# Forum groups vs tags - when to use each **URL:** \ **Category:** Forum Guide & Feedback\ **Tags:** process, gitlab\ **Created:** [June 10, 2024, 11:30am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300 "2024-06-10T11:30:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Incrediblestorm](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/incrediblestorm/32/3561_2.png) [@Incrediblestorm](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Incrediblestorm)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2024, 11:30am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/1 "2024-06-10T11:30:41Z")
(Mod comment: I’ve created a new topic for this, as the discussion is valuable and worth keeping - @gwmngilfen) I’d like to request a new forum group please. Here’s the group information: - **Purpose:** Discussing techniques and methods for integrating Gitlab CICD with Ansible - **Group Name:** gitlab-cicd - **Group Full Name:** Gitlab CICD - **Title (optional):** Gitlab CICD - **Visibility:** - **Who can see this group exists?** everyone - **Who can see the group’s member list?** everyone I would like to hear how others are using Ansible with Gitlab. We are doing everything from having projects in awx automatically update, templates for dev branches automatically being created, to actually running Ansible from podman/kubernetes runners. There is next to nothing on best practices or techniques. We can’t be the only ones out there using Gitlab and Ansible. I think a place where we can share successes and failures, and get together to solve problems and share ideas would grow the state of the art. ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2024, 12:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/2 "2024-06-10T12:19:17Z")
Hey thanks @Incrediblestorm! You mention discussing best practices etc - all good aims. However, I don’t think you want to be hiding that in group discussions - that’s valuable discussion for everyone. The groups _tend_ to be so we can mark out the experts in a particular collection or tool (eg the [AWS group](http://forum.ansible.com/g/AWS/members)) and so that they can be mentioned if needed. So looking at what you’re trying to achieve here, I think a tag is probably the way to go? I agree there isn’t a _great_ place for this kind of discussion yet - it’s not exactly **help** and not exactly **project work** either. My gut instinct is that we need to push @leo on [Dedicated category for Collection development?](http://forum.ansible.com/t/dedicated-category-for-collection-development/6166), get that category made, and then get posting in there with the #gitlab tag? Would that work? Happy to be corrected on any of that, and of course we can make a group - I just don’t want to see useful productive discussion squirrelled away in private messages 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Incrediblestorm](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/incrediblestorm/32/3561_2.png) [@Incrediblestorm](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Incrediblestorm)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2024, 12:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/3 "2024-06-10T12:21:58Z")
You know, that was what my first thought was. Is Get Help the right place for me to start a topic? ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2024, 12:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/4 "2024-06-10T12:52:43Z")
Yes use the Get Help topic and a [GitLab tag](http://forum.ansible.com/tag/gitlab) (FWIW last year I worked out [how to run Molecule via GitLab CI](https://forum.gitlab.com/t/docker-executor-with-systemd/91393/3?u=chrisc)). ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2024, 12:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/5 "2024-06-10T12:56:19Z")
Help is probably right for now, but I still think we need a better place for stuff that is neither help nor development 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dom\_Salvator](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dom_salvator/32/3678_2.png) [@dom\_Salvator](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dom_Salvator)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 10:15am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/6 "2024-06-11T10:15:13Z")
I think creating a forum group is a great idea. It would help organize discussions better and allow members to easily find and share information on specific topics. But how we can make it? ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 10:17am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/7 "2024-06-11T10:17:49Z")
I’d suggest that if a [tag has only ever been used twice](http://forum.ansible.com/tag/gitlab) this is an indication that a group isn’t currently required? 🤷 ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 1:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/8 "2024-06-11T13:23:02Z")
> [@dom\_Salvator](#): > > It would help organize discussions better and allow members to easily find and share information on specific topics A group doesn’t help _generate_ new content (you can already do that), nor does it _organise_ (that’s categories and tags), nor does it help _find_ (the tag does that). A group is about _recognition_ - it gives flair to the members (which is useful for identifying developers of a particular tool or collection, or seats on a council, etc), and about _contact_ (because you can ping a group instead of a single person). I’m not opposed to a group, but as @chris points out, I don’t think we have a critical mass of content, nor a collection to attach it to. Please feel free to make/request GitLab CICD questions/answers/write-ups and tag them #gitlab, and we’ll see where we get to. ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 1:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/9 "2024-06-11T13:24:59Z")
Moved to a new topic - this is a good discussion and worth keeping in it’s own right ---
**Author:** ![Incrediblestorm](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/incrediblestorm/32/3561_2.png) [@Incrediblestorm](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Incrediblestorm)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 12:01am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/10 "2024-06-15T00:01:26Z")
You know, I’m curious how the image mode containers might change the landscape for this. I had been hoping I would find a way to run Windows containers for doing testing, but I think that is a long way out. ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 12:03am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/11 "2024-06-15T00:03:48Z")
I’m not sure what you mean by _“the image mode containers”_? But don’t ask me about Windows, I’ve not used it since Windows 98! ---
**Author:** ![Incrediblestorm](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/incrediblestorm/32/3561_2.png) [@Incrediblestorm](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Incrediblestorm)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 12:05am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/12 "2024-06-15T00:05:58Z")
[https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red\_hat\_enterprise\_linux/9/html/using\_image\_mode\_for\_rhel\_to\_build\_deploy\_and\_manage\_operating\_systems/index](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html/using_image_mode_for_rhel_to_build_deploy_and_manage_operating_systems/index) Certainly not what they were designed for, but when run as a container they are shockingly close to the real thing. ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 12:09am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/13 "2024-06-15T00:09:52Z")
I’ve not used RedHat containers, I build my own [Debian and Ubuntu containers](https://git.coop/webarch/containers) for using with most (not all, I don’t use them to test the [apt role](https://git.coop/webarch/apt)) Gitlab CI / molecule tests. ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2024, 6:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/14 "2024-06-16T18:40:13Z")
I feel the need to correct this: > [@chris](#): > > if a [tag has only ever been used twice](http://forum.ansible.com/tag/gitlab) Strangely if you click [the GitLab tag](http://forum.ansible.com/tag/gitlab) it now lists 3 topics (the last has been added since the comment above): ![Screenshot 2024-06-16 at 19-31-38 Latest gitlab topics - Ansible](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/c/c520c9e4e6da87dd143ab4c44fa28e8cb60cb742.png) However if you visit [the Gitlab “category”](http://forum.ansible.com/tag/gitlab/l/top?ascending=false&order=activity&period=all) (it isn’t actually a [category](http://forum.ansible.com/categories)) it lists 8 topics, why are 5 topics tagged with _“gitlab”_ not listed when you click the GitLab tag?! ![Screenshot 2024-06-16 at 19-37-52 Top gitlab topics - Ansible](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/f/f878618d6554fb8a1cd89e0db43a66ea78b39494.png) (Incidently I don’t see the need to automatically close topics, but if that is worth discussing it should probably be done in another thread.) ---
**Author:** ![felixfontein](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/felixfontein/32/7530_2.png) [@felixfontein](https://forum.ansible.com/u/felixfontein)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/15 "2024-06-16T19:06:04Z")
For me the tag shows the same posts as the category 🤷 ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2024, 7:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/16 "2024-06-16T19:19:24Z")
That is weird, another odd things is that on the [latest page](http://forum.ansible.com/latest) I can scroll so that all topics back to February 2024 are listed and then do a Ctrl-F in Firefox and search for the string “gitlab” and only two topics are found and this one we are posting on and [this one](http://forum.ansible.com/t/4611/) but [this topic from yesterday](http://forum.ansible.com/t/6553) doesn’t appear to be listed at all!? ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 12:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/17 "2024-06-17T12:24:19Z")
Also the auto complete for the GitLab tag lists 8 topics, _“gitlab x8”_, but when I click it I get only three of them?! ![Screenshot 2024-06-17 at 13-22-01 Latest gitlab topics - Ansible](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/8/8ad1bbb5e7657b6eab122d926e315e9f89447a18.png) ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 12:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/18 "2024-06-17T12:28:33Z")
I’d be wary of drawing conclusions with “latest” - it’s account-subjective. On my “latest” page I only have topics going back 7 days 🙂 I dug around in the ~~logs~~ database, and it seems like the missing topics in your first screenshot had the #gitlab tag added some time ago (May for the ones I checked). My view matches @felixfontein, they look the same to me, 8 topics - maybe try a hard refresh? If you haven’t already. Happy to move this to a debugging thread, if needed. I can report it to CDCK if we think we’ve found a caching issue or something … ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/19 "2024-06-17T12:35:34Z")
Ah, that makes sense, I guess I was assuming that “Latest” was a sort order not a cut-off date! D’oh! 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2024, 12:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/forum-groups-vs-tags-when-to-use-each/6300/20 "2024-06-17T12:36:35Z")
I don’t actually know how it populates that header. Top is _definitely_ a sort order, but latest appears to be something to do with your preferences and topics you’ve read/interacted with.