User blog:Matortheeternal/Reinvigoration of Categorization

Hello Everyone,

This is just to follow up on the discussion on my talk page with an outline of my proposed changes, at least in one respect. This is the first of three major changes that I'll be proposing to improve the wiki. Please read and respond with your opinion.

Thanks, Matortheeternal 05:36, February 1, 2011 (UTC)

I would recommend you download my proposal as a word document, as it will probably be easier to understand if you view it that way, however, I have set it up on the wiki as well. So, if you have any reason to not review it in a word document you may review it below.

Link to Word Document Reinvigoration of Categorization.docx: http://www.mediafire.com/file/gyy73m21u4hu2mp/Reinvigoration%20of%20Categorization.docx (If you can't open .docx, please download the document in the .doc format from the next link)

Link to Word Document Reinvigoration of Categorization.doc: http://www.mediafire.com/file/e3k2ip2dctfk1sz/Reinvigoration%20of%20Categorization.doc

Reinvigoration of Categorization

Goal: Create more new categories for articles to better organize them and make them more accessible to users.

New categorization systems:
 * Stories by Author
 * Category:Stories_by_Sparrowsong
 * Category:Stories_by_SallyPerson
 * Category:Stories_by_~Angel_Wings~
 * Category:[AuthorName]…etc.
 * Note: I think the “stories by” is necessary to make the categories understandable.
 * Stories by Length
 * Category:Extremely_Long_Stories
 * Category:Long_Stories
 * Category:Short_Stories
 * Category:Extremely_Short_Stories
 * Note: A different adjective other than “extremely” may be nice. If a more suitable modifier word can be found it should be implemented.
 * Stories by Release Date
 * Category:July-September_2009
 * Category:October-December_2009
 * Category:January-March_2010
 * Category:April-June_2010
 * Category:July-September_2010
 * Category:October-December_2010
 * Category:January-March_2011
 * Note: I think 3 month splits is fairly good, as it will mean we don’t have too many stories per category while still having not too many categories. But we can do things differently if there is good reason to do so.
 * Stories by Genre
 * Category:Action
 * Category:Drama
 * Category:Romance
 * Category:[Genre]…etc.
 * Note: Other genres may be added. However, the genre must reflect a large percentage of the stories on the wiki and should have altogether different attributes than other genres.  This is to make sure that we don’t have a buildup of different genre categories that are really all the same.
 * Stories by Writing Style
 * Category:High_detail
 * Category:Dialogue_driven
 * Category:[Style]…etc.
 * Note: Other writing styles may be added. However, the writing style must reflect a large percentage of the stories on the wiki and should have altogether different attributes than the other writing styles.  This is to make sure that we don’t have a buildup of different writing style categories that are really all the same.
 * Stories by Character
 * Category:Stories_with_Male_Characters
 * Category:Stories_with_Female_Characters
 * Category:Percy_Jackson
 * Category:Nico_di_Angelo
 * Category:Clarrise
 * Category:Natalie_Cole
 * Category:[CharacterName]…etc.
 * Note: I understand that the character pages already have links to the stories the characters are in, however, I think it would be easier for users if they could just see big lists. But, out of all the categorization systems, I’d say this one is the least important.  I would create a category “stories without original characters”, but it appears that all stories on the wiki involve original characters (oftentimes self-insertions).
 * Stories by Rating
 * Category:G
 * Category:PG
 * Category:PG13
 * Note: We must decide either to use G, PG, and PG13, to use K, K+, and T, or to use some sort of special mixture of both, which I wouldn’t recommend.
 * Stories by Status
 * Category:Completed
 * Category:In_progress
 * Category:Redoing
 * Category:Drafting
 * Note: This categorization system should be fairly helpful, as many stories on the wiki are in a in progress/redoing state. More categories than those which I have listed here should not be necessary.
 * Series
 * Category:Abandoned_Series
 * [Series Name]
 * Note: Series are considered abandoned if they are left untouched or unchanged for three months or longer and if the author(s) have not said that they are working on it in the last two months.
 * Category:Completed_Series
 * [Series Name]
 * Note: Series are considered complete when all of the books planned in the series have been released.
 * Category:Incomplete_Series
 * [Series Name]

Categories to be deleted:
 * Category:Halo
 * Category:Hunter
 * Category:Huntress
 * Category:Instant_Message
 * Category:Information
 * Category:Meverie_Triplets
 * Category:Luna_Silver_Characters
 * Category:My_Quarter-Bloods
 * Category:Near_Death_Experiance
 * Category:Naiad
 * Category:One-Shot
 * Category:Orginal_Infos
 * Category:Silver_Moon’s_first_day_with_the_Hunters
 * Category:Sorceress
 * Category:Demititans
 * Category:Nymphs
 * Category:Ventus
 * Category:Mortal_Creatures
 * Category:Monster
 * Category:Giants
 * Category:Why_me?
 * Category:Vampires
 * Category:Use_to_be_incomplete
 * Category:The_Others
 * Category:The_war_of_the_Immortals
 * etc.
 * Any other categories with less than three articles in them that are not important should be deleted as well. This does not include series categories or categories for categorization systems.

Categories to be renamed/moved:
 * Child of Artemis → Children of Artemis
 * Females → Female Characters
 * Males → Male Characters
 * etc.
 * Any other categories that could have clearer names, could fit into existing categorization systems, or that could be merged with existing categories should be moved/renamed as well.

Connect categories to a main page which can be used as a navigational “home”, like a table of contents.
 * The preferable navigational home is the wikis main page, but until we can edit it we can use a separate page, which can be called “Navigational Home”.
 * The navigational home should have thumbnails or icons representing categories for categorization systems. IE: Stories by Author will be on the page in the form of a picture with a caption under it that says “Stories by Author” that links to the “Stories by Author” category.  (You could also set it up to link to a subpage, but that would require extra maintenance that likely wouldn’t be performed).  (See http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page or http://halostunting.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page for example)
 * The navigational home could also, possibly, be an expandable tree-view setup so that users can expand and collapse categories to preview their contents. This would require more work and might require JavaScript.  (See http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page for example)

Correctly categorize all articles on the wiki.
 * Review every article and add categories to them.

Fix MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation to have no dead-links and to link to more resources.
 * Navigational home could be added as a separate expandable tab on the navbar, expanding to links to all the different major categories like Stories by Author, Stories by Rating, etc.

So... what do you think? Fill out the poll and comment please! Thanks again, Matortheeternal 05:36, February 1, 2011 (UTC)

What do you think about the plan for the Reinvigoration of Categorization on the wiki? It's great It's fairly good It's ok It's bad It's terrible