Category talk:Earth

Initial thoughts

Please keep in mind that everything on this page is a suggestion. These aren't hard and fast policies, but they're proposals that are actively receiving edits... so they matter as far as describing and organizing the wiki, but they don't have 'real authority' other than the fact that at least one person is editing according to this scheme and no objections have been added to the proposal.

Avoiding vanity categories

Individual articles should probably be 'at the right generality if they're actually general', and and as local as they can get if they're not... so long as it doesn't lead to 'vanity categories' where they're the only thing in the category (a single entry category). Example: if you have a wiki about a specific neighborhood of New York City, then it doesn't deserve it's own "New York City Neighborhood Category" until the New York City category already has like maybe three places that obviously could be categorized with the more specific neighborhood cat.

The 'tree' structure to aim for

English Wikipedia's stub categories for Geography > place-related are the model here because they've probably already face our situation and fixed it 'about right'. Here is the basic tree structure we should be slowly editing towards:

(Continent > sub-continent > countries > states within countries > cities)

• Category:Africa
  • African countries as necessary — from Algeria to Zimbabwe alphabetically
• Category:Antarctica
• Category:Asia
  • Category:Central Asia
    • as necessary — from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan alphabetically
  • Category:East Asia
    • Category:China
    • Category:Japan
    • Category:Korea
    • Category:Taiwan
  • Category:Middle East
    • as necessary — from Bahrain to United Arab Emirates alphabetically
  • Category:South Asia
    • as necessary — from Bangladesh to Sri Lanka alphabetically
  • Category:South East Asia
    • as necessary — from Brunei to Thailand alphabetically
• Category:Australasia and Oceania
  • Category:Australia
    • Australian states...
  • Category:New Zealand
  • others as necessary (including southern ocean island states)...
• Category:Europe
  • as necessary — from Albania to United Kingdom alphabetically
• Category:North and Central America
  • Category:Canada
    • as necessary — from Alberta to Yukon Territory alphabetically
  • Category:Caribbean
    • as necessary — from Barbados to Haiti alphabetically
  • Category:Greenland
  • Category:United States of America
    • as necessary — from Alaska to Wisconsin alphabetically
  • Category:Central America
    • as necessary — from Belize to Panama alphabetically
  • Category:Mexico
• Category:South America
  • as necessary — from Argentina to Venezuela alphabetically

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).