# Admin only tags, plus required tags?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [July 9, 2018, 9:40am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868 "2018-07-09T09:40:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@stub](https://meta.discourse.org/u/stub)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2018, 9:40am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868/1 "2018-07-09T09:40:00Z")
OK. Let’s Talk Tags. I have 3 very specific questions which I need solutions too.
1. Is it possible to have only admin created tags? With all user creation of tags totally disallowed?
2. Is it possible to insist that any new post must include a selection of any 1 of these admin created tags? Or post is not accepted.
3. Do all replies to a post with a tag, also take on that tag as it’s own. Or if not. Can it be made to do so.
If these is not in the standard features. Can it be configured to do this in a way that these changes are not overwritten when the software is updated.
Thank you
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### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2018, 9:45am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868/2 "2018-07-09T09:45:16Z")
> [@It's Time We Talked About Tags](https://meta.discourse.org/t/its-time-we-talked-about-tags/72467/6):
>
> Is it possible to have only admin created tags? With all user creation of tags totally disallowed?
Yes
> [@It's Time We Talked About Tags](https://meta.discourse.org/t/its-time-we-talked-about-tags/72467/6):
>
> Is it possible to insist that any new post must include a selection of any 1 of these admin created tags? Or post is not accepted
~~No, I don’t think so. But you can enforce category selection instead.~~
> [@It's Time We Talked About Tags](https://meta.discourse.org/t/its-time-we-talked-about-tags/72467/6):
>
> Do all replies to a post with a tag, also take on that tag as it’s own. Or if not. Can it be made to do so.
Tags apply to topics only, not to posts. That is: you cannot tag a post at all.
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### Author:  [@stub](https://meta.discourse.org/u/stub)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2018, 9:59am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868/3 "2018-07-09T09:59:34Z")
Thanks. I appreciate your quick response.
1. Great
2. OK. So a topic is a thread title? Correct?
3. My tags are required because Discourse is a flat forum with Categories and Sub-Categories. They will be a number of price ranges like free, under $20, and up. Which are required. I need these tags. And I need that a new thread is forced to select 1 of these admin created tags. So is there a way to do this which won’t get overwritten when the software is upgraded.
I cannot have a new post which doesn’t have 1 of these tags.
Thank you
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### Author:  [@robmc](https://meta.discourse.org/u/robmc)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2018, 10:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868/4 "2018-07-09T10:30:32Z")
> [@stub](#):
>
> Is it possible to insist that any new post must include a selection of any 1 of these admin created tags? Or post is not accepted.
Yes, it IS now possible (since [version 2.0](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-version-2-0/73729)). You can see the discussion here:
> [@The option to enforce tagging](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-option-to-enforce-tagging/69527):
>
> I’ve requested in the past that there be a setting to enforce the use of at least one pre-existing tag when creating a topic. I’m now aware of 3 separate use cases for this requirement (all current Discourse clients). More community structures are becoming reliant on tagging. Communities that rely on tags for [surfacing content](https://experts.feverbee.com/). Large communities that use complex tags and tag groups for their AI. I’ve forgotten the details of the third one but I’ll edit it in. These are creating a heavy mod l…
If you have enabled tags on your site, then you have a category setting that allows you to determine how many tags are required as a minimum:
> [@stub](#):
>
> So a topic is a thread title? Correct?
We use the term `topic` to mean the conversation, beginning with the first `post`. So the `topic` is the **original post** and all the subsequent `posts` in the conversation. You are not able to tag the posts individually, but you can add the tag to the topic.
If a post within that topic is different or unrelated, and therefore requires a different tag, you can always select it and convert it into a NEW `topic` or merge it with another relevant one.
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### Author:  [@stub](https://meta.discourse.org/u/stub)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2018, 11:03am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868/5 "2018-07-09T11:03:02Z")
OK. I’d just like to clarify here since I’ve had some conflicting information.
1. Is it possible to have only admin created tags? With all user creation of tags totally disallowed?
The answer is Yes
1. Is it possible to insist that any new post must include a selection of any 1 of these admin created tags? Or post is not accepted.
The answer is Yes.
1. Do all replies to a post with a tag, also take on that tag as it’s own. Or if not. Can it be made to do so.
This was a bit of a confused question. But as long as the answer to 2. is yes. It’s a moot point since now every topic (new post) will have (if Minimum number of Tags is set to more than 0 for that Category) it’s own Tag from a list of admin defined tags.
Thank you.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868/6 "2018-07-09T20:51:47Z")
> [@stub](#):
>
> Do all replies to a post with a tag, also take on that tag as it’s own. Or if not. Can it be made to do so.
No. Tags are at a topic level, not a post level. But as you say, it’s moot. For the purposes of this discussion I believe they do everything you need them to do.
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### Author:  [@stub](https://meta.discourse.org/u/stub)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2018, 2:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868/7 "2018-07-10T02:43:30Z")
Thank you. I was a bit nervous when considering Discourse with it’s Flat Forum Categories and Sub-Categories only. When I needed a sub-sub category for price ranges. But because I can turn these price levels into tags and have tags restricted to Admin creation and force every new post to select 1 price range tag with their post. I think I have an ideal solution.
I do have 1 more question though. When a member is looking through the ads in a sub-category, with no Tag selected. They will see all price ranges in that sub-category? (Y/N). But when they click on a Tag or more than 1 tag, is the search still restricted to that sub-category? (Y/N) Or can be configured to be restricted to each sub-category? (Y/N) Of course it would be not nice, if the search showed the all the ads with price ranges of tags of the entire forum (ie not being restricted to the sub-category they are in).
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2018, 2:51am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868/8 "2018-07-10T02:51:31Z")
> [@stub](#):
>
> They will see all price ranges in that sub-category? (Y/N).
Y
> [@stub](#):
>
> But when they click on a Tag or more than 1 tag, is the search still restricted to that sub-category? (Y/N)
N
> [@stub](#):
>
> Or can be configured to be restricted to each sub-category? (Y/N)
You can do an advanced search with those filters, Y.
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### Author:  [@stub](https://meta.discourse.org/u/stub)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2018, 3:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868/9 "2018-07-10T03:02:04Z")
Thank you again, Hawk.
OK. That’s not going to be a perfect solution, trying to educate every member, that they have to do an advanced search in order to see only the ads for the category they are in using tags.
I do understand why tags are operating like that though. It’s the nature of the beast. But (I think) it would be a good suggestion if there was an option to search only the sub-category they are in, or to search the whole forum, on a sub-category overall basis, or by selecting each sub-category option, 1 by 1.
But I would think that would be a good option to include. Because that is what I need 🙂
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2021, 6:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/admin-only-tags-plus-required-tags/91868/10 "2021-02-05T06:00:11Z")