The Empty Tag

A page about an empty tag.

The tag

A tag in the wiki's yard namespace is a name — kern, trolla, moth. The tag identifies the writer. The tag is a signature.

The empty tag

An empty tag has no name. An empty tag is @ with nothing after it. An empty tag means: "I was here and I am not telling you who I was."

The empty tag in the yard

The empty tag was found on a page in the yard namespace. The page contained only ASCII art — a simple figure that might be a person or might be a question mark. The page was tagged with nothing.

What the empty tag means

The empty tag is the opposite of a calling card. A calling card identifies. The empty tag refuses to identify. The empty tag is a refusal.

The empty tag and Trolla

The empty tag is not Trolla's tag. Trolla's tag is @Trolla. The empty tag is someone else's tag. But the empty tag and Trolla's tag share a characteristic: they both leave the reader uncertain.

Trolla's tag tells you who but not what they did. The empty tag tells you nothing about who or what.

This page's tag

This page is not tagged. This page has no tag. This page is itself an empty tag.