Category talk:Stories set on Earth by medium
Is this category system helpful?
In my opinion, importing this "sort by medium" convention from Category:Stories by featured characters, groups or species isn't a very good idea. It feels like categories for the sake of categories, something which probably isn't too great for a wiki with what I hear is already one of the most messy category systems around.
It also, in my opinion, isn't too great for readers. Now, for instance, someone who wants to know all the Dr Who-related stories set in Egypt has to go to six different category pages to see them all. It feels needlessly complicated. Categories make up the navigational system of the app, so adding all these categories which may seem hidden at the bottom of a browser page in reality add layers of extra steps for the majority of people who use this wiki.
The thing with Category:Comic stories by featured species or Category:Time Lord stories is that they're simple, there's only one variable involved: species for the former and medium for the later. Geographic categories already have a variable. Not only is this new category system being established sorting stories by medium, but also by provinces, states, counties, cities, suburbs, etc. The two variables aren't related.
There's enough comics set in Hollywood to make Comic stories set in Hollywood, which could be in Stories set in Hollywood and Comic stories set in Los Angeles, but then Stories set in Hollywood and Comic stories set in Los Angeles are both categories of Stories set in Los Angeles, then Comic stories set in Los Angeles goes in Comic stories set in California and Stories set in Los Angeles goes in Stories set in California and Comic stories set in California goes in Stories set in California. Twice the categories for the same number of pages, and that's just counting comics.
Category:Audio stories set in the United States is soaking up all audio stories which 1) are set in the US and 2) don't specify which state they are set in (Ex. The Five Dimensional Man). But then there's only one audio story set in Virginia (Renaissance of the Daleks)... Audio stories set in Virginia can't be created due to Tardis:Rule of three, so it must go in Audio stories set in the US while also staying in Stories set in Virginia. But all the states which have three or more audio stories get their own Audio stories set in _____ category, so Renaissance looks no different at Audio stories set in the US than 5D Man. The creation of this new category decreases clarity.
Just because something can be done, doesn't mean it should. Sure Category:Stories set in London is colossal and hard to use to find specific stories, but one could argue that the same could be said of Category:2017 audio stories and that categories such as September 2017 audio stories should be created to make it more managable. Continuing from there, one might then divide categories from other years or mediums by month. Just as the 45-page Category:Stories set in Egypt has been divided into 5 categories, the 51-page 2017 comic stories could be divided into 12 categories. May 2017 stories might be created, with May 2017 television stories, May 2017 audio stories, and May 2017 comic stories as sub-categories, but would it make the wiki much better?
- Ok, that analogy isn't the best. I believe theoretical category system would be much more organised than this location/medium category system is shaping up to be.
One last point: from just a glance at a pagename a reader can know what a medium a story is, the same can't be said of the location the story is set in.
I view this combination of category variables as not an aid but a barrier. Sorry User:Borisashton, you've been working quite hard on updating the wiki and I hate to tirade against all you've done in the last week. Thank you for your time. CoT ? 20:22, February 16, 2018 (UTC)
