Thank you, Mcwumbly. I realize my earlier question didn’t set the full context—it was a bit tricky to articulate. Here’s additional background to frame our use case and user expectations: we’re building a forum in the following context:
(Food-only niche forum to illustrate the structure)
1) Subject Matter (three levels; can be categories or tags)
- L1 = Cuisine — Italian, Caribbean, Indian, Mexican
- L2 = Focus — examples: pasta (under Italian), tacos (under Mexican), chaat / tandoori (under Indian)
- L3 = Micro-focus — techniques/dishes/ingredients, e.g., extruded-pasta, naan, guajillo, sous-vide
Reality of use: About 70% of posts happen at L2 (Focus) combined with an L3 (Micro-focus).
• If L3 is a category, the topic is posted in L3.(important note here we will have L3 categories considerable higher name when compared to L2 and L1)
• If L3 is a tag, the topic is posted in L2 with the L3 tag attached.
2) Content Types (cross-cutting; can be categories or tags)
Each topic type needs a distinct composer form:
- Question → Problem • What I tried • Environment • Expected vs. Actual
- How-to / Article → Prereqs • Steps • Verification • Gotchas
- Event → Start/End • Timezone • Location/Link • RSVP
- Job → Role • Location/Remote • Requirements • How to apply
- (Plus) Discussion
3) Open decision (mirrors the enterprise case)
- Should Cuisine / Focus / Micro-focus be categories (with tag helpers) or tags (with a shallow category layer)?
- Should topic types be categories (easy per-type templates) or tags (keeps Cuisine/Focus as the primary “place”)?
- With 70% of activity at Focus + Micro-focus, which option best preserves strong Focus landing pages while keeping the IA simple?
Summary of our constraints & goals (applies to both versions)
- Keep navigation intuitive where users actually spend time (L2 + L3)…how we still need to give some context here (reference of L1 whether it is italian or mexican-where post is done from breadcrumb stand point or SEO stand point )
- Avoid unnecessary category bloat, but still provide clear “home bases” for heavy-traffic subjects.
- Enforce exactly one Content Type per topic and support subject intersections (e.g., Software + Technical Area, or Cuisine + Focus).
- Ensure the right composer form appears for each Content Type, regardless of whether types are modeled as categories or tags.
We’re looking for guidance on which modeling choice (categories vs. tags for Subject Matter and Content Types) best fits these constraints, given that most engagement happens at L2 + L3 with different content type with different forms for each content type.