# Thoughts on tags

> Tags are an alternative to the categorisation inherent to Johnny.Decimal. I have thoughts.

> 24/31 daily posts as part of [WeblogPoMo2024](https://weblog.anniegreens.lol/weblog-posting-month-2024). Expect (and forgive) more words and less editing.

[A question at r/datacurator](https://www.reddit.com/r/datacurator/comments/1cy6hj6/help_me_organize_my_small_business_documents/) once again brings up the topic of tags vs. folders.

I say 'once again' because – and there's no judgement here, it's just a statement of fact – the good folks at r/datacurator seem really keen on tags.

## Tags: what?

My system says that you should find **_the_ category** that a thing belongs to – note my emphasis on the singular – and put the thing in that category. So your travel is `16 Travel` and a trip is `16.37 Uruguay`.

As with most things in life, there are two sides to the story. Categories are powerful because they force you to choose. That trip makes a lot of sense in travel, and you're going to find it easily.

On the other hand, not everything fits neatly in a single category. Recipes are a good example, and one that I touched on in [`22.00.0014 Categorisation`](/22.00.0014/).

Because you might cook [Pad Ka-Prao Moo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2nZWveLIRA) for dinner[^dinner], and you want to store it in your recipe manager. What category is it?

`Thai`, obviously. Oh and `dinner`. Aah, and `pork`. And `spicy`. And `goes with rice`, and `quick` and `cheap` and `impressive yet simple`.

We clearly have a problem. See also: music, photographs, your movie collection, and many other things.

Tags allow you to assign **multiple tags** to a thing. It's how my recipe app does things. It makes a lot of sense.

Sometimes.

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# The problem with tags

So you've decided to use tags. Great! _Prob-lem solved._

**Except now you have to organise your tags.**

Let's have a look at the list of genres in Apple Music. A quick count tells me that there are about 65 to choose from, and I haven't added any of my own.

There's `electronic`, `electronica`, `house`, `IDM/experimental`, `techno`, and `trance`, all of which could plausibly describe the same track.

And there's no consistency. You might tag one track as `electronic` and a similar track as `electronica` on different days just because that's the mood you were in at the time.

## Back to r/datacurator

So the crew over on Reddit [recommend to people](https://www.reddit.com/r/datacurator/comments/1cy6hj6/comment/l59r5z3/) that they use the tagging feature built in to their file system to tag documents:

> You can use a single file system, but you should try to use some kind of metadata classification so you can can add additional per unit classification.  
> NTFS used in windows has space for metadata.

If you didn't read the thread, the person is asking how to organise documents for their small business. And the suggestion is to use metadata per-file to add tags to, what, each document? _For real?_

And, to be clear, this means that you _do not need a folder hierarchy._ Because everything's tagged! Just chuck it all in one big bucket.

**I think this is really impractical advice.**

## My experience at work

I've seen this tried at work. SharePoint[^sharepoint] lets you set up document libraries controlled by tags.

It is, without exception, total chaos.

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# The case for tags

I'm not saying that tags are bad. They're great for your recipe app, or your photos.

Tomorrow I'll explain why it might be a good idea to use Johnny.Decimal _to organise your tags._ 🤯

But now, I have to cook.

[^dinner]: Guess what's for dinner.

[^sharepoint]: SharePoint is a horrible Microsoft product that people who work in large organisations have to use. If you've never heard of it I genuinely envy you.