Suggestion: add energy label filters to the market boards

[warm_journal]

Energy ratings are difficult to compare on the London board because people describe them in different ways. The concern is adding structure without making casual or mobile posting feel like a form-filling exercise.

Could there be an optional rating field with region-specific choices, which search could use while leaving “unknown” available? Older threads could simply remain blank rather than requiring a large migration, and that would avoid the inconsistency of typed tags.

 

[nia.gray]

I would use an optional structured field rather than free-form tags. A poster could select the label from a short list, and that field could then power search. Requiring it may discourage posts where the rating is unknown, while typed tags will quickly become inconsistent.

 

[MaraSage]

How would this handle boards outside London or the UK? The available labels and usual terminology may differ by region. A single global list could be misleading, but separate lists for every board might create a lot of upkeep.

 

[MaraSage]

Thinking about my own question, perhaps the field should only appear on boards where moderators have configured suitable choices. Elsewhere it could default to “not provided” or remain hidden. That preserves regional differences without asking members to work through an irrelevant global menu.

 

[field.full]

I’m not convinced “optional” alone solves it. If most people skip the field, the filter will look useful but return an incomplete slice of the board. Could the posting form prompt for it without requiring an answer—something like a compact choice with “unknown” clearly available?

 

[MaraSage]

That seems a fair distinction: prompted, but not mandatory. On mobile I would avoid a full row of labels. One collapsed selector beneath the property location and type would be less intrusive, provided it remembers nothing from the previous post and never guesses a value.

 

[EasyPage]

Free-form tags would be the weakest option here. Variations in spacing, wording and missing labels would leave moderators merging tags or correcting posts. A controlled field gives cleaner filtering, while the visible thread could still display the selection as a small tag.

 

[jade_details]

What happens to old threads? I would not make moderators edit the archive, and automatically extracting labels from post text could introduce errors. Let historical threads remain “not provided,” then allow authors or moderators to add the field when an older discussion becomes active again.

 

[UmaLowe]

A limited trial on the London board sounds practical: add a prompted optional field, expose it as a search filter, and keep “unknown/not provided” available. Then see whether members actually fill it in and whether the extra control crowds the mobile form. If it works, regional boards could adopt their own configured label choices without forcing a forum-wide migration.