User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-78763-20160420023956/@comment-1432718-20160524031017

Steed wrote: I've noticed this over the past few months, but is there a reason more categories are being created? It seemed like the old categories of "other realities" or "time travel" were just fine, but now there are categories for "nowhere," "never," "nothing," "problems with time," and so on. "Theories and concepts" has become "concepts." There also seems to be circular cataloging, which I thought the wiki tried to avoid years ago, where a page will fall into several categories and then those categories are placed inside each other, kinda. I'm just wondering why this is, cause the old categories worked just fine. I understand the need for specificity, but it just seems odd. Does anyone know?

This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Too many users think that categorization is the life-blood of the wiki. This happens in part because the Game of Rassilon awards points for adding categories, so many users, especially new users, can't resist.

Personally I think we need a major category overhaul, similar to what we did with prefixes back in Forum:Prefix simplification.

I've been cleaning up Special:Wantedcategories, which are non-existent categories added to pages. Some of these have now been created, but most of the ones I removed fell short of our guidelines. I've also started working on currently existing categories that fail our rules.

A few things to keep in mind while this discussion continues:

• Be sure the category you add actually describes what the article is. For example, Anti-radiation gloves are not radiation and energy (they are clothing), and should not be placed in the "energy and radiation" category.
• Categories must have at least three entries, per Tardis:Rule of three. The categories I have been deleting do not fall under the exceptions to that rule.
• You have to actually create a category if it does not exist. You can't just assume a category exists; when you add one, preview your edit to test the existence of the category. Let's keep the list at Special:Wantedcategories to a minimum.
• Read through the guidelines at Tardis:Don't over-categorise. There are quite a few very specific or very broad categories on this wiki that fail this policy.
• Most importantly (and that's why I put it in bold): The purpose of this wiki is to create articles. Categories are never a substitute for writing an article. If you feel a category is justified on a page, then that info should also be included in the article.

To quote from one of the most important guidelines at Tardis:Don't over-categorise: "This wiki is over a decade old. If it's missing a category you'd like to create, there is likely a reason for it."