for writing portal and app: using hashtags to filter/categorize our stories could be extremely useful when readers are looking for a story that has specific features or is about a specific thing. Really the only way Episode lets us categorize our stories is with genres, and those are very general and limited. Most stories are multi-faceted, and we can use hashtags to further indicate what our story contains!
we do have keywords but it can only be one word and isnt really helpful, and when i search a key word i just get results with that word in the story title. and we can add like “cc” “lgbt” in the story description or title, but that gets messy and takes away characters for the description. we could use hastags instead. it would be nice to search, for example, “#chooseyourgender” and stories where you can choose the MC’s gender pop up. or “#malemc” and stories with a male mc pop up! could also search more than one hashtag and stories with both things im looking for will pop up.
sometimes i want stories with specific things and theyre hard to come by. asking on the forums for stories with xyz in them is helpful but if the story doesnt have many reads then whats the chance someome on the forums is gonna know about it and suggest it? however, if the story is listed under a hashtag and people browse the tag then more people will find it.
ANOTHER use for hashtags is, for example if youre sensitive to child abuse, authors could tag their story #childabuse if it contains that, and readers who dont want that could mute that tag and stories with that tag wont show up. instead of getting started on the story, only to find out later that it has something that makes you unfomfortable but there isnt a warning until chapter 14 and then you have to sit through it or leave when youre already invested.
PLEASE consider this feature as its beneficial for authors AND readers! everyones happy! 