diff --git a/tildes/tildes/templates/includes/topic_tags.jinja2 b/tildes/tildes/templates/includes/topic_tags.jinja2
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..55b3472
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tildes/tildes/templates/includes/topic_tags.jinja2
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+<ul class="topic-tags">
+  {% for tag in topic.tags %}
+    <li class="label label-topic-tag">
+      <a href="/~{{ topic.group.path }}?tag={{ tag.replace(' ', '_') }}">{{ tag }}</a>
+    </li>
+  {% else %}
+    <li class="label label-topic-tag">No tags</li>
+  {% endfor %}
+</ul>
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/templates/intercooler/topic_tags.jinja2 b/tildes/tildes/templates/intercooler/topic_tags.jinja2
index 292d8be..58ba1df 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/templates/intercooler/topic_tags.jinja2
+++ b/tildes/tildes/templates/intercooler/topic_tags.jinja2
@@ -1,5 +1 @@
-<ul class="topic-tags">
-  {% for tag in topic.tags %}
-    <li class="label label-topic-tag">{{ tag }}</li>
-  {% endfor %}
-</ul>
+{% include 'includes/topic_tags.jinja2' %}
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/templates/topic.jinja2 b/tildes/tildes/templates/topic.jinja2
index 15b7a20..6859134 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/templates/topic.jinja2
+++ b/tildes/tildes/templates/topic.jinja2
@@ -204,15 +204,7 @@
 <dl>
   <dt>Tags</dt>
   <dd>
-    <ul class="topic-tags">
-      {% for tag in topic.tags %}
-        <li class="label label-topic-tag">
-          <a href="/~{{ topic.group.path }}?tag={{ tag.replace(' ', '_') }}">{{ tag }}</a>
-        </li>
-      {% else %}
-        <li class="label label-topic-tag">No tags</li>
-      {% endfor %}
-    </ul>
+    {% include 'includes/topic_tags.jinja2' %}
   </dd>
 
   <dt>Comments</dt>
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/views/api/web/topic.py b/tildes/tildes/views/api/web/topic.py
index b97d565..6e33b66 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/views/api/web/topic.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/views/api/web/topic.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ from tildes.models.log import LogTopic
 from tildes.models.topic import Topic, TopicVote
 from tildes.schemas.group import GroupSchema
 from tildes.schemas.topic import TopicSchema
-from tildes.views import IC_EMPTY, IC_NOOP
+from tildes.views import IC_NOOP
 from tildes.views.decorators import ic_view_config
 
 
@@ -160,28 +160,23 @@ def tag_topic(request: Request, tags: str) -> dict:
     """Apply tags to a topic with Intercooler."""
     topic = request.context
 
-    if not tags:
-        request.db_session.add(
-            LogTopic(
-                LogEventType.TOPIC_TAG,
-                request,
-                topic,
-                info={'old': topic.tags, 'new': []},
-            ),
-        )
-        topic.tags = []
-        return IC_EMPTY
-
-    # split the tag string on commas
-    split_tags = tags.split(',')
+    if tags:
+        # split the tag string on commas
+        new_tags = tags.split(',')
+    else:
+        new_tags = []
 
     old_tags = topic.tags
 
     try:
-        topic.tags = split_tags
+        topic.tags = new_tags
     except ValidationError:
         raise ValidationError({'tags': ['Invalid tags']})
 
+    # if tags weren't changed, don't add a log entry or update page
+    if set(topic.tags) == set(old_tags):
+        return IC_NOOP
+
     request.db_session.add(
         LogTopic(
             LogEventType.TOPIC_TAG,