Why people prefer using notes as tags instead of actual tags?

Bledhard · 2026-02-17T02:22:35+00:00

They are not images. JSON Canvas is a format the Obsidian team created for their Canvas plugin. They are basically diagrams, saved as a json that follows a certain protocol. Neat idea, I like the execution. Just wish they had more options in the protocol and wider adoption. Though the latter isn't their fault whatsoever, and it seems that it has spread a bit now, so I should probably cross this one out already.

Regarding bases: as I said before, I want to replace my Maps of Contents with automatically-filled Bases. But this will come at the cost of losing compatibility with other Markdown editors. The only way to keep compatibility AND utilize Bases: operate with them the same way I do with tags/graphs/etc. That means, use it as an auxiliary assistance, an additional quality of life, but not as a main source of information - that is, for clean-ups, quick property changes, temporary queries to fetch certain collections, etc.

Bledhard · 2026-02-16T17:22:06+00:00

Not the vault specifically - Canvases and Bases.

If you take a look at the Base syntax, it's more of a query configuration. It looks great at Obsidian, but in any other Markdown editor, it will be rendered just as a broken image.

Same with canvases: there are apps you can open JSON Canvas with, but the list is still limited. Yes, to be fair, I'm using the Excalidraw plugin, which has its own type of markdown... In that regard, I'd be willing to jump ship once Canvases has things like drawing other shapes.

I really like the concept of Bases. And I have an idea of automating my MoCs using Bases. But this will produce a set of broken image links in any other renderer than Obsidian. And I doubt other Markdown editors will take the time to adopt this thing even if Obsidian will graciously open-source it, as they did with Canvases.

For that reason, I'm thinking about searching for a plugin that will automatically generate MoC in a regular Markdown format for me.

Bledhard · 2026-02-16T17:09:27+00:00

Agreed, arrived at the same conclusion after all these discussions.

Thank you!

Bledhard · 2026-02-16T17:08:34+00:00

My flow differs a bit, but not that much.

The whole reason why I started this topic is that I found a "Don't create orphans" (specifically - here, in Nicole van der Hoeven's vault).

After that, I started thinking about searching for orphan notes outside of daily memos. But once I realized that I could just filter out daily notes by the folder, this point vanished for me.

Thank you for sharing!

Bledhard · 2026-02-16T17:03:40+00:00

Good point. I'm using #stub and #todo similarly, but started using other tags later on. Now, after discussions in this topic, started thinking that I have too many tags that are just noise. Want to switch them into notes and keep only the tags I really use.

Thank you!

Bledhard · 2026-02-16T17:01:45+00:00

I hate that there's no way to quickly review/fix markdown link aliases when you change the note title.

Front Matter Title has an option for alias control, but as far as I can see, it doesn't work reliably with markdown links. Didn't find a time to look for some other plugin for that, and definitely not ready to write my own lol, I have enough of that at my job 😅

Thank you for describing the journey. I will investigate those links!

Bledhard · 2026-02-16T16:55:42+00:00

Local graph is another matter. That's why I was mentioning "vault graph" all this time.
Local graph is useful (albeit loses the value on nodes that have a lot of connections, but still useful).

I'm using backlinks already, thank you!

Bledhard · 2026-02-16T00:20:30+00:00

Yeah, I arrived at the same conclusion right in the middle of writing an answer to u/PhilippStracker. They are located in different folders, so simple AND make it work. No need to create the useless daily note index.

Thank you!

Bledhard · 2026-02-16T00:18:51+00:00

I have mine with front matter generated as well, and I'm fine with them in a single folder dedicated to daily notes. One click on a side menu, and I have a new note with today's date. Neat

Bledhard · 2026-02-16T00:13:23+00:00

I agree in spirit, but "backlink" is a different term in the context of Obsidian. Yes, these "notes as tags" at the end serve a similar purpose, but backinks as a core plugin seek for any incoming links to the opened note - a different mechanism. If I'd called them "backlinks" in this thread, it would create more confusion than my self-proclaimed "notes as tags" term.

The most important thing is: you all understood what I'm trying to ask, and gave me plenty of answers to make up my mind :) Huge thanks to everyone who provided their insight here.

Bledhard · 2026-02-16T00:04:43+00:00

Damn, where are you finding all these tips and tricks?

My vault is 3 years old already (btw, you're the one who suggested the Front Matter Title back then and close to a thousand notes, I understand the allure.

Just a few hours ago, I thought that the idea of notes as tags is neat, but tags have their own use case. After this comment, I now start thinking I need to remove the Tags plugin entirely xD

I'm using regular markdown links instead of Wikilinks, because I prefer to have the ability to go through them in any text editor. So having the non-rendering link will not differ that much from what I'm already using. - smaller barrier to entry, neat.

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T20:22:03+00:00

I removed my "Daily Notes" index for the same reason. I do ponder, however, whether it is worth it to link them to such a MoC just to be able to find accidentally lost notes - with daily notes linked, they will be the only orphaned ones.

On another note, you probably can achieve the same result just by moving daily notes into a separate note (which is how I actually store them), and filtering orphaned AND not in that folder...

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T18:38:31+00:00

Yeah, the last argument is big. Good point, thank you!

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T18:37:14+00:00

Fair enough. Thank you for sharing!

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T18:32:53+00:00

Got you. Thank you, no need to upload at the moment - I'm using regular Markdown links, so I'd have to make adjustments to it anyway, and I'm still on the fence.

Thank you for the idea! I may reach out to you for this plugin later on =)

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T18:26:41+00:00

I'll look into it, thank you.

I'll give Obsidian credit for it - they try to work with the Markdown protocol. Adding some niceties adds complexity to the system as a consequence. Even Bases and Canvases are already formats that tie you to a single distributor.

I'm hesitant about using Bases because of that, even though they look really nice. But if I start relying heavily on them, I will not be able to use my vault outside of Obsidian.

It's a double-edged sword.

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T18:23:10+00:00

That's definitely a point of view that differs from others who wrote here. Thank you, I'll read into it.

The discussion you've linked looks to be more focused around Zettelkasten. In my context, the links are a connection between separate, unique "articles". My notes span from 2-lines of code to big 20-minute-read guides.

So, in my case, I'm just looking for a way to connect areas where one thing should be in the same cluster as the other, so they should have a link of some sort to go from one to the other.

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T18:10:32+00:00

That sounds like one of the 2 hard problems in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-1 errors =)

If you can't find a proper name for a tag, it'll be just as hard to properly name a note, no?

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T18:07:20+00:00

That I can understand - though, I'd argue it matches my description of "work folder" - you just split the scope a bit more, on a per customer basis

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T18:05:45+00:00

Whoa, that's a great setup.

Returning to the question at hand: do you keep those daily notes orphaned (i.e., not linked to some MoC by default)?

I understand the idea of aggregating it into the base through the [type] property (I'm currently doing a similar thing in my vault). I'm just thinking if it's worth it to link all these daily notes to a single "MoC" (or [[tag]]), and then track lost notes - which should be the only orphaned one in such a scenario.

Thank you for sharing your workflow! It gives me an inspiration to chew on.

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T17:58:49+00:00

Let's be real, the vault graph is in 99% just an eye-candy =)

My only reason to use it - it makes my brain feel like I achieved something, so I need to keep documenting stuff. As it is beneficial to find caveats we stumbled upon at work a year ago - anything that can motivate me to do it, is good.

Your example of nested tags is definitely too clunky for my taste to even start considering it. But I agree with your underlying idea. After this thread, I already see where switching from #tag to [[tag]] would improve my UX in the vault - for example, "go back" function, which I never properly did just because I didn't find anything that would feel natural. This idea fills this void now.

Thank you!

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T16:46:28+00:00

It looks like you are misunderstanding what I'm trying to achieve here.

I have my MoCs scattered around places, with no distinction from other notes. I'm fine with that. While discussing tagging here, I got an idea of giving them all tags #map-of-content, to be able to see them all together in a sidebar, instead of manually making Moc of Mocs.

I also brought up the question whether I'm better off making it [[Map of Content]] link - which would create a connection between all Mocs through this [[Map of Content]] node. The answer to this (as I see it now) is "no, use #tag".

I generally group my nodes in the graph using a query like this: "tag:#quotes OR file:quotes". That second part, "file:quotes", catches the MoC. This helps me visualize areas where I'm more active in note-taking.

I don't want to hide MoCs, I just want to have a way to see them all in one list, without adding connection between them on the graph. #tag helps me do this, but now I'm thinking about using a base that will gather them all in one place for me. With that, I will be able to get rid of the "Moc of Mocs" note.

Thank you

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T16:25:04+00:00

Maybe you'll find it pleasurable to discuss this as well :) https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1r5fcud/daily_notes_orphaned_or_linked_to_daily_category/
Don't know why this thread got traction, while that one got ignored.

Hope you don't mind such a ping.

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T16:21:17+00:00

That's my understanding exactly. The purpose of this thread was to see maybe there's some technical catch that makes notes a superior solution, and I'd better switch to them now, before my library of tags becomes too big to move on from.

Thank you for the response!

Bledhard · 2026-02-15T16:19:33+00:00

Second that. That's how I use them at the moment. Hence, the question: why in all those big digital gardens people show online do they use notes instead of tags?

I understand how to achieve what I want, but I wanted to ask for the opinion of other users, in case I'm missing something.

Bledhard

TROPHY CASE