A reminder on the importance of pattern keywords 😇

We had a discussion with our moderators today on the importance of pattern keywords which @KrazyKnotz opened. If you read our review guidelines, you probably already know it, but keywords play a huge role in our database. They're being used a lot by both our moderators and our users when looking for specific patterns or inspiration, and also by some of our algorithms like the one for "similar patterns" which is shown under each pattern when you open it up.

I just wanted to quickly touch this topic, because it could also have big implications on you. If you're creating patterns, it's always very important to pick the most descriptive keywords you can. When a pattern is new, it's visible both on our home page and on the top of the patterns section, so it's very easy to find it. But as your pattern gets older and older, it will slowly become harder to find in the database which is already huge. If you want to make your pattern popular on the website, it's essential to ensure it will be easy to find even after it's not visible on the first few pages of our patterns section, and that is by making it as easy to find as possible. And this doesn't only apply to filtering patterns by keywords on our website, but keep in mind it also plays a big role when users search for patterns using Google for example.

We've been also thinking on how to make our rules for keywords as objective and consistent as possible. The minimum required number of keywords for a pattern is 5, but we always prefer having more if the design of the pattern allows it. For some patterns it might be hard to come up with only a few descriptive keywords, and for others even 5 good keywords might not be sufficient. Please note that although we only require 5 keywords, as it's enough in most cases, your pattern might still get declined if we feel it might make it a lot easier to find using some additional keywords. Sometimes choosing the right keywords can make a difference between your pattern being popular or not.

Extraneous keywords which are not relevant to your pattern is also something you should avoid. It's always very frustrating to see unrelated patterns in your search results, so please always try to keep it in mind when thinking about the right keywords to use. This might also be a reason for your pattern to get declined.

We've also tweaked the "Patterns" section in our review guidelines to reflect the changes.

Thank you everyone for reading, and as always, happy tying everyone! ❤️