single.php creates empty span when no tags are present

[modemlooper]

This came up on a child theme review. Suggested change. Or is there a better way?

<p class="postmetadata">
<?php the_tags( ('<span class="tags">', 'Tags: ', 'buddypress' ), ', ', '<br />', '</span>'); ?>
<span class="comments"><?php comments_popup_link( ( 'No Comments &#187;', 'buddypress' ), ( '1 Comment &#187;', 'buddypress' ), ( '% Comments &#187;', 'buddypress' ) ); ?></span>
</p>

[modemlooper]

That would work but I think there is a better way using before =>

<p class="postmetadata">
<?php the_tags( ('<span class="tags">Tags: ', 'buddypress' ), ', ', '<br />'); ?></span>
<span class="comments"><?php comments_popup_link( ( 'No Comments &#187;', 'buddypress' ), ( '1 Comment &#187;', 'buddypress' ), ( '% Comments &#187;', 'buddypress' ) ); ?></span>
</p>

[DJPaul]

Is this still current?

[DJPaul]

I've taken the <br> out too, I can't understand what it was meant to do.

[djpaul]

(In [4313]) Don't show empty <span> on posts if they have no tags. Fixes #3068, props modemlooper