Proposal:Category tree

Proposal 6.13.06 Category tree

This is already close to what we have, but I propose that we make it clearer and then adjust the navigation on the main page to work this way. The main issue is that our "Major Categories" are really normal categories also, so we'll need to adjust the categories in quite a few articles to make this happen.

How unrooted categories are actually being used

At the top of this page we have a graphical vision of how categories should maybe work but if we're looking to transition in that direction it would help to know where we are. Personally User:JenniferForUnity thinks that uncategorized catagories in a well tended wiki should either have a single official root category or else a handful of categories for radically different concepts and ways of approaching a wiki. Anything not in that scheme is probably some newbie's attempt to categorize their page and a cry for editing. It means someone with "category wisdom" should fix it and drop a note on the newbie's talk page explaining what they did and why.

So in October of 2006 uncategorized categories had the following content (lumped by "how they were being used")...

Vanity categories (probably too specific and need more general cats)

These categories should probably be deleted and the pages they contain probably need to be edited into better categories.

• Category: Backpacking — contains China 0km
• Category: Cheat Codes — contains Cheat Code Wiki -- contains five wikis now
• Category: Cluster Headache — Clusterkopfschmerz; contains Clusterkopfschmerz: CK-Wissen
• Category: Karl May World — contains Karl May Indonesia Wiki
• Category: Not a wiki — contains BiggestWiki and PurposelessWiki and comments questioning it's very exitence; over forty listings as of April 2013
• Category: WikiManuals — this is empty

Proper categories (that are improperly unrooted or unexplained)

These categories need some kind of attention by people who know what's going on with them.

• Category: Justice — two related categories ("Peace" and "International development") and 3 articles... this should probably be a subcat of politics along with it's related categories
• Category: Literature — has 8 articles and no subcats
• Category: YourWikiSize — this has something to do with a template project

Something fundamental in active use or development

Needs some attention and a description of what's even going on here before changes are made.

• Category: Browse — Browse is it's own little disaster of untended and unplanned categorization. Someone should sit down and give Category:Browse a similar treatment as uncategorized categories just recieved in this section.

How the "Browse" category and it's branches are actually being used

Category: Browse is currently our root. We'd love to have help fixing it if there's a better way to do it! Thanks. :-) TedErnst | talk 17:48, 16 October 2006 (EDT)

Template: Category discussions

Note: in order to assist readability of included talk pages, please ensure the template rendering this table is kept at the BOTTOM of the displayed page (manually move to bottom if required).

This is the text of the Template: Category discussions. It is intended to connect the various discussions about categories here on WikiIndex that are taking place (or have previously taken place) on various pages. Please also see WikiIndex: How do categories work, and how to use our {{Tag}} template. If you find a discussion on categories which does not display this message box, please add this template by copying the following {{Category discussions}}, and pasting at the bottom of the edit box on the required talk page, and then go edit this template to include it, and summarise the discussion you found. The following discussions have taken, or are taking place: WikiIndex: How do categories work — tries to explain to new editors how our category system works. (Or at least, how we hope it will someday work, once we finish the tasks in the below WikiProjects). WikiIndex:Wiki project - Categories and tags — lists some category-related projects we have been working on, and how we use our {{Tag}} template (which 'wikilinks', and auto-includes into its linked category); please feel free to help. Category talk: Browse — the talk page of the de facto 'root' (or top tier, or parent) category; a logical place for general category discussions to occur. Mentions language stuff; also questions whether 'category: Browse' should even be a category. language issues: Discussion of language categories at Community talk — de facto policy?: A suggestion that the English name for a wiki language should have the language's own name for itself as a sub-category. Proposal:Authentic language categories — how to deal with non-English languages' own names for themselves. WikiIndex: Frequently asked questions — a question asked and discussed regarding the appropriateness of having several translations of a wiki's description – the ubiquitous 'FAQ'. Category: Wiki language and its talk page — alternate proposals have been suggested and implemented here. general structure debates: WikiIndex talk:Community talk — one of the earliest discussion spaces, which included some general categorisation issues. Proposal:Category tree — offers a picture showing how categories should maybe work in general; also summarises how various categories are actually being used currently. Category talk: Wiki Topic — what should the 'root' or 'parent' of the topics or subject matter of all wikis indexed here on WikiIndex. WikiIndex: WikiProject - By Size and its talk page — original discussions for methodology on creating categorisation of wikis by size, and the templates used to generate the required output. Category talk: Wiki Size — brief comment on how to determine page count of wikis, especially from the various wiki engines; more detail can be found at template: Size. dealing with geography: Category talk: Places — the former fundamental 'location cat'; previously suggested for depreciation, and proposed as being edited out of existence; now used for non-geographical locations. Category talk: wiki location — the new location root category; discussion general geography schemes here. Category talk: City — one scheme: a category just for 'city wikis'. . . see also: Regiowikis. Category talk: Earth — how to structure a 'tree of locations'; discussion at the root of the tree. specific categories: User talk: TedErnst — discussion about the resolution to use for 'category: Wiki Size' sub-categories. Category talk: Wikia — discussion about the commercial behemoth that is category: Wikia, now also known as 'Fandom'. Category talk: Wiki engine — discussion about category: Wiki engine structure. Category talk: Wiki status — inconsistency, some editors consider it overlapping with category: Wiki Edit Mode. You can also check all pages that link to this template (using the backlink function).