Currently on my forum, we have a curated list of tags. Anyone can apply one of the 600 pre-existing tags to any thread, but if regular members want to apply a tag that isn’t in the list of 600, they must propose the tag in a special thread. I’m planning to switch to allowing anyone to create a “novel” tag.

I refer to my original strategy as using a “curated list of tags.” The point of this policy is to avoid chaos. For example, different tags that could be applied to this thread would include “tagging strategy,” “strategies for tagging,” “forum tagging strategies,” and “strategies for tagging on forums.” Suppose you had four threads about tagging strategy. A curated list of tags would have only one possible tag about strategies for tagging on forums, so that is the one that would be applied to all four threads. If any member can create novel tags, then you could presumably have different tags applied to all four threads, which would help no one.

In the past, I’ve been a big fan...