I'd be curious to see an organization scheme other than just tags, as I suspect that it leads to difficult to trim (potentially always climbing up) bloat and cognitive load.
interesting point. tags have been a feature we have not added yet partly because they seem slightly superfluous. the user is able to search across titles, descriptions, URLs, and can curate links with lists. not sure if tags can provide any extra value
If your goal is to create a service that's main feature is content discoverability, I would think that tags are essential. It would provide you with great metrics for knowing what the user prefers. For instance, "They tend to tag lots of funny stories on Saturday. The tag tech news on Monday and Tuesday. They tag movie news on Thursday." Your recommendation engine would then be able to suggest articles to them. "Other users have tagged these stories as tech news and it is Monday. Here's your Monday feed!" I'm not saying you can't make a working product without them. I'm simply saying you probably can't make a competitive product without them.
Lists and tags are the same thing, where with "tags" URLs can be on multiple lists.
Tags are essential. Think about this: a user saves this link to a list of stories about Pocket. He also collects links about Mozilla's management, so he puts it on a list of stories about Mozilla. Then he remembers that he wants to talk about this link with a friend, so he adds it to a list of links he wants to share with his friend.
According to "lists," he has to choose between one of those three lists, while with tags he can use all three. Search does not replace tags, and neither does having to manually type keywords into the description field.
Leaving out tags is a fundamental oversight. I would never consider using any service that didn't have them.
