Tag zettels

[srid]

Proposal

Treat tags as zettels.

Every tag #foo (see inline tags in #189) is, conceptually speaking, also a zettel, with ID foo, and as such gets the associated foo.html generated page (with an implicit [[z:zettels?tag=foo]] query in it, for listing tagged zettels).

Now here comes the interesting part: if the user already has a zettel file foo.md, then that zettel is used as the "tag zettel" - and all instances of inline tags will link to it. This is useful if you want to take custom notes on the tag itself.

Brainstorming / open questions

• At this point, one might ask - why not unify the tagging and linking syntax? For example, why not link to some zettel "ef324s3" as #ef324s3 (i.e. no different to "tagging")? Because, now, both tagging and linking creates an edge in the zettel graph. Consequently, the tag query z:zettels?tag=foo becomes equivalent to the (yet to implement) backlinks query z:zettels?to=foo.

• How do we deal with hierarchical tags? What does foo/bar/baz map to? What about its intermediaries (eg: foo/bar)?

[srid]

This might also take some inspiration from the hierarchical index of @b0o's https://github.com/b0o/neuron-extras

[srid]

How do we deal with hierarchical tags? What does foo/bar/baz map to? What about its intermediaries (eg: foo/bar)?

Switch to foo.bar.baz format, and create 3 associated zettels with IDs: foo, foo.bar and foo.bar.baz. So when using hierarchical tags you get "free" index zettels for each level of the tag, which index zettels can latter be converted if desired to a regular zettel note whilst still being treated as tag(node) zettels.

[srid]

vscode-memo's author operates on a similar idea: svsool/memo#60 (comment)

[srid]

If tags are treated as just another link, we can still identify which links are tags by using an edge label on the graph. Currently we have two edge labels -- cf & folgezettel -- now, we simply add a third label to denote tags.

#foo 
is equivalent to,
<z:link/foo?label=tag>

just as:

[[foo]]
is equivalent to
<z:link/foo?label=cf>

or:

[[[foo]]]
to:
<z:link/foo?label=branch>

And hierarchical tags can delineate into multiple links, one for each level of hierarchy:

#foo.bar.baz 
is equivalent to having 3 links:
<z:link/foo?label=tag>
<z:link/foo.bar?label=tag>
<z:link/foo.bar.baz?label=tag>

[ericapisani]

I really like the ideas that you've outlined so far! I have a question regarding your comment on dealing with hierarchical tags:

How do we deal with hierarchical tags? What does foo/bar/baz map to? What about its intermediaries (eg: foo/bar)?

This could be due to me being newer to the whole concept of zettelkasten, but could we not view tags (and their zettels) as having a folgezettel relationship with the zettels that use those tags?

It seems like you're kind of suggesting that in this comment around free index zettels for each level of tag in a hierarchy, but I guess I'm slightly confused around what makes a tagging relationship distinct from that of a folgezettel relationship.

[srid]

@ericapisani

could we not view tags (and their zettels) as having a folgezettel relationship with the zettels that use those tags?

Right, that was my thinking - for the default generated tag zettels.

I suppose the following folgezettel relationships can be implicitly created, in the generated zettels:

• foo.md contains [[[foo.bar]]] & [[[z:zettels?tag=foo]]]
• foo.bar.md contains [[[foo.bar.baz]]] & [[[z:zettels?tag=foo.bar]]]
• foo.bar.baz.md contains [[[z:zettels?tag=foo.bar.baz]]]

Basically a tag(node) zettel "branches off" to both child-tag(node) zettels and zettels that are tagged with it. I think this is exactly what https://github.com/b0o/neuron-extras does.

---

However, if the user creates foo.bar.md (for example) themselves, then neuron won't autogenerate it, and any folgezettel relationships from it is up to the user. That said, any zettels tagged #foo.bar will appear in the Backlinks of the foo.bar.md zettel.

This is why (that backlinks are still valid when user creates the tag zettel, unlike folgezettel "foward" links which vanish) I'm increasingly moving towards relegating folgezettel relationships as cherry-on-top, and focus more on non-folgezettel (i.e, normal) relationships. In that sense, tagging == linking. And "zettels tagged foo" == "backlinks of foo". So, in theory, tagging can be eliminated entirely, and re-added simply as a syntatic alias to the existing zettel/linking functionality. In my personal zettelkasten, I'm increasingly moving towards simple linking (i.e., [[foo]]) rather explicit tagging (#foo), and based on that I try to come up with ideas for improving backlinks support in neuron.

Not sure if that answers your question. In any case, I have not made any 100% concrete proposal here; just throwing some general ideas. This issue is still open for alternative suggestions, or new ideas. One thing is sure: tags should be unified with linking, as that is what they are in essence. How we implement that is what needs to be speced out.

[ericapisani]

What you've written makes a lot of sense, thanks for the explanation and the additional context!