Notes on Mar 18, 2026

I just removed note tags from both https://tech.zlliang.me and https://days.zlliang.me.

While writing notes, I kept thinking about how tags should be organized. Sometimes I would spend quite a while deciding which tags to use, and that gradually turned them into a writing burden instead of a helpful tool. I found that tags are simply hard to plan well and maintain over the long term. On top of that, after adding search to notes a few days ago, part of the original value of tags was already covered. I would rather leave tags out for now and add them back only after I find a better way to organize notes.

Along the way, I also simplified the sidebar and reworked the /notes/types index page. The sidebar is now flatter and quieter, and the type index uses richer cards with counts and short descriptions.

The refreshed note types page

The main commit is zlliang/zlliang@8381e33, a cleanup and simplification pass across both sites that removed tags, flattened the sidebar, and improved how note types are presented. Most of the code was written with the help of the Codex app.

I have removed the world map from my landing page for now.

When I added it in February, I liked the idea: a compact visual trace of the places I have been, with links to travel posts when I had written one. But after living with it for a while, I kept feeling that the interaction was not good enough. It looked more interesting than it actually felt to use.

So I decided to simplify the page again. I would rather leave something out than keep a feature that feels half-finished. If I come up with a better concept and can polish it properly, I may bring it back in another form.