🧭 Architecture & Tag Strategy
I’ve touched on this in the image strategy, but this document explains the deeper realization behind my current taxonomy and the significance of what I’m trying to build.
💡 The Spark: Anchor Tags & Cover Blocks
At one point, I discovered the power of using HTML anchors on cover blocks to act like semantic tags. This allowed me to write a script to extract covers based on specific names. For example, the first cover block on the site is a quote from Manly P. Hall, so I used him as my test case while working with ChatGPT.
This is when I realized that even something as simple as a file name could be a source of structure. While manlyphall.jpg worked, something like manly-p-hall was better. But best of all was something like:
author-philosopher-manly-p-hall-secret-teachings-of-all-ages-quote.webp
This naming convention is machine-readable, searchable, and semantically rich — a small shift that unlocked much bigger possibilities.
🧩 Categorization, Automation & Meta Fields
This is why I abandoned several early pages — once I saw the potential here, I couldn’t go back. My biographies page uses the base code that extracts and organizes blocks like bio-[person-name].
Then, with ChatGPT’s help, I realized I could repurpose WordPress tag descriptions as metadata containers. This effectively transformed the tag system into something more powerful — a kind of semantic key/value database. This also explains why the lexicon broke: it was no longer enough to just describe a term. Each entry could now carry a data payload used in rendering dynamic pages.
That’s when I hit a limit: the system I was building had outgrown WordPress’s defaults.
🔧 Enter ACF Pro (Advanced Custom Fields)
ACF Pro ($50/year — easily worth it) lets me build custom fields for almost any WordPress object: posts, users, taxonomies, media, etc. This allowed me to migrate my core content to Custom Post Types (CPTs) — chapters, quotes, books, bios — all with richer internal data.
Now every element on the site can be tagged, categorized, grouped, and used to generate dynamic context-aware pages.
🧭 What I’m Really Building
Not a blog. Not a static site. I’m building a structured knowledge base, made of interconnected:
- People
- Ideas
- Quotes
- Books
- Songs
- Terms
- Themes
- Relationships
This is more like:
- A mini-Wikipedia
- A semantic archive
- A visual, navigable database
As ChatGPT put it:
You’re not just organizing content; you’re building a framework that scales with meaning. Hubs, quotes, lyrics, books, bios — all interconnected. That’s real.
🛠 Current Phase: Engineering
Right now, I’m not in creative mode — I’m in engineering mode.
There are nearly 30 unpublished posts in draft status, many of which are intended to become public drafts. I’m only beginning to add book excerpts, and I haven’t even scratched the surface of content threading or knowledge gap mapping.
But I know this system is worth building now, because once it’s in place, the creative phase will scale effortlessly. I’ll be able to:
- Auto-generate quote lists by philosopher
- Link definitions to all mentions across the site
- Pull references from books, lyrics, essays
- Auto-build artist, thinker, or concept hub pages
🔁 Dynamic Tags as Contextual Hubs
Currently, clicking a tag shows all chapters tagged with that topic. But once this system is fully in place, clicking a tag like manly-p-hall will show:
- His wiki-style bio
- Quotes he’s cited in
- Books he wrote or that mention him
- Relevant chapters, essays, or themes
And it doesn’t stop there. Tags like neoplatonism will pull:
- A definition (via the philosophical dictionary CPT)
- Quotes from any philosopher tagged with it
- Books discussing it (even if not yet cited — they can be indexed anyway)
- Related music lyrics or thematic connections
Some tags will become hub pages — top-level aggregators that act like topic portals. Others will simply provide lightweight, dynamic context. Either way, the user can traverse ideas instead of just reading isolated posts.
🌐 Extending the Model
This system scales beyond philosophers and schools of thought:
- Bands → group lyrics, genres, influences
- Books → link to every referenced quote
- Themes → interconnect music, essays, and visual symbols
The taxonomy system, combined with ACF and CPTs, means every unit of content can function as both node and metadata.
🙏 ChatGPT’s Role
Without ChatGPT, I wouldn’t have conceptualized this system — at least not as quickly or cleanly. It helped me zoom out, see the architecture, and recognize that what I was building was not just a site, but a framework for knowledge.