Preliminary consideration
Whenever users request folders for bear, you can tell them that nested tags are capable of representing both folders and classic tags for organisational purposes. Nested tags are essentially folders, except that the same one can appear in multiple tags. This expands the concept of folders, which is even a beneficial point.
Actually users do not miss a folder structure in the narrow sense of a fixed physical location. When they request folders, it becomes apparent that the core of their discomfort comes from the fact that they are unable to define a hierarchical tag structure BEFORE tagging notes. ‘Empty tags’ do not exist in the left sidebar. And they would disrupt Bear’s clear and simple concept.
The most common workaround seems to be to create a note and collect all the tags you want to appear permanently in the left sidebar there. Unfortunately, the more tags you collect there, the more note lists the note appears in. Furthermore, each additional entry in this note brings it to the top of the note list if it is sorted by modification date.
Request
It would be sufficient for me if I could define the core of a hierarchical tag structure somewhere else. But not to display empty tags in the sidebar. Rather, I would like these tags to remain permanently in the autocomplete field for tags, regardless if there is a note which is tagged with this tag or not.
This would kill three birds with one stone:
1. The important core of an ever-growing folder/nested tag structure can be defined in advance and is easily accessible via the autocomplete field, without having to write a long nested tag in full and worry about how the tag fits into the hierarchy.
2. I use many temporary tags that I set and then remove when I no longer need them, e.g. #status/bookmark or #status/to research#. All in all, it’s nice to never have to write out ‘#status/bookmark’ or anything else in full again, but to use the autocomplete field in a flash.
3. In any discussion about folders versus tags, one can refer to this feature. Actually, an elegant and optimal solution to the supposed contradiction between folders and tags.