I've noticed that there is a lot of discussion as to the use, intent, misuse, abuse, lack of direction, etc. when it comes to tags and tagging.
If I may suggest, I think that there could be a relatively simple answer. 3 kinds of tags, from 3 sources.
1: OFFICIAL
2: Semi-Official
3: user-created
Official tags would be ALL-CAPS. Only created and usable (in an OP) by Bungie-staff.
Examples: #BUNGIE #MAILSACK #DESTINY
Semi-Official would contain caps, but not be all-caps. Would be auto-created with a group creation (#Groupname) and if/when a particular 3rd-tier tag reaches a particular threshold (based on count, frequency, consistency and longevity) of usage (#Flood, #Off-Topic, #Politics, etc.)
user-created tags would be in all lower-case.
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I've been throwing out the idea of having a "mandatory" tag required for each post, where it comes from a group of maybe 6-8ish tags in a dropdown menu where you need to select one, and that would act as the old forums with #Flood #Septagon etc listed in that group. The rest would be optional, that way it combines the flexibility of the hashtags with the structure of having official sub-forums. Best of both worlds.