I appreciate your frustration, and Medium is deliberately not being transparent. Tony Stubblebine said it would cause more problems if they said exactly what was and wasn't allowed. That's supposed to make sense?? Go figure ...

And they encourage us to build community and to engage with each other, and then we are randomly punished for doing so.

There doesn't seem to be a problem with a small amount of tagging and sharing. It's a problem when "a lot" - but no one will tell us what that means exactly.

I'm sure it's fine to tag/share a few writers/stories in your pieces.

I'm making sure to add the blurb about how people have requested to be added so they can't shut me down for random tagging.

Also - I've had pieces boosted that contain links and tags so that doesn't seem to be an issue.

I know they don't want a lot of that, and I'm sure they prefer none or maybe just one. But it hasn't prevented me being boosted.

As for the difference between a hyperlink or a box link - I think that's down to personal preference in part, and it also depends on where the link is. If the link is kind of an aside, sharing extra info about your topic for example, best to use a hyperlink in the text. But there are places where it's appropriate and preferable to do a box link, because people are more likely to click on it if they see the whole title, subtitle and a photo. EG if you're sharing someone's story.

It is NOT nice to see a link in its http format. That looks really unprofessional so definitely not advisable.

Personally, I don't have any particular interest in starting any sort of conversation or forum about this stuff. I have enough to do, tending to my pubs and notifications, checking out potential new writers' work before adding them, editing etc. - responding to comments and so on - I just don't have time or interest, to be honest. I'm careful about how I spend my time - it is an irreplaceable resource that becomes increasingly valuable every second.

It's also not terribly useful because we don't have enough information from Medium to even have a meaningful discussion. It's all speculation, and to further speculate is a waste of energy.

I'm like you - often get an idea from reading someone's work. I don't think there's any issue with sharing a couple of pieces by other writers. Just don't randomly tag 50 people - or at least, not without their permission before you do it! :)