Wikipedia talk:Categorization

I have a proposal to add a bullet point to WP:CATFICTION and Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Writing_about_fiction#Categories about a recurring issue that comes up a lot at CfD:

Do not place works in categories for fictional elements, even if eponymous for the work. For example, Cow and Chicken should not be placed in Category:Fictional cattle or Category:Fictional chickens.

–LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 19:06, 3 December 2025 (UTC)

• @LaundryPizza03: seems fine to me. Marcocapelle (talk) 20:12, 29 December 2025 (UTC)
  • I would think that the correct solution to this would be to make character-specific redirects to the work (e.g. Cow (Cow and Chicken) and Chicken (Cow and Chicken), and add the category to the redirect (which is permissible). BD2412 T 15:55, 28 February 2026 (UTC)

WP:SEPARATE tells us:

Keep articles about people separate. Categories with a title indicating that the contents are people should normally only contain biographical articles and lists of people

Seems simple enough. But I'm surprised that it doesn't continue with something along the lines of either:

1. "Similarly, categories with a title indicating that they are for places, events, products, etc should normally not contain biographical articles or lists of people"
2. "However, categories with a title indicating that they are for places, events, products, etc may contain biographical articles and lists of people"

(Although WP:SEPARATE refers the reader to WP:Categorizing articles about people, the latter doesn't explain, as far as I can see.)

Or for a "concrete" example, consider Almeda Lambert. She was a human, and not a variety, ingredient or brand of peanut butter. As (i) we lack Category:Peanut butter people or similar (and very likely always shall), and (ii) I'm accustomed to the way categories here err on the side of inclusiveness, I'm unsurprised to see her in Category:Peanut butter. But does categorization policy say anything about this? -- Hoary (talk) 02:21, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

It's possible there is an old consensus about not adding articles about people to topic categories, but I'm unaware of it, and in practice, it happens. The main things to watch out for are not polluting people categories with articles about other things, and taking care when adding an article about a living person to any category to avoid potential defamation. Mclay1 (talk) 14:05, 4 February 2026 (UTC)

I've just been considering raising this issue only to find it already raised here. Category:Comic Relief people is currently at CfD and I've argued that there are one or two people at most (Lenny Henry, and to a lesser extent Richard Curtis) whose association with the charity Comic Relief is a defining characteristic, so I suggested deleting the "people" category and having those few people in the parent category Category:Comic Relief – but another editor has said this shouldn't be done, citing WP:COPSEP (i.e., WP:SEPARATE).

Reading the bullet point quoted at the start of this discussion, it sounds as if the spirit of that guidance is to ensure that "Foo people" categories don't get filled with non-biographical articles, not to prohibit biographical articles from non-biographical categories. Only the sentence "Keep articles about people separate." supports the latter reading, and as Hoary says the implications of that for broader topic categories aren't elaborated on anywhere. I think one of Hoary's two proposed additions should be added to clear this up; which one depends on what the actual intention of the guidance is. Ham II (talk) 07:26, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

If we included people in non-biographical categories, then the relationship would be undefined and fall foul of WP:OCASSOC, therefore I believe the intention is that WP:SEPARATE means separate and that we should not have mixed categories in any circumstances. --woodensuperman 09:06, 10 February 2026 (UTC)

WP:OCASSOC doesn't say articles shouldn't be categorised with topics that they are associated with; it means we shouldn't generally have categories named "associated with" because the inclusion criteria is vague. There are cases where there is a clear connection between a person and a topic, e.g. an organisation and its founder. Mclay1 (talk) 06:40, 28 February 2026 (UTC)

Hopefully that title has intrigued you enough to go look at Talk:Chris_Squire#Categorisation and input. I am confused as to what to do. Bondegezou (talk) 09:50, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

I would just create the subcategory. I think it's clear that there is a need for the subcategory. Deltaspace⁴² (talk • contribs) 11:12, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

Does the category Category:Wikipedia categories named after populated places in Italy belong in the mainspace category tree of Category:Populated places in Italy? My understanding was that it doesn't because it is a maintenance category. Is this correct? AusLondonder (talk) 05:44, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

@AusLondonder, Category:Wikipedia categories named after people is a subcategory of Category:People, and most of the subcategories in Category:Eponymous categories follow the same pattern. Deltaspace⁴² (talk • contribs) 09:59, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

I saw a question from Naraht at the help desk on whether there is a minimum number of entries in a Category and whether there are exceptions here. I know that WP:SMALLCAT is a former guideline, is there any current guidance? TSventon (talk) 15:42, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

TSventon Thank you for bumping it over here. I've dealt with two somewhat similar situations in the last 3 months.

1. Category:Historically segregated African-American schools in the United States. I've only created state level categories in Category:Historically segregated African-American schools in the United States by state or territory if the state has three or more, and left them in the parent cat if there were one or two.
2. Category:RuPaul's Drag Race episodes I had only been creating the season by season subcats if there were more than three entries that weren't just redirects. Another editor created season cats for the seasons that only had one and I wasn't sure enough of WP:SMALLCAT to undo it.

So advice please.Naraht (talk) 16:59, 24 March 2026 (UTC)