I have thought the tag system needs an overhaul for a while now. hubski's gone through a lot of iterations so I figure it's basically inevitable.

Would it be too subreddit-like to have one tag box include a dropdown menu to some of our most popular/most general tags (hubski, uspolitics, music, goodlongread, etc -- maybe 30 of these) so you have to use at least one of those (and this way new users have an idea of what tags they should use on their posts to gain attention). The other tag could be what you want it to be, or blank, or a second one of the "default" tags.

I've always thought that one of the weaknesses of the tag system is its complete lack of codification. I saw someone use the tag 'goodlongreads' the other day -- they were probably relatively new; how are they supposed to know not to add an 's' and cost them a few hundred viewers? But of course that freeform nature is also a strength. So maybe half and half is the way to go?

There are several obvious drawbacks but I'd like to hear what you guys think.