How to work with categories

What are categories?

Categories allow articles to be placed in one or more groups, and allows those groups to be further categorized.

When an article belongs to a category, it will contain a special link to a page that describes the category. Similarly, when a sub-category belongs to a parent category, it will contain a special link to the parent category's page.

Each category page contains an introduction that can be edited like an article, and an automatically generated list of links to sub-categories and articles that belong to the category.

Categories do not form a strict hierarchy or tree of categories, since each article can appear in more than one category, and each category can appear in more than one parent category. This allows multiple categorisation schemes to co-exist simultaneously. It is possible to construct loops in the category space, but this discouraged.

What is the purpose of categories?

There are two main ways to use categories: lists and topics.

When starting a subcategory, making an early decision about whether it is a list or a topic will reduce later renames, recategorizations, and discussions.

The category page can be used to tell others whether it is a list or a topic, and to link to a main list or article.

When to use categories

Every article should belong to at least one category. Categories should be on major topics that are likely to be useful to someone reading the article.

Questions to ask to know whether it is appropriate to add an article to a category:

• If the category does not already exist, is it possible to write a few paragraphs or more on the subject of the category, explaining it?
• If you go to the article from the category, will it be obvious why it's there? Is the category subject prominently discussed in the article?

If the answer to either of these questions is no, then the category is probably inappropriate. Note that it is always appropriate to add articles to categories that fit into well established taxonomies.

Each Monstropedia article can appear in more than one category, and each category can appear in more than one parent category. Multiple categorization schemes co-exist simultaneously. In other words, categories do not form a strict hierarchy or tree structure, but a more general directed acyclic graph.

Categories appear without annotations, so be careful when creating or filling categories. Unless it is self-evident and uncontroversial that something belongs in a category, it should not be put into a category.

What is the difference between a list and a category?

Grouping articles into a category is not the same as making a list of articles. When you make a list of articles, you edit the list directly; but when you place articles into a category, you simply edit the articles, and a list of articles is automatically created on the category's page. Despite the difference in how they are maintained, it is sometimes convenient to think of a category as a list of articles.

With Monstropedia, lists are mainly used to sort creatures by their attributes. Ex List of winged creatures ; list of movies with King Kong

Can pages be in more than one category?

Yes, it is expected that most pages will be members of more than one category.

In exactly the same way, each category can be a member of more than one parent category.

What is the naming convention for categories?

General naming conventions

• For a pre-existing category, the article of the same or similar name and (rarely, or) on the same topic should be added to that category. When creating an article one should, only if appropriate (especially horizontally), create a category of the same or similar name on the same topic .
• Articles should be placed in the most specific categories possible. Categories should be more or equally as broad as the articles they contain; articles should be more or equally specific as the categories they are in.
• Avoid abbreviations.
• Don't hard-code the category structure into names.
• Choose category names that are able to stand alone, independent of the way a category is connected to other categories. Example: "Wikipedia policy precedents and examples", not "Precedents and examples" (a subcategory of "Wikipedia policies and guidelines").
• Topical category names should be singular. Examples: "Law", "Civilization"
• As with lists avoid descriptive adjectives such as famous, important, or notable in category titles.

Special conventions for lists of items

• Category names for lists of items should be plural.
• In instances where a list page simply contains an alphabetical list of items with no other information it could be replaced by a category.
• If the list contains extra information or is non-alphabetical (for example sorted by date) it should remain as a list page, rather than a category.
• Categories can only list articles that exist and have been assigned to the category. Therefore, comprehensive lists, (such as "List of winged creatures"), which must include all items regardless of whether an article already exists for them, should not be replaced by categories. Similarly, in an area that is not yet well-covered, lists can effectively indicate articles that still need to be written; categories cannot do this.
• If there are a lot of lists regarding a particular subject area, it might be useful to have a category to hold them. These categories should only contain list pages.

How do I place an article in categories?

Edit the article and add [[Category:Category name]] at the bottom of the article. Categories can be placed inside parent categories in the same way.

How do I reference a category on a page without categorising the page?

To link to the category page, put a colon before the word "category", inside the link, e.g.
[[:Category:Category name]]. The link will appear as Category:Category name.

Where should the category tag go in the article?

Category tags should be placed at the bottom of the article, after the appendices and before the inter-wiki language links. This ensures that when newcomers press "edit", they are immediately presented with the main article text, rather than the more esoteric category tags. It also ensures that the category tags are in a consistent place so they are easy to find when an editor is updating the categorization of a bunch of articles.

How do I force an article to show up at the top of the category page?

It is sometimes desirable to force the most important articles or sub-categories to appear at the beginning of the sorted list on a category's page. To do this, use a space as the sort key. For example, [[Category:Whatever| ]]. Other special characters, such as '*' and '!' are also used for this purpose.

What goes on a category page?

Category pages exist to be a convenient cross-reference to related articles and other categories. A category page should contain a brief description of the purpose of the category. A prominent link to the most important article in the category is usually a good idea, but please avoid copying large quantities of text or images from an article to a category page. If a category and a page have a one-to-one correspondence, then the Template:Tl template or a similar template is often the best solution.

Somebody changed my categorization - what do I do?

It is preferable not to change the categorization system once it is agreed. Please use the Talk page to discuss changes.

I want to change the relationships of some categories - will anyone mind?

If you want to restructure some existing categories, it is best to discuss your plans with others working in the same areas, or at least to announce your intentions. This is to avoid the situation where someone is placing an article into multiple categories, someone else is populating a category with multiple articles and parent categories, while someone else is trying to restructure part of the category tree, and nobody ends up with what they want.

What categories already exist?

The best way to find out what exists is to browse. Either start at Category or start at Category:Fundamental, which shows the "top" level categories, to which all other categories should be connected.

Do categories need parents?

Yes. If you are creating a new category, look for a suitable "parent" category (or several) to assign it to. A good place to look is in articles on related subjects.

If you do not have a parent category, then your category cannot be browsed to via other categories. Also, your category will show up on Special:Uncategorizedcategories.

How do I delete a category?

Ask the admin.

What is the state of categorisation?

When trying to categorise an article, it is still difficult to tell into which categories it should be placed, and when trying to categorise by a field of interest, one is likely to intersect someone else's efforts from another field.

Category policies are still being determined through experimentation, discussion, and polls. Categorisations and systems are likely to be discussed and improved upon for a very long time.

Categories and articles having the same name.

In many cases, a category will have a "main article" or "overview", which describes the subject of that category. In these cases the category and the article often have the same name. If this is the case, do the following

• Add the "{{catmore}}" tag in the category, after any description of the material covered by that category.

• Arrange for the article to appear at the top of the list of articles in the category, by putting a vertical bar and a space after the category name in the Category: tag (e.g. [[Category:''catname''| ]]).

For such a category/article pair, the guidelines for what other categories the "main article" should be in are still being worked out. Normally articles should not appear both in a category and a "parent" of that category. Some editors feel that an exception should be made for the "main article" of a category—that in many cases the category system makes more sense if each main article appears in some or all of the categories that the equivalent category appears in. Others suggest that the main article should occur only in its like-named category and no others. The latter may be optimal if the category structure is in flux, but it is not optimal for browsing, where the user has to keep bouncing back an forth between the categories of "main" pages and other pages.

If the subject has count, then make the category name plural and create a redirect of that same, plural name, redirecting back to the singular name. For instance City and Category:Cities. That is, create a page called "Cities" and add the line

#REDIRECT [[City]]

This helps to prevent confusion by blocking others from creating a competing page that overlaps in scope and you will be able to use the catmore template without specifying any additional parameters.

In theory, if a main article is categorized correctly in its corresponding category, the use of the catmore template is redundant.

How to create categories

Creating a category is as simple as adding a soft link to the appropriate article in the Category: namespace; for instance, to add Griffin to the "Greek Mythology" category, you would edit the article and enter [[Category:Greek Mythology]] at the bottom. Although the link will not appear in the article text, a page called Category:Greek Mythology will automatically list alphabetically all articles that contain the [[Category:Greek Mythology]] link. The appeal of categories is that unlike lists, they update themselves automatically, and that one can use them to quickly find related articles. However, categories are not a substitute for lists, and you will find that many articles belong to both lists and categories. You may see some inconsistencies when first creating the category: it may alternate between appearing empty and appearing with your first additions. It will probably correct itself in a few minutes.

Note that, although "uncreated" categories will correctly list articles that have been assigned to them, the category page itself does not exist until it is manually created. The easiest way to create the category page is to follow the edit link from an article and add a parent category and a category description as explained below.

Creating subcategories

Create subcategory pages by putting the name of the parent category on a category page that you would like to be the subcategory. Child categories (subcategories) are created by putting [[category:parent_category_name]] on the lower-level category pages. For example, on a (sub)category page called category:Roses you put [[category:Flowers]], Roses becomes a subcategory of Flowers.

When adding an article to a category, or creating categories, one should be careful to use the correct categories and subcategories. Horizontal categorization, directly below, refers to placing an article in the correct category while vertical categorization refers to placing an article in the correct subcategory. When assigning an article into categories, try to be thorough in a "horizontal" sense. A good general rule is that articles should be placed in the most specific categories they reasonably fit in.

For instance, the instance Dracula does not belong to the category "Myths and Legends" but "Classic vampires" as it is only recently that the historical character has been associated with vampirism.

Whatever categories you add, make sure they do not implicitly violate the neutral point of view policy. If the nature of something is in dispute (like whether or not it's fictional or scientific or whatever), you may want to avoid labelling it or mark the categorization as disputed. Most categorizations are pretty straightforward, though.

Making groups of subcategories

Categories can only list 200 entries at a time. When there are more than 200 entries, only the first 200 will be displayed. To make it easy to navigate, add a TOC (table of contents). TOCs are added by typing:

{{CategoryTOC}} - which adds a complete TOC (Top, 0 - 9, A-Z)

{{CatAZ}} - which adds a TOC without numbers. This is for categories with members that only start with letters.

When a given category gets crowded, also consider making several subcategories. Group similar articles together in a meaningful and useful way that will make it easy for readers to navigate later. Remember that several subcategorization schemes can coexist (for example, if Category:Cryptozoology gets too big, you don't have to choose between subdividing it by geographical areas or subdividing it by type of creatures, you can simultaneously subdivide it in both ways).

Categories requirements and usage

User browsing

Categories (along with other features, like cross-references) should help users find the information they are looking for as quickly as possible, even if they don't know that it exists or what it's called.

Links to categories

You can create a link to a category page without adding the page to that category by using a colon before the word Category. Example: [[:Category:Spirits] appears as Category:Spirits.

Redirected categories

Although it is possible to attempt to redirect categories by adding a line such as #REDIRECT [[:Category:Spirits]] to a category, it is not generally recommended because of limitations in the mediawiki software. Categories "redirected" in this way do not prevent the addition of articles to the redirected category. Articles added to the "redirected" category do not show up as in the target category. Until these issues are addressed (in future versions of the software), #REDIRECT should not be added to category pages.

Category sorting

Contrary to some expectations, text after a pipe ("|") in a category link is not used in place of the category text. Rather, this text is used as the sort key on the category page itself. However, again contrary to expectations, that sort text is not displayed.

It is possible to force an article or subcategory to the top of the list by using a non-alphanumeric character as the first after the pipe. For example, using [[Category:Classic monsters| Frankenstein monster]] (note the space) or [[Category:Classic monsters|*Frankenstein monster]] would force that article to be displayed before all the others.