What are the inherent limits of folksonomy? How are they overcome?

Originally answered Jul 9, 2018

Limits

1. Lack of structure
2. Proliferation of duplicates, misspellings, and inconsistencies
3. Lack of control over term creation in many systems

Overcoming Limits

1. Provide lists of newly-created terms to administrators, and allow terms to be edited, merged, and deleted by administrators
2. Use type-ahead completion to show existing terms and encourage users to reuse them by easily selecting one of those terms
3. Suggest existing alternatives before creating new terms

See also:

• Metadata and Tags
• Classification Process and Taxonomy
• Enterprise Social Network Tradeoffs