Having a blog that’s more than a few posts might need some sort of organizing. I say “might” because it’s not really necessary to create categories and tags. It’s personal preference.

All the blog platforms have some form of organization.

Categories

I see categories as a way of keeping different kinds of content away from each other. It’s like having a tour guide on my blog saying, “Look over here at this, but ignore that.”

The problem starts when a post can cross categories, and gets lost. Confusing topics with categories will lead to a mess.

Tags

Tags are like bite sized topics, they can be sprinkled where relevant. It’s a way to get specific, and also allows finding posts that might cross categories.

Do you care?

Seriously. Is it important to have the posts neatly sorted? Or is it a form of busy work to distract from writing more?

This post is being hosted on Tumblr, which doesn’t have categories. So that decision is made for me, and it’s not something I miss having. I’ll add a tag or two, but overall this is just another post, stacked on the one before it. Hopefully, it’ll be the base that the next can rest on.

If I do a series on posts on a topic, and they really do belong together. I would much rather create an index. Letting that be the guide, instead of relying on the the blog engine.

Write more, organize less.