. (That’s going to be very tricky work, and I’ll probably need to do it myself, someday.)

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