Stemming from Colby's Tweet, what is the correct syntax for a hashtag? Is there one?

In addition, Edward Jiang brought up their usefulness,

"Hashtags are a broken form of linking topics. It's going to be a relic of Web 2.0. The future will be more fluid."

Do you agree?

To kick it off, hashtags are far from a broken way of linking topics. They're a standard for linking topics and also a great example of timeless communication through what is truly an ancient symbol. It's really easy to hate hashtags because of the way lots of people use them, it's simply the easiest stance to have especially on the web. But looking at the long term benefits or archiving and how the web works, if we really want a #freeandopen internet, be pro-hashtag!

I don't think you are going to get any factual evidence either way over who is right or wrong here. Which is sorta the beauty of hashtags in its own way.

However, I do think that hashtagged sentences or quips have provided the much needed "sarcastic font" that the internet so badly needed. Especially in short forms like Twitter, the context of text often loses its meaning. A hashtag at the end of a tweet often helps give that context.

In a way, I agree with @Kevin. The whole argument is based on opinion, and one person taking offense to an opinion that someone else has.

I am not going to waste time trying to use factual evidence to back up my argument, because there is none. Instead, I will give insight into my opinion and what I think is the most beneficial way to use a hashtag.

When used properly, hashtags can be a great place to connect people who are discussing a topic, such as an event, a TV show or a movie.

The wrong way to use hashtags, in my opinion, is the way that Kevin mentioned at the end of his message. When used this way, hashtags add much less value to the conversation. Example: #HashTagsAreGreatYo.

So then #aneventapart is alright since it's an event, but #calloutacutie is not because it's just a saying?

#CallOutACutie isn't the best example, but I still think it's a fairly poor way to use a hashtag. Nothing useful comes from visiting twitter.com, where as at twitter.com, someone could read tweets that deliver important information.

It's all about context. Hashtags are used for marketing, promotions, seo, jokes, search, categories, polls, and so on.

There isn't a right way. There isn't a wrong way.

Each context has its own definition, and each use case provides its own benefit.

Here's a perfectly bad example of how to use a hashtag, used by someone I know from school. twitter.com

I'm pretty intense about this, but so be it. I think the correct way to use hashtags is as a mute filter, period. It's for limiting the channel to a specific topic, so people who want signal from that topic can filter for it, and people who don't want noise from that channel can mute it.

Every other use for hashtags is pointless spam. You don't need it for discovery; just search for keywords. It doesn't work for self-promotion; it backfires. Some clever people were able to use it as the sarcasm font for a while, but that took off, and now it's ruined because of people's lack of subtlety.

Hashtags are for muting. Clients without muting are broken. Yes, I mean Twitter's official ones.

"#CallOutACutie isn't the best example, but I still think it's a fairly poor way to use a hashtag. Nothing useful comes from visiting twitter.com/?search=calloutacutie, where as at twitter.com/?search=aneventapart....., someone could read tweets that deliver important information."

Maybe so, but that shows a problem with the medium of Twitter (specifically its search) and not the syntax of a hashtag itself. Part of what I'm doing with hashtag.ly is creating an alternative to Twitter search with various features to make looking at things like #calloutacutie a bit easier to do. We can all probably agree that Twitter is greatly flawed, and one of the things I hope to remedy is archiving, which if Twitter had it would greatly improve search.

@Colby Why?

What if Jeffrey uses that tag to collect a list of all the places that he arrives at before anyone else?

Or what if it has specific meaning to a certain group of friends?

It's not for an outsider to judge. If it has meaning to the creator and if it provides context to someone, then it is not wrong.

#A #bad #way #to #use #a #hashtag #would #be #to #hashtag #every #single #word because it no longer provides any context to anyone.

@Jon "You don't need it for discovery; just search for keywords."

Search is really hard to get right. Google spoils us. If you look at sites like Reddit and Hacker News, the search isn't very intelligence. Smart search is incredibly expensive. One things hashtags do it make search must faster to build since you know the key words and concepts the author of the tweet/website/media were thinking of.

Aaaaannnndddd yes, as an extension, muting makes it easier.

But this is all really "discovery". Anything post-search is discovery. To summarize hashtags in one word would most certainly be discovery.

"But this is all really "discovery". Anything post-search is discovery. To summarize hashtags in one word would most certainly be discovery." Yes! I agree.

Though, it's quite hard to discover tweets when people are pulling hashtags out of thin air, like we saw with Jeffrey's tweet.

I should also note that nobody else has used his hashtag, #InB4Every1Else.

@Kevin "#A #bad #way #to #use #a #hashtag #would #be #to #hashtag #every #single #word because it no longer provides any context to anyone."

This is correct. The only way a hashtag ISN'T useful is when it no longer tells what the person was thinking about when they authored the content.

If I use #CallOutACutie, you know it's because I saw the same hashtag somewhere else. The # symbol tells you it's a trend. Though I'm not partial to calling out cuties, I can use it humorously as in this tweet:

I’m calling out @LucianNovo and @ColbyAley for not contributing to our idea board more! (btw, I just added two ideas) #calloutacutie

You know I'm making fun of the trend, because #CallOutACutie was trending on Twitter. #webstandards

@Colby "I should also note that nobody else has used his hashtag, #InB4Every1Else."

Maybe they would start. There's a first time for all hashtags.

The point is that it doesn't matter if anyone else uses that hashtag.

What if I create a script that takes all of my tweets that include the hashtag #checkin and I add all of those tweets to a Google Calendar so that I can keep track on a Calendar all the places I have been and on what days?