Get rid of ghost-tags – a way to sanitize old tags

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1

This is a sub-issue of the general topic of (needed) tag-management.
It also can be seen as closely related to these two threads/tickets:
• Can I change a tag and have it update throughout? - #3 by Fuchsia
• Tag Management + Synonyms - #5 by paradeiser

Nevertheless, because current behavior, afaiks, creates some particular headache for me, I took liberty to create an extra thread for this.

The issue is: while the tip/hack of thread #1 works as to renaming tags indirectly, the old tags seem to remain remnant in the system (tag picker).

This clogs the system very much and creates some problems for efficiency and streamlining, especially over longer times of use.
Some problems these 'ghost-tags' induce:
• making it impossible to really have a controlled set of tags
• cluttering effect (no overview effect)
• possible mix-ups and confusion
• the list simply grows longer and longer... making it practically unruly in a lot of scenarios (e.g. currently I have to select all tags + invert them to get to a "no tag"-selection criterion… becomes a real laborious task with too long tag lists…
• …

So, while in general I would really reiterate that for an efficient tag system there needs to be some systematic management to be effective, I would already be a lot happier if unused tags could be cleansed off the system somehow :slightly_smiling_face:

2

Thanks for the feedback.

Do you use ‘Automatic’ in tag settings page?

If so, tags used are fetched from Smart list tags and Quick actions tags.

Tags not in those areas should be removed automatically.

If you can share your status with screenshots to contact@hahaint.com , I’ll take a look. Thanks!

3

thanks a load, first of all, for your quick reply.

Before sharing anything + to sort the case:

  1. no, "automatic" is unticked

  2. I just went through a) smart lists and b) quick actions. While – I think – there is no case of my current 'replaced'-tag left in any smart list, I am 100% sure I rooted all mentions from the 'quick actions'..

Observation:

  1. even after restart the 'replaced'-tag still lingers in the tag-picklist
  2. I have the same case for tags I certainly never put anywhere else (smart list, or 'quick actions'; actually they are certainly only there because I accidentally put them in the tag-picklist once… still, they reappear – even without (traceable) use (I checked via searc)…

Side remark:
Not really practically relevant in this circumscribed case. But actually, IMO, the problem of searching fugitive tags like in this scenario, I think underlines the benefits of some central way to manage (trace) tags…

Thanks again for caring, and let me know if any screenshots might still help. I think they probably won´t do more than showing tags in the picker, which I think shouldn´t be there…

4

If you don’t have ‘Automatic’ checked, all tags should be shown on that list manually. In that case, those are the tags that’s managed in the app. You may try turning it in to see how it works.

You may also want to check ‘Edit list’ settings since tags can be customized per list.

Thanks!

5

Thanks again,

I think I see where we are talking about 2 different places, and maybe I have to specify:
the list where those unwanted 'ghost tags' appear is not the one about configuring the contextual tags for a list. It´s the one (global one?) I see, whenever I click into the tag field of a task to select tags for it.

I have also sent you a screenrecording where you can see where the issue arises.

Best again!

6

Thanks for the details. Normally the list that you see when you go into tag page inside task detail page fetches tags from main tag list. You can check them in 'Settings - Sort, Tags - Tags' page. You may check that page and see how it shows.

Normally it should get refreshed. Thanks!

7

hello,

thanks for that hint. The tag-sort setting really now seems to be the closest thing to a central tag management.
While the 'ghost-tags' also show there, it seems removing them from this faux-master-list does remedy a lot of the problems/complexities downstream for me.

So, that helps.

Then, in further building my matrix views (which really brings about this partial re-design of my tag system), I found some other things:
• just inserting tags in the tag-list of a specific list does not make it appear in the master tag-list (or any picker) automatically for me; while additionally assigning it to a task does
• similar if I add a tag to a matrix-view filter set-up: the tag is not offered afterwards until it is actually assigned somewhere

While I understand this in terms of a 'filter' logic, it all adds up, IMHO, to an overly complex and unruly tag-'system'. Not only is it very distributed, and in result opaque (especially in quick use scenarios), but there is also no easy way to 'architecture', overview and manage the overall system from any central place.

Take the example of the – really great – new matrix view.
It opens up so many – additional – possibilities. So, it naturally asks for an adapted tag-system (in many to most cases). But there seems no (easy) way to centrally set-up and adjust the overall tag-vocabularly. One can do so, but it really takes a lot of distributed actions, with a lot of frictions and possible misunderstandings, strayings etc.

So, in sum:
• seeing the tag sort preset as a kind of central tag manager (beyond just sorting logics) really helps!
• I think the overall ingenuous, dynamic and handy GoodTask app really deserves / still calls for a coherent and easy tag-management system – which especially shows up when you widen and grow the system (as with matrix view).

Best & thanks!

8

Thanks for detail feedback.

The central place for all the tag management is in Settings > Sort, Tags > Tags page. I recommend using 'Automatic' on that page if you want it to change dynamically.

Turning it off is recommended if you want to manage tags by yourself without adding/removing existing ones that you use.

I'll keep your feedback. If you have more suggestions, feel free to let me know. Thanks!

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