parse_tags has no effect one way or the other about stash HOT 2 CLOSED

The parse_tags parameter tells Stash to parse the wrapped content immediately by invoking a new temporary instance of the template parser. This can be useful for two reasons:

• The rendered output of the wrapped tags can be saved to the database, instead of the tags themselves. Thus on subsequent views of the template the wrapped tags are not parsed again (providing replace="no"). In other words, the Stash tag acts like a cache and can save you significant overhead.
• The ability to parse a specific block of tags immediately and save to a variable allows you to subvert the EE parse order which is top to bottom and outside > inside. Generally each pass of the EE parser peels off the outer layer of module tag pairs to expose the inner layer, which is then parsed by the next pass - and so on.

from stash.

Wow! That was a more than helpful explanation. Thank you.

from stash.