Changes: Memory Alpha:Category tree

Revision as of 15:30, 16 February 2011

About → Policies and guidelines → Category tree

This page describes one of Memory Alpha's policies and guidelines.
Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.

With the MediaWiki software, it's possible to sort articles into categories. In order to ensure that these categories will be useful to users of the wiki, categories should be suggested and discussed before creation so that a clear category tree can be maintained.

Policy

Because it is a labor-intensive process to remove or alter a category name once it exists, categories must be orphaned to be deleted as they cannot be redirected, all categories must be suggested and approved by a user consensus. The process is pretty straightforward:

Category suggestions should be listed on Memory Alpha:Category suggestions.
Suggestions without any opposition after at least 7 days are considered approved and can be created. Remember to list them in the new categories section as well, so people know they're there.
Suggestions with supporting votes after at least 4 days are considered approved and can be created. Remember to list them in the new categories section, so people know they're there.
Suggestions with opposition will be removed to the archive after at least 2 weeks of inactivity.
After a suggested category has been approved, don't expect anyone else to actually create it for you! Anyone can create an approved category, and while someone is bound to come along eventually, it won't happen as quickly as it would if you did it yourself.

Before suggesting a new category, you should browse our existing categories and the discussions related to them. Remember that we also want to categorize the article with the correct sort keys.

Existing categories

While the overall category structure is a work in progress, these categories are a good place to start looking.

Category: Planets: This is a list category (a category for instances of planets). This means that every planet may (and should) be included in this category. Don't include moons, planetoids, asteroids or other celestial bodies, colonies, cities, lists of planets or other articles related to planets. If the name of the planet contains a roman numeral, use a sort key in which this numeral is replaced by a double-digit (Example: [[Category:Planets|Rigel 07]] for Rigel VII).

Category: Sectors: This is another list category. Include all sectors, but nothing else - no quadrants, zones, areas, regions, systems, no lists of sectors or other articles related to sectors. If the sector is a numbered sector (for example, Sector 63), only use the number as the sort key (Example: [[Category:Sectors|63]])

Category: Nebulae: List category. Include all nebulae. No specific sort key.

Category: Moons: List category. Include all moons. No specific sort key.

Category: Clusters: List category. Include all clusters. No specific sort key.

Category: Titles: List category. Include all titles. No specific sort key.

Category:Delphic Expanse: This is a locational category. Anything (species, planets, terms) relating to the Delphic Expanse area should be listed here. While there is no specific sort key , general sorting rules apply (regarding ship prefix or last-name first for humans).

Category: Mirror universe: A category for anything relating to the Mirror universe. Only articles directly talking about "mirror universe items" should be listed here. General sorting rules apply.

Category: Weapons: A list category for all forms of weapons - except hand-held weapons, which belong in the subcategory Category:Hand-held weapons. General sorting rules.

Category: Starships: List category for individual starships. Subcategories for starships of major powers will be created, others should be added directly to this category. General sorting rules apply, for example ignoring prefixes.

Category: Starship classes: List category for all starship classes. General sorting rules.

Episodes: List categories for episodes of all series, and also movies. General sorting rules apply, regarding articles such as "The" or "A" (Example: [[Category:TOS episodes|Corbomite Maneuver, The]])

Note that this is just a small sample of the categories that are currently in use. For a complete list, see the full category listing.

Maintenance categories

We also use categories to help with the regular maintenance task of listing specific articles somewhere ("attention needed", "featured article" etc.) by creating a category and adding it to the relevant template. The prefix "Memory Alpha" is used for all maintenance categories that are included via a template.

Category: Memory Alpha images: category for all "images" uploaded on this site.
Category: Memory Alpha audio files: category for all "audio files" uploaded on this site.
Category: Memory Alpha orphaned categories: maintenance category for all "uncategorized categories".
Category: Memory Alpha provisional categories: maintenance category for all "under discussion categories".
Category: Memory Alpha featured articles: category for all featured articles. Use via template {{featured}} only.
Category: Memory Alpha pages needing attention: supercategory for "special" PNA categories - also category for PNAs that don't belong on those subcategories. Use via template {{pna}} only.
Category: Memory Alpha inaccurate articles: category for "inaccurate" PNAs. Use via template {{pna-inaccurate}} only.
Category: Memory Alpha incomplete articles: category for "incomplete" PNAs. Use via template {{pna-incomplete}} only.
Category: Memory Alpha unformatted articles: category for "unformatted" PNAs. Use via template {{pna-unformatted}} only.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{ma nav|Policies and guidelines}}
 {{policy}}
-With the implementation of [[Memory Alpha:MediaWiki 1.3|MediaWiki 1.3]], it became possible to sort articles into [[Help:Category|categories]]. In order to ensure that these categories will be useful to users of the wiki, it was decided that establishing a clear '''category tree''' prior to enabling the category system would avoid problems.
+With the [[Memory Alpha:MediaWiki|MediaWiki]] software, it's possible to sort articles into [[Help:Category|categories]]. In order to ensure that these categories will be useful to users of the wiki, categories should be [[MA:CS|suggested]] and discussed before creation so that a clear '''category tree''' can be maintained.
+== Policy ==
-Because it is a labor-intensive process to remove or alter a category name once it exists (categories must be orphaned to be deleted, and they cannot be redirected), '''all categories must be approved by a user consensus''', similar to the [[Memory Alpha:Pages for deletion|deletion consensus]], except in this case the consensus must be reached before you ''create'' a category here on Memory Alpha. To suggest a new category, use the [[Memory Alpha:Category suggestions|category suggestions page]], is dedicated to consensuses on suggestions for a single category name. Before adding a new category suggestion to this page, you should browse our existing [[Special:Categories|categories]] and the discussions related to them. Remember also that we want to categorize the article with the correct [[Memory Alpha:Category sort keys|sort keys]].
+Because it is a labor-intensive process to remove or alter a category name once it exists, categories must be orphaned to be deleted as they cannot be redirected, '''all categories must be suggested and approved by a user consensus'''. The process is pretty straightforward:
+*Category suggestions should be listed on [[Memory Alpha:Category suggestions]].
-==Provisional categories==
+*Suggestions without any opposition after at least '''7 days''' are considered approved and can be created. Remember to list them in the new categories section as well, so people know they're there.
-As categories are approved, they will be listed in the next section of those two pages. Partially approved categories, marked with '''<nowiki>{{</nowiki>newcategory}}''', are listed for discussion on separate sections of the above two pages; they can be browsed through [[Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:Newcategory]], or [[:Category:Memory Alpha provisional categories]].
+*Suggestions with supporting votes after at least '''4 days''' are considered approved and can be created. Remember to list them in the new categories section, so people know they're there.
+*Suggestions with opposition will be removed to the archive after at least '''2 weeks''' of inactivity.
+*After a suggested category has been approved, don't expect anyone else to actually create it for you! '''Anyone''' can create an approved category, and while someone is bound to come along eventually, it won't happen as quickly as it would if you did it yourself.
+Before suggesting a new category, you should browse our existing [[Special:Categories|categories]] and the discussions related to them. Remember that we also want to categorize the article with the correct [[Memory Alpha:Category sort keys|sort keys]].
 ==Existing categories==
-While an overall category structure is a work in progress, some categories have already been accepted by the community. Articles may be added to these categories:
+While the overall category structure is a work in progress, these categories are a good place to start looking.
 ;[[:Category: Planets]] : This is a ''list category'' (a category for ''instances of'' planets). This means that every planet may (and should) be included in this category. Don't include moons, planetoids, asteroids or other celestial bodies, colonies, cities, lists of planets or other articles ''related to'' planets. If the name of the planet contains a roman numeral, use a ''sort key'' in which this numeral is replaced by a double-digit (Example: <nowiki>[[Category:Planets|Rigel 07]]</nowiki> for [[Rigel VII]]).
@@ Line 41: / Line 45: @@
 *[[:Category: ENT episodes]]
 *[[:Category: Movies]]
 <big>'''Note that this is just a small sample of the categories that are currently in use.'''</big> For a complete list, see the [[Special:Categories|full category listing]].
@@ Line 48: / Line 51: @@
 We also use categories to help with the regular maintenance task of listing specific articles somewhere ("attention needed", "featured article" etc.) by creating a category and adding it to the relevant template. The prefix "Memory Alpha" is used for all maintenance categories that are included via a template.
-====Accepted categories====
 ;[[:Category: Memory Alpha images]] : category for all "images" uploaded on this site.
 ;[[:Category: Memory Alpha audio files]] : category for all "audio files" uploaded on this site.