# Can the tag list accessible from the left side-panel be given some structure/drilldown?

This question has unsurprisingly come up in a few different guises.

Improving the tag system (categories)

Apologies since I guess old hat but just wondering if it was ever resolved? I couldn't find anything other than the excellent and very interesting linked questions below, where users themselves have done a great job at exposing structure!

An interactive graph of Math.SE tags

Organizing tags in graphs

So, could the tags be organised in some way so that it's not just presented 'flat'. In my window I have 54 pages of tags, so despite the ability to order alphabetically not ideal if one would like to browse what may be of interest. Obviously the mechanism of organisation, if fixed, could be regarded as too limiting, and if fluid, based on methods such as the attached questions, would probably no doubt have some teething troubles. My personal preference would be for something fluid if the algorithm could be got right, however probably too much to ask.

Am not proposing that anything change at the point of asking questions, (although certainly to suggest 'supertags' could work at point of asking) however purely and simply to make browsing the tags that are out there a bit easier. Aware that the 'Related Tags' panel does offer a drilldown of sorts once you've picked a generic enough search tag, but just wondering if anything can be done at the list stage?

Again if resolved / old hat / everyone's moved on apologies and will delete the question forthwith.

Cheers

• If it's something you care about, you are welcome to suggest a specific feature here, or perhaps post an Answer on one of the earlier "meta" Questions. Good job in searching them out. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how to use such a map. Sep 4 '18 at 22:58
• Thanks @hardmath, obviously any suggested feature requires a some thought at the very least not to be disruptive/rock the boat! Short possibility in terms of drilldown is just, perhaps in addition to 'popular', 'name', 'new' on the top right of the page accessed by clicking 'tags', to have a 'drilldown' button or some better name. On clicking this we effectively access some form of pivot table of nested data. Now tag inclusions in the hierarchy could either be formalised as a one-off exercise (initially informed by some inclusion logic similar to that used in the second graph above)... Sep 5 '18 at 10:27
• ...in addition to common sense of course! Or perhaps the number of 'layers' could be set and inclusion logic defined (I think the directed graph uses sth like $X \subset Y \iff |X \setminus Y|<< |Y \setminus X|$ presumably with some condition on $\frac{|X \cap Y|}{|X||Y|}$ - when get a chance would like to play with the code for the graphs to experiment) - and then the drilldown is dynamic and evolves with the site. Again if the criterion can be got right I think something dynamic would be better. Sep 5 '18 at 10:41
• In terms of uses - as a basic menu drilldown, if got right, it's really nothing more interesting that facilitating browsing. Obviously a lot of visitors know exactly what they want to look at, but perhaps not everyone knows what linked areas, in the MSE tag lexicon, might be of interest. Separately from this of course the graphs themselves are fascinating, and I do think have a benefit eg for self-learners looking to explore a given area. The first graph link allows you to visualise MO/other sites - am sure many have seen before but novel to myself. Sep 5 '18 at 10:53
• Anyway, just 2 cents, not a proper spec by any means. Not a huge deal but definitely a nice to have imho with as I say 54 pages of flat data as a 'browsing' interface, and might even have some educational benefit. At least we have the lovely graphs though! Sep 5 '18 at 11:01