User:DexDor/Categories
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Introduction
The following notes have been made in attempt to understand how categories currently work in WP and how the guidance (e.g. WP:DEFINING) can be improved. Comments (e.g. on the talk page) are welcome.
I've been thinking about how WP:DEFINING can be improved for a while. A good step would be to separate the guidance for categorization of articles about individual (unique) things and that for articles about concepts as IMO trying to have one sentence that covers both is the main reason why WP:DEFINING is currently so meaningless/ambiguous. Maybe something like:
- Articles about individual people and (unique) items (John Smith, BBC, RMS Titanic ...) should be categorized by the characteristic(s) that makes the person/item notable (e.g. a person may be notable as an actor) and by biographical characteristics (in particular the year of birth/establishment/construction). Articles about other subjects (e.g. concepts) should be categorized by what the subject is a subset of - for example the subject of warships is part of the subjects of naval warfare and ships.
Most WP articles are already categorized as per the above guidance. Many articles also have other categories (e.g. "alumni of"); the above guidance could be extended to allow such categorization where it would not cause lots of categories to be added to an article (see for an example of what we don't want).
For some articles a blend of the two aspects of this guidance could be used - e.g. not every Supermarine Spitfire was a fighter aircraft (some were unarmed), but the Spitfire achieved notability as a fighter so its article can be categorized as such.
That a rule is often broken is not a good reason to rescind the rule. An analogy: in the UK the speed limit on motorways is 70mph, but many drivers sometimes (marginally) exceed it. If the limit was increased to 80mph some drivers would exceed that ...
Types of categories
This is a list of (some of) the types of categories that WP categorization guidance refers to. This list has been drawn up in attempt to see if any simplifications can be made and/or to avoid other types being defined.
| Definition and example quote(s) using the term | Notes |
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An administration category (or project category) is a category that contains pages that are not articles, or it groups articles by status rather than content. Administration categories should not be in content categories. These categories are used mainly by Wikipedia's editors, rather than for browsing. Examples of administration categories include Category:Wikipedia backlog and stub categories.
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A birth/death/living category - (e.g. on CAT:NOCAT)
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A category category is a category containing categories that are not subcategories. (see Template:Category_header)
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A container category is a category that contains (or is intended to contain) only subcategories rather than articles. (from Wikipedia:Container category)
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A content category is a category that contains encyclopaedic contents. (from Template:Category_header) (e.g. on CAT:NOCAT)
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A disambiguation category is a soft redirect to 2 or more categories.
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This should not be confused with categories for disambiguation pages. There is a reference to this from Template:Db-c1. |
A distinguished subcategory - see non-diffusing subcategory
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An eponymous category is a category which covers the exact same topic as an article. (WP:EPON)
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A hidden category is ???? (e.g. on CAT:NOCAT)
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A holding category is ??? (e.g. in the text of Category:National Register of Historic Places articles needing infoboxes)
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This CFD deleted a holding category. |
An intermediate category is a category used to organize large classes of subcategories, such as Category:Albums by artist.(Wikipedia:FAQ/Categories)
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An intersection category is ???
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A maintenance category is ????
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Maintenance categories are temporary categories.??? |
A navigational category is ???
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In the quoted text the last sentence should have "directly" added. |
A nationality/occupation category is ???? (e.g. on CAT:NOCAT)
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A non-diffusing subcategory (aka distinguished subcategory) of a category includes articles that can also be found in the parent category. (Template:Distinguished subcategory, WP:DUPCAT)
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A parent-only category is TBD.
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A permanent category is any category other than a temporary category (e.g. on CAT:NOCAT)
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A primary category or primary (topic level) category is ???? (from Wikipedia:Category_intersection)
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A project category (see administration category)
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A polluted category is TBD - Wikipedia:Database reports/Polluted categories
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A redlinked category is ????.
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A subcategory is ????. (WP:SUBCAT)
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A set category is a category of articles on subjects in a particular class, such as Category:Villages in Poland.(Wikipedia:FAQ/Categories)
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A set-and-topic category is a category that is a combination of a set category and topic category.(Wikipedia:FAQ/Categories)
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A stub category is ?????. Stub categories are temporary categories. (e.g. on CAT:NOCAT)
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A temporary category is ????. Examples include stub categories and maintenance categories.
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This doesn't mean that the category itself is temporary. |
A topic category is a category of articles relating to a particular topic, such as Category:Geography or Category:Paris.(Wikipedia:FAQ/Categories) (e.g. on WP:CAT)
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A tracking category is a category intended to build and maintain a list of pages primarily for the sake of the list itself (see Template:Tracking category)
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A universal category is a category used to provide a complete list of articles which are otherwise normally divided into subcategories.
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This term is (as of 2016) very little used. Perhaps it should be removed from the FAQ page. |
A wanted category isn't actually a category .... - see Special:WantedCategories
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A Wikipedia category is a category needed for Wikipedia administrative purposes, but that is not part of the encyclopedia itself. (Template:Wikipedia category)
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A work category is TBD.
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The quoted text isn't entirely correct - e.g. see Category:Wikipedia and some of its subcategories. |
Year of birth/death categories
"Normal" categories group together articles about similar topics (e.g. 19th century French painters) which can be of use to readers/editors. When such categories get large there's usually some way in which they can be split to make them more useful. The year-of-birth/death categories don't group together such similar articles, but they may be useful (e.g. for editors maintaining BLP tags) and they have low cost - e.g. they cause little watchlist noise (typically they only need to be edited when the article is created and when the person dies) and they don't cause much category clutter. Hybrid categories would have the costs without (afaics) providing much (if any) benefits. Examples of CFDs discussing hybrid categories: Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2017_May_28#Category:Racing_drivers_born_in_YYYY, Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2017_May_30#Deaths_of_Greek_people_by_year.
Reference is often made to these categories at CFD by editors who appear to be unaware that these categories are used differently to normal categories.
Should these categories be considered as maintenance categories?
Question: Do these categories therefore count as maintenance categories (e.g. should they be hidden from readers) ?
Making these categories hidden would have several advantages -
- It would prevent readers opening a category page that is unlikely to be any use for navigation (because of the 10s of thousands of articles in it) and may confuse them about how categories are intended to be used.
- It would reduce the frequency of editors failing to distinguish these from normal article cstegories - e.g. In CFD duscussions or by creating subcats.
- It would make it easier to find pages that are only categorized by yob/yod/lp (e.g. using tools.wmflabs.org/dplbot/cat/uncategorized_pages.php). Such pages are unlikely to have been found by a wikiproject. There may be other ways (e.g. using AWB) of finding such pages.
However, editors may argue that the year of birth (for example) is a characteristic of the person (the subject of the article) and that hidden categories should only be for characteristics of the article itself (e.g. being unreferenced).
Checking categories
How many (if any) of these should be categorized under Category:Articles ?
- Redirect categories - see WP:RCAT.
- Portals and Portal categories
- Disambiguation pages - see WP:DBC.
- Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of mythology subjects etc
- WikiProjects
- Templates - see WP:CAT#T. Note: there are at least 3 other ways of getting to a template (template categories, talk page categories, from article that uses template).
- Talk pages
- Stub categories
- Categories like Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the United States National Library of Medicine
See also: Wikipedia:What is an article?
Understanding WP:DEFINING
Proposal A
There are 3 types of characteristics that a subject can have that determine what Wikipedia categories a Wikipedia article about that subject should be in:
- 1. The subject is completely within another (more general) subject. E.g. the subject of Political history is a subset of the subject of History. The title of the subject normally makes clear what subjects it is a subset of.
- 2. The subject is notable with respect to another subject (e.g. a person may be a notable politician or artist). This applies mainly, but not exclusively, where the subject is an individual person. In a Wikipedia article the notable characteristics are normally found in the lead of the article.
- 3. "Biographical" characteristics (year of birth, nationality etc). This applies to people, but also to individual animals, organisations (e.g. year of establishment of a company) etc. In a Wikipedia article this information is often in the lead and/or in an infobox.
These 3 types of characteristics can sometimes overlap.
A Wikipedia category is for articles that have one or more (i.e. an intersection) of these characteristics.
In addition there are Wikipedia administration categories. Many of these are hidden from readers.
Proposal B
Articles about specific named things (e.g. individual people) are categorised based on two types of characteristics - characteristics based on the reason(s) for notability (e.g. being a famous actor) and biographical characteristics (year of birth, nationality etc). Articles about individual organisations, individual buildings, individual animals, specific types of aircraft etc are similarly categorised both by reason for notability and for "biographical" information (e.g. year of establishment of a company). For a few categories it may not be clear from the category name which of these 2 kinds of characteristic it is based on (e.g. Category:People with cancer, Category:Murder victims).
Articles about concepts are categorised based on what the concept is a subset of. For example the Political history article is in Category:History and Category:Politics.
Many categories are for articles that have a combination of characteristics (e.g. Category:British fighter aircraft 1930–1939 is the intersection of Category:Fighter aircraft 1930–1939 and Category:British fighter aircraft).
In addition there are Wikipedia administration categories, many of which are hidden from readers.