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)

I agree the category tree on this wiki is very complicated. In fact I wasn’t aware how complicated it would be to categorise Stories set on Earth until I had done the Africa categories and saw the 22 categories sitting in Stories set in Europe and had a random click through of the tree just to see where I’d end up. By that time I had done one continent and it would have been weird to just do one. Indeed, as I am writing this I remain halfway through categorising Stories set in the United States.

I don’t use the app much so I can’t comment much in that region but it seemed alright from where I’m standing. For Stories set in Africa (which is the only continent I’ve currently completed) and then further into Stories set in Egypt looks better than the alternative viewed in categories like Stories set in Asia. I would much rather four boxes linking to a category of pages of the same media to a cluster of stories from multiple medias and then more specific location categories with the same problem. I just don’t find it very helpful. But that’s just my opinion, and like I said I’m in no way a regular user of the app.

I agree that if this system was to be used for every category, it would just be too complicated as you have demonstrated with your Hollywood example especially for locations where the rule of three just couldn’t be met if stories were sorted out into mediums. The category tree could use some improvements when it comes to simplicity. Again, especially when it comes to keep track of which states/locations have sub-categories for which mediums.

I absolutely believe that this sort of medium categorisation should exist in categories like Stories set in England and Stories set in London. Stories set in England has over 300 pages of varying media in it and Stories set in London has almost 700 covering four pages! This is daunting to look at on a computer never mind a mobile phone.

I picked the locations category because it was in Stories by narrative characteristic (the same one as Stories by featured characters, groups or species) not in any sort of year of release category. I know it was a theoretical suggestion but I have never wanted a category of audio stories released in a particular month but I have wanted to know for example, all the television stories set in Scotland but instead I’m left with 58 pages that include TV stories, audio stories, short stories, novels, and even a webcast to look through. Additionally, even if I wanted to check what stories were released in May 2017 specifically I would go to 2017 (releases) and read up on the list there which also contains the exact release date in release order (not alphabetical) and extra details on the publisher.

In short, I think that you are right about your examples about Virginia and Hollywood but I also think that this system should be employed on not necessarily those pages, but ones with more pages in them - more on the side of fifty or a hundred or more instead of categories with only twenty pages in them.

Sorry if I haven’t addressed one of your points, this is a long post and I’d like to thank you for bringing this up before I got too far into it.

P.S. I was going to include some screenshots of the app to demonstrate what I was on about but I was having some trouble in compressing the files to fit image policies so I you want to see them just ask.

Best regards, --Borisashton ☎ 22:42, February 16, 2018 (UTC)

I agree with User:TheChampionOfTime that these categories are unnecessary. The reason why is better explained at Tardis:Don't over-categorise (near the bottom of the page) than I could possibly do. I suggest everyone interested in this discussion read both Tardis:Don't over-categorise and Tardis:Even good categories can be removed to get a good idea of policy.

I also think that this matter might need to be brought to the forums, since it does cover multiple categories. Shambala108 ☎ 22:48, February 16, 2018 (UTC)