A faceted classification differs from a traditional one in that it does not assign fixed slots to subjects in sequence, but uses clearly defined, mutually exclusive, and collectively exhaustive aspects, properties, or characteristics of a class or specific subject. Such aspects, properties, or characteristics are called facets of a class or subject, a term introduced into classification theory and given this new meaning by the Indian librarian and classificationist S.R. Ranganathan and first used in his Colon Classification in the early 1930s.
Wynar, Bohdan S. Introduction to cataloging and classification. 8th edition. p. 320
Finally I found something which is what Debtags is, and has a lot of literature to read about!
Enrico
Drawing a bit freely from the literature of
Faceted Classification,
a facet is a group of tags which describe the same quality of a package.
Package Tags are organized in Facets, that represent different points of view
from which to look at the package archive.
For example, you could have a "Usage" facet with tags about what a program is intended to be used for, or you could have a "Media" facet with tags about what kind of information a program is able to process, a "Technology" facet about the technology a package uses, and so on.
With this approach, every tag is situated in a specific context, and has a clear meaning. Also, tags from different facets shed light on packages from different points of view, giving "depth" to its categorization.
Take something tagged with "Use::Chatting",
"Technology::IRC", "Role::Server": it has a remarkable level of detail,
and tells almost everything we need to know about what the package does.
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