I forgot: I am using PHPEdit 2.12.8 as a client to Xdebug.

I just tried this with a very simple script:

<?php
$tags = 42;

echo $tags, "\n", $_POST['tags'], "\n";
?>
<form method="POST">
<input name="tags">
<input type="submit">
</form>

But it works fine, i get the correct results in both watches for $_POST and $tags, as well as in the Locals and Superglobals tabs in Komodo. I suspect a PHPEdit bug here.