hashtaggin - can an youngen tell me what this does?
Discussion
Hashtags are basically topics of discussion, usually on Twitter, but other social networks have adopted the same idea.
There are various ways to find posts on Twitter. The most obvious way is to look at all the posts created by one user, which is much like their facebook wall as you have already gathered. Usernames on Twitter are prefixed with '@' Looking at one user gives you a list of that user's posts going back in time, just like facebook. Unless you are specifically interested in the life of that one person, that's not too useful. What's more common is that you are interested in a news topic, or a sporting event or something.
Hashtags are a way for you to view all the posts on a topic or subject, regardless of who posted them. For example, #Wimbledon
Anyone can join the discussion on the subject of #Wimbledon just by including that hashtag in their post (or tweet).
The name hashtag comes from the Twitter convention to prefix the topic or "tag" with a '#', the hash symbol.
By including the #Wimbledon hashtag, your twitter post will appear in the #Wimbledon topic list of posts or "feed". A feed is like a facebook wall for that subject, not for a person. The more hashtags you include in your post, the more topics your post will appear in. This means your post might be seen by more people who are viewing different topics at that time. The posts which include lots of hashtags are desperate to be seen, either because the poster is crazy or for marketing reasons or whatever.
You'll notice on most things where there are hashtags that you can click on the hashtag and it will take you to the feed of all posts which contain that hashtag.
The reason the # symbol is needed at all is to tell Twitter than 'Wimbledon' isn't just another word in your post, but is a keyword or topic to which the post relates. Twitter can then search for all posts with that hashtag, and provide a feed for them all together, in time order. There's not much special about the # symbol itself; any number of characters could have been chosen, but the # allows Twitter software to pull out those words and make them links to the feed for that topic.
Hashtags are not pre-defined by Twitter. Nobody had to create the hashtag #Wimbledon in the system before it could be used. Anyone at any time can stick a # in front of any word and it becomes a new topic, or relates posts to an existing topic if it's not the first time it has been used. The more people use it, the more popular it becomes and the more it will be noticed, and so on. It's very organic. Hashtag popularity at any given moment is shown on Twitter so you can see the most discussed topics right now. It's a useful guide to what's being discussed by the most people at that point in time.
Whether or not it's useful to know what Twitter users are talking about is a completely different matter...
Other social media platforms have adopted the same convention of @username and #topic for the same purposes. Some platforms don't even recognise #hashtags, but users use them somewhat ironically to describe the topic or mood of the post. In those cases, it's more of a social convention for adding meta-data to a post, or information that describes the post itself, e.g. "I'm eating a whole tub of ice cream #depressed" There is no topic for 'depressed', and the writer is not attempting to contribute to a discussion about 'depressed', rather they are adding additional information to their own post to set the mood without actually stating anything. It's not dissimilar to a smiley or emoticon on PH in that regard.
Because hastags are created by anyone who wants to use them, the ways in which they are used are creative. The useful ways catch on, just like anything else.
There are various ways to find posts on Twitter. The most obvious way is to look at all the posts created by one user, which is much like their facebook wall as you have already gathered. Usernames on Twitter are prefixed with '@' Looking at one user gives you a list of that user's posts going back in time, just like facebook. Unless you are specifically interested in the life of that one person, that's not too useful. What's more common is that you are interested in a news topic, or a sporting event or something.
Hashtags are a way for you to view all the posts on a topic or subject, regardless of who posted them. For example, #Wimbledon
Anyone can join the discussion on the subject of #Wimbledon just by including that hashtag in their post (or tweet).
The name hashtag comes from the Twitter convention to prefix the topic or "tag" with a '#', the hash symbol.
By including the #Wimbledon hashtag, your twitter post will appear in the #Wimbledon topic list of posts or "feed". A feed is like a facebook wall for that subject, not for a person. The more hashtags you include in your post, the more topics your post will appear in. This means your post might be seen by more people who are viewing different topics at that time. The posts which include lots of hashtags are desperate to be seen, either because the poster is crazy or for marketing reasons or whatever.
You'll notice on most things where there are hashtags that you can click on the hashtag and it will take you to the feed of all posts which contain that hashtag.
The reason the # symbol is needed at all is to tell Twitter than 'Wimbledon' isn't just another word in your post, but is a keyword or topic to which the post relates. Twitter can then search for all posts with that hashtag, and provide a feed for them all together, in time order. There's not much special about the # symbol itself; any number of characters could have been chosen, but the # allows Twitter software to pull out those words and make them links to the feed for that topic.
Hashtags are not pre-defined by Twitter. Nobody had to create the hashtag #Wimbledon in the system before it could be used. Anyone at any time can stick a # in front of any word and it becomes a new topic, or relates posts to an existing topic if it's not the first time it has been used. The more people use it, the more popular it becomes and the more it will be noticed, and so on. It's very organic. Hashtag popularity at any given moment is shown on Twitter so you can see the most discussed topics right now. It's a useful guide to what's being discussed by the most people at that point in time.
Whether or not it's useful to know what Twitter users are talking about is a completely different matter...
Other social media platforms have adopted the same convention of @username and #topic for the same purposes. Some platforms don't even recognise #hashtags, but users use them somewhat ironically to describe the topic or mood of the post. In those cases, it's more of a social convention for adding meta-data to a post, or information that describes the post itself, e.g. "I'm eating a whole tub of ice cream #depressed" There is no topic for 'depressed', and the writer is not attempting to contribute to a discussion about 'depressed', rather they are adding additional information to their own post to set the mood without actually stating anything. It's not dissimilar to a smiley or emoticon on PH in that regard.
Because hastags are created by anyone who wants to use them, the ways in which they are used are creative. The useful ways catch on, just like anything else.
Puggit said:
feef said:
Hashtags have been adopted by various flavours of social media including Insta, facebook and Snapchat. It's really just a way of identifying a topic or theme relevant to the subject. It's easier to follow a topic, especially when it's something that's trending or breaking news, by following a hashtag rather than individuals.
This is a good description - using Twitter to follow an event using hashtags. Does facebook or other social media automatically link to twitter when a hashtag is used?
rossub said:
Anyone using hashtags is a vacuous airhead or a bell-end.... in many cases they are both.
Thanks for that.I #Torridon (occasionally) when I post photos of the area as there are people all over the world who are keen to see said photos. Ex pats, visitors etc. They just have to type Torridon to find my photos - even if they have never heard of me. Hence hashtag.
You may consider me a bell-end, but there are thousands that are happy to see the photos, and don't consider me thus!
HTH.
hashtag Torridon
Edited by GetCarter on Friday 20th July 14:27
Atomic12C said:
Forgive my ignorance - this is one part that where things don't join up for me...... if its twitter, then why are people doing it on facebook and other platforms?
Does facebook or other social media automatically link to twitter when a hashtag is used?
Facebook and Instagram use hastags in the same way as Twitter, it isn't exclusively a Twitter thing anymore.Does facebook or other social media automatically link to twitter when a hashtag is used?
TartanPaint said:
Hashtags are basically topics of discussion, ...
Thanks for the full description 
I think this confirms what more or less what I had an idea it may be.
I guess in that case I can let the phenomenon pass me by as I don't have any desire to become a twitter-er.
My abuse of PH is probably enough for most people
Cheers.
Atomic12C said:
Forgive my ignorance - this is one part that where things don't join up for me...... if its twitter, then why are people doing it on facebook and other platforms?
Does facebook or other social media automatically link to twitter when a hashtag is used?
No - but also, some people use third-party apps or programs which post across multiple platforms. so something that you write on that app will appear on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (and maybe Google+ too, if anyone still uses that?) at the same time. Does facebook or other social media automatically link to twitter when a hashtag is used?
Also, Instagram is owned by Facebook, and you can, if you like, choose to share all your posts from Instagram directly onto Facebook, which includes all the hashtags (doesn't work the other way around) - and if you have you Facebook account settings as public, as some do, or business pages do, then the hashtag works the same way as it does on Twitter and Instagram - but won't link to those other sites directly
You can use them to connect with a wider audience, like #pistonheads you then click on it and it will find other posts with the same tag, most likely all going to be photos of cars and then you can look at photos of events or other peoples profiles
Some are totally pointless like #mumsbirthday which would only come up with your post and maybe a dozen others
They are used by companies to improve engagement #AbrandsName would link you to loads of other items from the same company
Or a place #kos would bring up other people’s ohotos of kos, so you could see what somewhere is like
a bit like googling something, but with peoples photos not weblink
If you spell it wrong then more fool you, that’s like when people spell the listing name wrong on eBay and no one can find it,
Lots of communities use it like weight watchers, you might put #WWFLEX on the post and then be able to see other people doing weight watchers, how they are getting on, meal ideas, support networks etc
On Twitter a #brexit will bring up news stories, and peoples rambling tweets about brexit, maybe you can use them to have a pointless online argument or just for a laugh
It’s basically google but for stuff
Some are totally pointless like #mumsbirthday which would only come up with your post and maybe a dozen others
They are used by companies to improve engagement #AbrandsName would link you to loads of other items from the same company
Or a place #kos would bring up other people’s ohotos of kos, so you could see what somewhere is like
a bit like googling something, but with peoples photos not weblink
If you spell it wrong then more fool you, that’s like when people spell the listing name wrong on eBay and no one can find it,
Lots of communities use it like weight watchers, you might put #WWFLEX on the post and then be able to see other people doing weight watchers, how they are getting on, meal ideas, support networks etc
On Twitter a #brexit will bring up news stories, and peoples rambling tweets about brexit, maybe you can use them to have a pointless online argument or just for a laugh
It’s basically google but for stuff
spitfire-ian said:
I'd forgotten that 
Probably one of the funniest things on the internet.GetCarter said:
rossub said:
Anyone using hashtags is a vacuous airhead or a bell-end.... in many cases they are both.
Thanks for that.I #Torridon (occasionally) when I post photos of the area as there are people all over the world who are keen to see said photos. Ex pats, visitors etc. They just have to type Torridon to find my photos - even if they have never heard of me. Hence hashtag.
You may consider me a bell-end, but there are thousands that are happy to see the photos, and don't consider me thus!
HTH.
hashtag Torridon
Edited by GetCarter on Friday 20th July 14:27
rossub said:
GetCarter said:
rossub said:
Anyone using hashtags is a vacuous airhead or a bell-end.... in many cases they are both.
Thanks for that.I #Torridon (occasionally) when I post photos of the area as there are people all over the world who are keen to see said photos. Ex pats, visitors etc. They just have to type Torridon to find my photos - even if they have never heard of me. Hence hashtag.
You may consider me a bell-end, but there are thousands that are happy to see the photos, and don't consider me thus!
HTH.
hashtag Torridon
Edited by GetCarter on Friday 20th July 14:27
Fair enough.So how will people who don't know me find photos of the area posted the same day? Hashtag does that.
GetCarter said:
rossub said:
GetCarter said:
rossub said:
Anyone using hashtags is a vacuous airhead or a bell-end.... in many cases they are both.
Thanks for that.I #Torridon (occasionally) when I post photos of the area as there are people all over the world who are keen to see said photos. Ex pats, visitors etc. They just have to type Torridon to find my photos - even if they have never heard of me. Hence hashtag.
You may consider me a bell-end, but there are thousands that are happy to see the photos, and don't consider me thus!
HTH.
hashtag Torridon
Edited by GetCarter on Friday 20th July 14:27
Fair enough.So how will people who don't know me find photos of the area posted the same day? Hashtag does that.
As i said on the other thread, its just common sense, if it's something someone might search for and your post/picture/whatever is really something that someone searching for that would want to see, then tag it. But for most of the tags that I see that isn't the case.
DuraAce said:
Try working with people who talk in hash tags...
"hashtag pub at lunchtime" said some simpleton in the office this morning.
I wish you could fire (or slap) people for such offences!
If you use the corrects hastag when you do it, it's all fine. Eg shout #d"hashtag pub at lunchtime" said some simpleton in the office this morning.
I wish you could fire (or slap) people for such offences!
headslap and no one can complain.- sorted
paulrockliffe said:
See, this is perfectly sensible and useful.
I'm not sure it is. I believe the hashtag has no actual functional value in the search functions of twitter or instagram (where they are most prolific).i.e. search for "torridon" and you will find items that have content matching "torridon" or "#torridon" just as easily.
Hashtags are the equivalent of old-fashioned keyword spamming on websites.
Order66 said:
paulrockliffe said:
See, this is perfectly sensible and useful.
I'm not sure it is. I believe the hashtag has no actual functional value in the search functions of twitter or instagram (where they are most prolific).i.e. search for "torridon" and you will find items that have content matching "torridon" or "#torridon" just as easily.
Hashtags are the equivalent of old-fashioned keyword spamming on websites.
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23torridon&src=t...
..and the 3rd, 5th, 8th, 11th etc...
My point. hashtaging Torridon has got my photos to anyone hahstging Torridon. HTH.
Edited by GetCarter on Friday 27th July 16:18
GetCarter said:
...and yet when one twitters #Torridon, my photo is the second one down. Go figure,
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23torridon&src=t...
..and the 3rd, 5th, 8th, 11th etc...
You are searching for "#torridon" so of course it matches. However if I search for just "torridon" I also see the same photos (intermixed with other posts that mention torridon without the hashtag. https://twitter.com/search?q=%23torridon&src=t...
..and the 3rd, 5th, 8th, 11th etc...
Edited by GetCarter on Friday 27th July 16:12
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