Discussion. Are tags useless?

Can you give an example of a case where links can’t be used as tags.

For example, we can say that a tag is basically a cut version of an outgoing link, where there is no note in the end
If you want to search either in graph view or just in the list of files for outgoing links for a specific file, you can type [[specific filename]] and all the outgoing links will be listed.
In fact filtering by tag does exactly the same thing.

Moreover, the same works for grouping by color in the graph view, instead of typing:
tag:#sometag just type [[fake-link-tag]] and it produces similar results.

Lastly, if you want to change your mind and create a note of a tag, it will be so much easier with a non-existing outgoing link.

So, are tags obsolete in the end?

Clicking a link doesn’t bring you to a search for it (unless you embed a search for the file in itself, which is extra work). Altho I guess the backlinks pane is the same thing, if you happen to have it open already.

[[Specific filename]] doesn’t work if you use link text (like [[specific filename|specific text]]). To get all links you’d need /\[\[specific filename(\||\])/, which is harder to remember and type.

3 Likes

Obsolete? No. “The end”? No such thing. Redundant perhaps is the most I’d grant you.

Tags are flexible, adaptable, cross-platform-friendly, semantically intuitive, and disambiguous when searching tag:foo, or building queries, or styling with CSS.

I use a small number of tags as markers for things like status. #WIP for example. This also colors my notes with CSS. If I was using links for some of my short one-word tags, they would show up more frequently in Unlinked Mentions, and cause more noise. I don’t want them to contribute to the link structure of my notes. It’s a meta layer on top, for me.

Even if a single person couldn’t give you an example of where a tag can’t be replaced with a link, a similar end-result doesn’t eliminate their use as a workflow. And Obsidian isn’t the only tool with which people are interacting with their notes.

7 Likes