Listing hashtags by frequency

Herbert Eppel · 2025-05-06T11:13:23-07:00

In one of the groups I manage we recently introduced mandatory hashtags, although members can create their own hashtags, rather than having to choose from a predefined list. The assumption was that

Listing hashtags by frequency

Herbert Eppel All Messages By This Member #49222 开云体育 In one of the groups I manage we recently introduced mandatory hashtags, although members can create their own hashtags, rather than having to choose from a predefined list. The assumption was that the most common hashtags would prevail, while odd ones would fall by the wayside. In reality we ended up with more than 300 hashtags, many of them not particularly meaningful and only used once. I assumed there would be an option to list hashtags by frequency, but this doesn't seem to be the case, as evidenced by the attached screenshot. In other words, the only sorting options I can see are "Name" (i.e. alphabetical or reverse alphabetical) and "Duration" (not sure what this actually does). Without an option to list the chaotic plethora of hashtags by frequency, the system doesn't seem particularly useful for our group. Am I missing something? Thank you. Herbert Eppel Hashtags.JPG
Bruce Bowman All Messages By This Member #49223 On Thu, Apr 24, 2025 at 06:36 AM, Herbert Eppel wrote: In one of the groups I manage we recently introduced mandatory hashtags, although members can create their own hashtags, rather than having to choose from a predefined list. The assumption was that the most common hashtags would prevail, while odd ones would fall by the wayside.? An unrealistic assumption, IMHO. For what it's worth, there is no provision for hashtags to "expire" due to disuse. I assumed there would be an option to list hashtags by frequency, but this doesn't seem to be the case, as evidenced by the attached screenshot. That's correct, and the ability sort by usage seems like a good #suggestion to post to . Meanwhile, please note that the 10 "most used" hashtags are listed on your group's home page. There's no convenient way to list the "least used" ones. In other words, the only sorting options I can see are "Name" (i.e. alphabetical or reverse alphabetical) and "Duration" (not sure what this actually does). "Duration" lists the hashtags in the order of their creation.?? Without an option to list the chaotic plethora of hashtags by frequency, the system doesn't seem particularly useful for our group. Am I missing something? The only thing you seem to be missing is that you can always revert to not requiring hashtags. ? Regards, Bruce Check out the groups.io Help Center?and?groups.io Owners Manual
Chris Jones All Messages By This Member #49224 On Thu, Apr 24, 2025 at 01:44 PM, Bruce Bowman wrote: The only thing you seem to be missing is that you can always revert to not requiring hashtags. Bruce has raised a point that is entirely valid and one with which I agree. ? You have mandated the use of hashtags; what is the intended purpose of every message being labelled with one or more tags? Given that your original post included In reality we ended up with more than 300 hashtags, many of them not particularly meaningful and only used once.?? I would go as far as to suggest that the mandate has not achieved, and now cannot achieve, what it was intended to achieve. IMHO 300 hashtags is well in excess of any practical limit of usability; members are simply not going to scroll through a list that long to see if there is a hashtag that matches the subject of their post and will thus just type something into a new hashtag (which if they are lucky will match an existing one) which simply adds to an already over - long list. Your many of them not particularly meaningful and only used once is a clear manifestation of that. ? The problem can all too easily be compounded (and may have been already) by a member typing a new hashtag which differs from an existing one by just one typo; oh look...? new hashtag with a spelling mistake.? ? Once upon a time the beta group allowed members to create hashtags, and the list was more or less infinitely long. It included at least FOUR variants of "hashtag"; apart from the "original" it had hashtags, hash tag and hash tags? and may have had hahstag (or some such typo) as well; some time has passed since the group owner finally put a stop to allowing member creativity and my recall is not perfect! That group still requires a mandatory hashtag chosen from a fixed picklist of eight tags; much more manageable. ? So... a question, hinted at above. What is the purpose of your hashtag mandate, and is that purpose being achieved? ? Chris?
Herbert Eppel All Messages By This Member #49230 开云体育 Thanks to Bruce and Chris for the helpful replies, and sorry for the delay in responding. In my original message I said: "The assumption was that the most common hashtags would prevail, while odd ones would fall by the wayside", in response to which Bruce said: "An unrealistic assumption, IMHO. For what it's worth, there is no provision for hashtags to 'expire' due to disuse". Just to clarify: I wasn't expecting unused hashtags to expire as such, I just meant they would linger at the bottom of the list, if it was possible to list them by frequency Bruce also pointed out that the 10 most used hashtags are listed on the group's home page, which I wasn't really aware of, so thanks for drawing my attention to this. On further reflection, although I'm not a programmer, the fact that the top 10 hashtags are listed would suggest that the ability to list hashtags by frequency appears to be already built into the system, so hopefully it wouldn't require rocket science to extend the list from the top 10 to all the hashtags or the top 20 or 30 or whatever? But I may be missing something. Bruce also suggested that it would be a good suggestion for the beta group. I'm surprised it hasn't already been suggested, but if this is indeed the case, I would be happy to do so. As Chris implied, it seems clear that, as it stands, the hashtag 'experiment' in the group I was referring to has essentially failed, in the sense that the purpose isn't being achieved, due to: a) the current lack of the ability to list hashtags by frequency, and b) the problem of excessive variants for essentially the same hashtag that Chris pointed out. By the way, I note that this group also has a list of top 10 hashtags listed at /g/GroupManagersForum, although it isn't clear to me how this list came about Thanks again. Herbert Eppel On 24/04/2025 10:08, Herb Eppel wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text In one of the groups I manage we recently introduced mandatory hashtags, although members can create their own hashtags, rather than having to choose from a predefined list. The assumption was that the most common hashtags would prevail, while odd ones would fall by the wayside. In reality we ended up with more than 300 hashtags, many of them not particularly meaningful and only used once. I assumed there would be an option to list hashtags by frequency, but this doesn't seem to be the case, as evidenced by the attached screenshot. In other words, the only sorting options I can see are "Name" (i.e. alphabetical or reverse alphabetical) and "Duration" (not sure what this actually does). Without an option to list the chaotic plethora of hashtags by frequency, the system doesn't seem particularly useful for our group. Am I missing something? Thank you. Herbert Eppel
Andy Wedge All Messages By This Member #49231 On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 09:16 AM, Herbert Eppel wrote: I note that this group also has a list of top 10 hashtags listed at /g/GroupManagersForum, although it isn't clear to me how this list came about The top 10 hashtags are listed on each group home page (assuming the group uses them) so it's just part of the system as it stands. It's not a feature you can turn on or off (Enterprise groups can customise more details so may well be able to do so). ? As you said, there must be some functionality in the system that produces this list so you may wish to post in beta to request it be extended in some way.? I suspect many people who use the Groups.io site to view messages just go straight there via a bookmarked link rather than view the group home page so they would bypass the information. Other members, of course, just communicate with Groups.io via email so they wouldn't see the details either. ? Regards Andy
Duane All Messages By This Member #49232 On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 03:16 AM, Herbert Eppel wrote: I note that this group also has a list of top 10 hashtags listed at /g/GroupManagersForum, although it isn't clear to me how this list came about The list is automatically created by the site as hashtags are used/created. ? It's not as clear cut as you might like, but you can actually see how many times each hashtag has been used.? As an example, go to the GMF home page, scroll down to the hashtag section, then click on See All.? That should take you to the list of hashtags available on the group.? For the next step, I find it easier to use the List View, though you can see the same information in the Gallery View.? Next to each hashtag, you'll see a number for how many topics use that tag, so you could make a list, say in a spreadsheet, that you could sort on this number.? You may also see some that have the NO symbol (slashed circle) that means it's not available to regular members, only admins.? In the GMF list, there are a couple that have aliases (hashtag, right arrow, hashtags is an example) where any topics that used #hashtag have been changed to #hashtags.? See the manual, then click on the Alias link.? You might want to use something like this to limit the number of hashtags on your group. ? Another option would be to Export only the hashtags of your group (must be an admin).? This will be a zip file that contains the hashtag info in json format.? One of the entries for each is "topic_count".? You'd need to write a small program to read/sort that data.? It does include the alias info, but I haven't quite figured out how it's stored. ? Duane -- Lots of detailed information can be found in the Owners Manual and Members Manual found in the Help Center.
Thomas Gruber All Messages By This Member #49233 Hi Duane, You say Another option would be to Export only the hashtags of your group (must be an admin). This will be a zip file that contains the hashtag info in json format. One of the entries for each is "topic_count". You'd need to write a small program to read/sort that data. It does include the alias info, but I haven't quite figured out how it's stored. What do you mean by ?must be an admin“ ? I looked at a group where I‘m the owner, that‘s obviously not the same as ?admin“ as I didn‘t find an export option when showing the hashtags used. Does that mean an admin of the groups.io system overall? Kind regards Thomas
Thomas Gruber All Messages By This Member #49234 Hi Herbert, Did you see the options for hashtags … 1) Messages can be tagged with new hashtags… Messages from members can only be tagged with existing hashtags, … 2) … - otherwise the message is bounced 3) … - new hashtags will be removed <<<<< I believe options 2 and 3 mean that members can only use existing hashtags, new hashtags can only be added by moderators/owners. This would mean that any new hashtag must be requested from the group moderators, something you tried to avoid. It‘s a bit tedious, but would help to avoid a flood of hashtags. Maybe an additional option would help - saying messages with new hashtags will be moderated? Could be useful for groups like your‘s where hashtags are mandatory, and option 3 wouldn‘t work. Kind regards Thomas
Bruce Bowman All Messages By This Member #49235 On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 08:47 AM, Thomas Gruber wrote: What do you mean by ?must be an admin“ ? An Owner, or Moderator with sufficient permissions. I looked at a group where I‘m the owner, that‘s obviously not the same as ?admin“ as I didn‘t find an export option when showing the hashtags used. Go to Admin=>Preferences=>Export Group. You can download the hashtags there. ? Regards, Bruce Check out the groups.io Help Center?and?groups.io Owners Manual
Thomas Gruber All Messages By This Member #49236 Thanks, Bruce. Stupid mistake from my side - I was searching under the Hashtags main header, not under Admin. Found it now and did a JSON export of the hashtags and all the associated info, in my group. That should be easy enough to process, and sort using the field ?topic_count“. A ?message_count“ might also be interesting, I‘ll look into that too, using an export of the messages. Kind regards Thomas
Herbert Eppel All Messages By This Member #49237 开云体育 Hi Andy Thanks for your reply. Yes, I'm now aware that the top 10 hashtag listing is part of the system. It's just that the GMF group doesn't seem to use hashtags as standard, hence me wondering how the GMF top 10 list came about. Perhaps hashtags were used here in the past, or are used occasionally by some members? Herbert Eppel ? On 29/04/2025 10:27, Andy Wedge via groups.io wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 09:16 AM, Herbert Eppel wrote: I note that this group also has a list of top 10 hashtags listed at /g/GroupManagersForum, although it isn't clear to me how this list came about The top 10 hashtags are listed on each group home page (assuming the group uses them) so it's just part of the system as it stands. It's not a feature you can turn on or off (Enterprise groups can customise more details so may well be able to do so). ? As you said, there must be some functionality in the system that produces this list so you may wish to post in beta to request it be extended in some way.? I suspect many people who use the Groups.io site to view messages just go straight there via a bookmarked link rather than view the group home page so they would bypass the information. Other members, of course, just communicate with Groups.io via email so they wouldn't see the details either. ? Regards Andy
Herbert Eppel All Messages By This Member #49238 开云体育 Hi Duane Thanks for your comprehensive and helpful reply. Yes, I'm aware of the List View. What I'm asking for is an option to display it by frequency, without having to do the kind of 'postprocessing' you mentioned? Herbert Eppel On 29/04/2025 11:09, Duane via groups.io wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 03:16 AM, Herbert Eppel wrote: I note that this group also has a list of top 10 hashtags listed at /g/GroupManagersForum, although it isn't clear to me how this list came about The list is automatically created by the site as hashtags are used/created. ? It's not as clear cut as you might like, but you can actually see how many times each hashtag has been used.? As an example, go to the GMF home page, scroll down to the hashtag section, then click on See All.? That should take you to the list of hashtags available on the group.? For the next step, I find it easier to use the List View, though you can see the same information in the Gallery View.? Next to each hashtag, you'll see a number for how many topics use that tag, so you could make a list, say in a spreadsheet, that you could sort on this number.? You may also see some that have the NO symbol (slashed circle) that means it's not available to regular members, only admins.? In the GMF list, there are a couple that have aliases (hashtag, right arrow, hashtags is an example) where any topics that used #hashtag have been changed to #hashtags.? See the manual, then click on the Alias link.? You might want to use something like this to limit the number of hashtags on your group. ? Another option would be to Export only the hashtags of your group (must be an admin).? This will be a zip file that contains the hashtag info in json format.? One of the entries for each is "topic_count".? You'd need to write a small program to read/sort that data.? It does include the alias info, but I haven't quite figured out how it's stored. ? Duane -- Lots of detailed information can be found in the Owners Manual and Members Manual found in the Help Center.
Herbert Eppel All Messages By This Member #49239 开云体育 Hi Thomas Thanks for your helpful reply, and yes, an additional new hashtag moderation option could indeed ba useful Herbert Eppel On 29/04/2025 12:22, Thomas Gruber via groups.io wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text Hi Herbert, Did you see the options for hashtags … 1) Messages can be tagged with new hashtags… Messages from members can only be tagged with existing hashtags, … 2) … - otherwise the message is bounced 3) … - new hashtags will be removed <<<<< I believe options 2 and 3 mean that members can only use existing hashtags, new hashtags can only be added by moderators/owners. This would mean that any new hashtag must be requested from the group moderators, something you tried to avoid. It‘s a bit tedious, but would help to avoid a flood of hashtags. Maybe an additional option would help - saying messages with new hashtags will be moderated? Could be useful for groups like your‘s where hashtags are mandatory, and option 3 wouldn‘t work. Kind regards Thomas
Herbert Eppel All Messages By This Member #49240 开云体育 Thanks. I just did that for the group for which I started this discussion, but I'm not familiar with json files. Is there a good reason why the exports aren't in a more digestible format such as csv? Herbert Eppel On 29/04/2025 15:38, Bruce Bowman via groups.io wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 08:47 AM, Thomas Gruber wrote: What do you mean by ?must be an admin“ ? An Owner, or Moderator with sufficient permissions. I looked at a group where I‘m the owner, that‘s obviously not the same as ?admin“ as I didn‘t find an export option when showing the hashtags used. Go to Admin=>Preferences=>Export Group. You can download the hashtags there. ? Regards, Bruce Check out the groups.io Help Center?and?groups.io Owners Manual
Andy Wedge All Messages By This Member #49241 On Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at 09:46 AM, Herbert Eppel wrote: Is there a good reason why the exports aren't in a more digestible format such as csv? CSV is a simple layout which is good for importing into spreadsheets etc. but it lacks the ability to define data structures where items are nested.? When dealing with more complex structures programmatically, JSON is the way to go.? The Groups.io API can be used to access various functions and the API endpoints return objects in JSON format. ? Regards Andy
Thomas Gruber All Messages By This Member #49242 Hi Herbert, json files can be imported into Excel for example, or opened with any text editor or web browser. They‘re basically a special type of XML .? But - even when opened in Excel the result isn‘t particularly useful for the type of exercise you‘re thinking of. Don‘t forget that these exports are meant to export the complete group contents, for transfer to another system or other purposes, not really for creating statistics from the export files.? There are many converters around, some for online conversion, some for offline by installing a program first. I haven‘t tried them yet. Thomas
Otto Nikolaus All Messages By This Member #49243 For anyone who doesn’t know JSON, this should help <>. It’s actually quite readable as it is, and it’s an open standard so many, many apps should be able to import JSON files. Otto toggle quoted message Show quoted text On 30 Apr 2025, at 09:59, Thomas Gruber via groups.io <computerhusky@...> wrote: Hi Herbert, json files can be imported into Excel for example, or opened with any text editor or web browser. They‘re basically a special type of XML . But - even when opened in Excel the result isn‘t particularly useful for the type of exercise you‘re thinking of. Don‘t forget that these exports are meant to export the complete group contents, for transfer to another system or other purposes, not really for creating statistics from the export files. There are many converters around, some for online conversion, some for offline by installing a program first.
Herbert Eppel All Messages By This Member #49244 开云体育 Hi Thomas Thanks for the info. It all sounds a bit convoluted and OTT for my purpose, to be honest All I want is to list the group hashtags by frequency, beyond what's already available in the form of the top 10 Herbert Eppel On 30/04/2025 09:59, Thomas Gruber via groups.io wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text Hi Herbert, json files can be imported into Excel for example, or opened with any text editor or web browser. They‘re basically a special type of XML .? But - even when opened in Excel the result isn‘t particularly useful for the type of exercise you‘re thinking of. Don‘t forget that these exports are meant to export the complete group contents, for transfer to another system or other purposes, not really for creating statistics from the export files.? There are many converters around, some for online conversion, some for offline by installing a program first. I haven‘t tried them yet. Thomas
Andy Wedge All Messages By This Member #49245 On Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at 11:01 AM, Herbert Eppel wrote: All I want is to list the group hashtags by frequency, beyond what's already available in the form of the top 10 FYI, I just created a Python script to return the list of hashtags associated with a group. The documentation indicates that you should be able to sort the results by a returned field name, in this case, `topic_count`, but does not appear to work. The results are always returned in alphabetical order based upon the lowercase version of the hashtag name, either ascending or descending as specified on the request.? I have raised this as a #bug in and will report feedback here when I get it. ? Regards Andy
Duane All Messages By This Member #49246 On Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at 03:45 AM, Herbert Eppel wrote: It's just that the GMF group doesn't seem to use hashtags as standard, hence me wondering how the GMF top 10 list came about. In any group where hashtags are allowed, the list gets created based on any hashtags that are created.? Since GMF doesn't require them, and members are allowed to create them, the list is based on those that were created. ? Duane -- Lots of detailed information can be found in the Owners Manual and Members Manual found in the Help Center.

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