Multiword #Hashtags: A Modest Proposal

Early on, I proposed that multiword #hashtags should be delimited by hash marks, like #across the universe#. This appeal fell on deaf ears. So far, as far as I know no one has implemented that.

I have a new proposal, which has the benefit of sort of working in the meantime, until someone implements it. That is that consecutive #hashtags should be treated in two ways: both individually, and as a string of tags.

For example, in the tweet below I have tagged #across #the #universe, which is the name of a movie. At the moment, www.hashtags.org does not operate in the way I would recommend, which is to treat this as a single string of tags, where the tag would be 'across the universe'.

Twitter / stoweboyd, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

Another alternative would be to support #"across the universe". Or even, #across#the#universe.

What I don't want to have to do is #across+the+universe.

So guys, can you do something about this.

Comments

[William Kelley]

I don't particularly like the compromise proposal you suggest here, but instead agree completely with the original idea of using hashmarks to delimit multiword hashtags, such as #san diego#. As I have mentioned to you on twitter, I further think hashtags should have optional prefixes so that more meaning can be conveyed, like at#san diego#, at#home, tv#twin peaks#, etc.

[Alex Manchester]

I'm not sure if you're seeking it, but I just don't see in-message hashtags gaining any widespread popularity, no matter how many different ways it's tried.

If there was a field within Twitter that you could add tags to a tweet, and also an option to be able to see or hide that field when the Tweets appear in the stream, then that could work (even if it dilutes the essence of "140 characters" a little bit).

At the moment it neither looks or feels/reads right, and trying to add rules to this type of thing seems like a lost cause to begin with.

[MikeD]

Just use WikiWordSyntax - saves space and it reads well too.

[Aaron Farnham]

Your plea has not fallen on deaf ears. Just really, really busy ears. We are in the process of completely rewriting the hashtags.org site, in between our client work at http://downtowncartel.com , and are working on creating a pluggable architecture that will allow us to process tweets on the fly any way we please. Most of it is done but twitter just opened up a new service (XMPP push of the public timeline) so we are back tracking on some of our work to integrate that. Once the new site + architecture is live, we will be adding features like you mention.

Cheers,
Aaron

[Stowe Boyd]

Aaron - Please keep me posted!