Wikipedia:Categorization: Difference between revisions
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{{For|quick answers|Wikipedia:FAQ/Categorization}}
This page contains [[Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines |guidance]] on the proper use of the '''categorization''' function in Wikipedia. The '''central goal''' of the category system is to provide [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Linking|navigational links]] to pages in Wikipedia within a [[#Category tree organization|tree-like hierarchy]] of ''categories''. Using essential, ''[[WP:DEFINING|defining]]'' characteristics of a topic, readers can browse and quickly find sets of pages on topics that are defined by those characteristics.
For proposals to delete, merge, or rename categories, follow the instructions at [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion|Categories for discussion]]. Please use it before undertaking any complicated re-categorization of existing categories or mass creation of new categories.
==Categorizing pages==
[[File:Category explanation.ogv|thumb|A screencast showing how to categorise pages and explaining the usage of the [[Wikipedia:Tools|tool]] [[WP:HOTCAT|HotCat]]]]
{{details|Help:Category}}
{{see also|Wikipedia:Categorization dos and don'ts|Wikipedia:Categorizing redirects}}
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* For example, the article "Paris" need only be placed in [[:Category:Cities in France]], ''not'' also in [[:Category:Populated places in France]]. Because the first category (cities) is in the second category (populated places), readers are already given the information that Paris is a populated place in France by it being a city in France.
Note also that [[Wikipedia:Stub#How to mark an article as a stub|stub templates]] categorize stub articles for maintenance purposes into [[#Wikipedia administrative categories|
Since all categories form part of a [[#Category tree organization|tree-like hierarchy]], ''do not add categories to pages as if they are [[Tag (metadata)|tags]]''.
{{shortcut|WP:CREATECAT}}
Sometimes proper categorization requires the creation of a new category.
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A good category name is accurate and '''[[Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view#Naming|neutral]]''', and, as much as possible, defines the category's inclusion criteria in the name itself.
{{OOUI icon|alert}} ''Important:'' Moving non-conventionally categorized pages to another category name (see {{tl|Category redirect}}) imposes an additional overhead – an edit for ''every'' categorized page and subcategory.
So, when choosing a name for the category, please be sure a similar category does not exist. Before creating a category, try to find it under a similar name. You can search existing category names as described [[Help:Searching|here]] (top of page). Another way to determine if suitable categories already exist for a particular page is to check the categories of pages concerning similar or related topics.
*For example: You might want to add a subcategory for people to [[:Category:Mexicans]]. By starting at [[:Category:People by nationality]], you will discover that Mexicans are placed in [[:Category:Mexican people]].
{{OOUI icon|information}} ''Note:'' [[#Eponymous categories|Eponymous categories]] (categories whose name and topic is the same as an article, such as a category named after a person) should only be created if enough directly related articles exist.
=== Creating the category ===
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# Add a page to the intended category. Do this by editing that page, and add the name of the new category: (e.g.: {{code|[[Category:New category name]]}} )
#* {{Anchor|CATORDER}}{{Shortcut|MOS:CATORDER}}By convention, categories are placed at the end of the wikitext, but before any [[Wikipedia:Stub|stub]] templates, which transclude their own categories.
#* [[#Eponymous categories|Eponymous categories]] should appear first. Beyond that, the order in which categories are placed on a page is not governed by any single rule (for example, it does not need to be alphabetical, although partially alphabetical ordering can sometimes be helpful). Normally the most essential, significant categories appear first. <!-- There is currently no [[WP:CON|consensus]] about the order in which categories should be placed at the bottom of an article. -->
# Save your edit. The as-yet-undefined category name will now appear as a [[Wikipedia:Red link|red link]] in the category list at the bottom of the page.
#* {{Anchor|CATREDLINK}}{{Shortcut|WP:CATREDLINK}} A page should never be left with a non-existent ([[Wikipedia:REDLINK|redlinked]]) category on it. Either the category should be created, or else the link should be removed or changed to a category that does exist.
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{{n.b.}} If something goes wrong, double check to see if you followed the steps properly and check if the wikitext is correct. For example, if the category fails to list in the parent category, the wikitext should be <nowiki>[[Category:Parent category name]]</nowiki>, not <nowiki>[[:Category:Parent category name]]</nowiki>.
=== Category description <span class="anchor" id="CATDESC"></span> ===
{{shortcut|WP:CATDESC}}
While it should typically be clear from the name of an existing category which pages it should contain, sometimes, a common-sense guess based on the name of the category isn't enough to figure out whether a page should be listed in the category. So, rather than leave the text of a category page empty (containing only parent category declarations), adding a
However, only linking to a Wikipedia article explaining the title is often not sufficient as a description for a category. It can be helpful – to both readers and editors – to include a clear description of the category, indicating what pages it should contain, how they should be subcategorized, and so on, and linking to one or more pages as background information.
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Category pages can have [[Help:Interlanguage links|interlanguage links]] in the "Languages" list in the left sidebar (in the default skin), linking to corresponding categories in other language Wikipedias. To edit these on [[Wikidata]], click on the "Edit links" link at the end of the languages list.
== Categorization of articles <span class="anchor" id="ARTICLES"></span><span class="anchor" id="Articles"></span> ==
=== Naming conventions <span class="anchor" id="NC"></span> ===▼
▲=== Naming conventions ===
{{For|the full category naming guidelines (including topic-specific naming conventions)|Wikipedia:Category names}}
{{#section:Wikipedia:Category names|NCCAT-ART}}
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*{{Anchor|SEPARATE}} Keep articles about people separate. Categories with a title indicating that the contents are people, should normally only contain biographical articles and lists of people, and perhaps a non-biographical main article, though this can also be added at the top of the category. This is for clarity and ease of use, and to preserve the integrity of [[:Category:People|category tree of people articles]].<section end=CAAPEOPLE />
==== Categorizing articles about works <span class="anchor" id="CATWORKS"></span><span class="anchor" id="CATFICTION"></span> ====
{{shortcut|WP:CATWORKS|WP:CATFICTION}}{{see also|Category:Creative works|Wikipedia:Category names#Works of art categories by subject}}
* Articles on fictional subjects should not be categorized in a manner that confuses them with real subjects. {{tl|Category see also}} is useful for interlinking examples of real-world and fictional phenomena.
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* For example, when adding List of Soviet Republics to the category, using <code><nowiki>[[Category:Lists of countries|Soviet Republics, List of]]</nowiki></code> and will make it be sorted in the S section.
{{Shortcut|WP:EPON|WP:OCEPON|WP:EPONYMOUS}}{{see also|Category:Eponymous categories|Category:Wikipedia categories named after people}}
{{for|the overuse of the word "eponymous" on Wikipedia|WP:TITULAR}}
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*The article [[New York City]] is in [[:Category:Populated places established in 1624]], but this category is not necessarily relevant to the content of [[:Category:New York City]], so it should not be used on the eponymous category.
===== Articles with eponymous categories <span class="anchor" id="CATMAIN"></span><span class="anchor" id="MAIN"></span> =====
{{Shortcut|WP:CATMAIN}}{{Redirect|WP:CATMAIN|the template|Template:Category main article}}
*The article itself should be a member of the eponymous category. It should be sorted with a space, so that it appears at the start of the category listing (see [[#Sort keys|§ Sort keys]] below).
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If eponymous categories are categorized separately from their articles, it will be helpful to make links between the category page containing the articles and the category page containing the eponymous categories. The template {{Tl|Related category}} can be used for this. An example of this set-up is the linked categories [[:Category:American politicians]] and [[:Category:Wikipedia categories named after American politicians]].
== Categorizing draft pages <span class="anchor" id="DRAFTNOCAT"></span><span class="anchor" id="Draft"></span><span class="anchor" id="DRAFT"></span> ==
{{shortcut|WP:CAT#DRAFT|WP:DRAFTNOCAT}}{{Further|Wikipedia:Drafts#Preparing drafts}}
{{see also|Category:Wikipedia drafts}}
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Two scripts are available to help with these tasks: [[User:DannyS712/Draft no cat]] and [[User:DannyS712/Draft re cat]].
== Categorizing project pages <span class="anchor" id="Non-article and maintenance categories"></span><span class="anchor" id="Maintenance categories"></span><span class="anchor" id="Administrative category"></span><span class="anchor" id="PROJCATS"></span> ==
{{Shortcut|WP:PROJCATS}}
===Wikipedia administrative categories ===
{{see|Wikipedia:Administration#Data structure and development|Wikipedia:Wikipedia namespace}}
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In ''maintenance categories'' and other ''administrative categories'', pages may be included regardless of type. For example, in an error tracking category it makes sense to group templates separately, because addressing the errors there may require different skills compared to fixing an ordinary article. For sorting each namespace separately, see [[#Sort keys|§ Sort keys]] below.
{{shortcut|WP:FILECAT}}{{see|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images#Image description pages}}
Category tags should be added to [[Help:Files|file]] pages of files that have been uploaded to Wikipedia. When categorized, files are not included in the count of articles in the category, but are displayed in a separate section with a thumbnail and the name for each. A category can mix articles and images, or a separate file/image category can be created. A file category is typically a subcategory of the general category about the same subject, and a subcategory of the wider category for files, [[:Category:Wikipedia files]]. To categorize a new file when uploading, simply add the category tag to the [[Help:Edit summary#File upload summary|upload summary]].
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Images that are used in Wikipedia that are [[Wikipedia:Non-free content|non-free or fair use]] should not appear as thumbnail images in categories. To prevent the thumbnail preview of images from appearing in a category, <nowiki>__NOGALLERY__</nowiki> should be added to the text of the category. In such cases, the file will still appear in the category, but the actual image preview will not.
=== Templates <span class="anchor" id="TEMPLATE"></span><span class="anchor" id="TEMPLATES"></span><span class="anchor" id="TEMP"></span><span class="anchor" id="T"></span> ===
{{shortcut|WP:CAT#T}}{{See also|Template:Documentation}}
[[Wikipedia:Template namespace|Templates]] are not articles, and thus do not belong in ''content categories''. It is however a recommendation to place them in '''template categories''' – subcategories of [[:Category:Wikipedia templates]] – to assist when looking for templates of a certain type. For example, [[:Template:Schubert string quartets]] is categorized under [[:Category:String quartets by composer navigational boxes]], which should be a subcategory of [[:Category:Music navigational boxes]] (type) but [[:Template:Schubert string quartets]] should ''not'' be categorized under [[:Category:Franz Schubert]] or [[:Category:String quartets]] (content).
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Pages using a template should rarely be placed in the same categories as the template itself. To ensure this separation, the category for the template should be placed on the template's documentation page, normally after the two pipes in a <syntaxhighlight lang=wikitext inline><includeonly>{{Sandbox other||...}}</includeonly></syntaxhighlight> block. Because template documentation is rarely [[Wikipedia:Protection policy|protected]], template categorization can be modified by all editors even when the template code itself is protected from editing by most editors. When there is no documentation page, the category for the template may be placed at the bottom of the template itself, within a {{tag|noinclude}} block. There should be no spaces or new lines between the last part of the template proper and the opening {{tag|noinclude|o}} tag.
{{shortcut|WP:CAT#USER|WP:USERNOCAT}}{{Further|Wikipedia:User categories|Wikipedia:User pages#Categories, templates that add categories, and redirects}}
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A list of article-space categories with user pages, is maintained at [[WP:Database reports/Polluted categories|Database reports/Polluted categories]].
==Categorization using templates <span class="anchor" id="TEMPLATECAT"></span><span class="anchor" id="TCAT"></span> ==
{{shortcut|WP:TEMPLATECAT|WP:TCAT}}
Many [[Wikipedia:Template messages|templates]] include category declarations in their transcludable text, for the purpose of [[:Category:Tracking categories|placing the pages containing those templates into specific categories]]. This technique is very commonly used for populating certain kinds of administration categories, including stub categories and maintenance categories. See [[Template:Infobox roller coaster]] for an example that only adds a category by manufacturer if it exists, and otherwise uses a hidden category.
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Category declarations in templates often use <code><nowiki>{{PAGENAME}}</nowiki></code> as the sort key, because this overrides any DEFAULTSORT defined on the page.
===Redirecting categories <span class="anchor" id="CATRED"></span><span class="anchor" id="Redirects"></span> ===
{{redirect|WP:CAT-R|the guideline on categorizing page redirects|Wikipedia:Categorizing redirects}}{{shortcut|WP:CATRED}}
{{for|an essay on this topic|Wikipedia:Category redirects that should be kept}}
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