categories so confusing

[msilverstar]

I came back and tried to use categories and I can't remember how they should go. This Categories page covers too much ground, theory, some examples, and then meta (adding categories).

In the Wiki spirit, I'd like to write a simple, friendly "How to Add Categories" page, simplified and with tons of examples. But I'm going to need people to double-check me, as I'm not the least bit sure I am getting them right.

Also the stern bit at the bottom of every edit box is undoubtedly disconcerting people, I'd like to reword it and link to the friendly page.

And it occured to me, maybe just offer reassurance that they don't have to do categories, the gardeners will take care of those? Because we want their fandom info by far, more than cataloging expertise.

Comments

[melina]

This is definitely worth doing, and I'd encourage it -- more user-friendly documentation is always good. Once it's done, we'll definitely look at linking to it instead of the general category page.

I might clarify the title so people know it's about adding categories to the article, not to Fanlore itself ;)

And just an FYI, there are some changes coming with regard to categories for the larger fandoms -- this is something the comm has been working on for awhile, but it's a big change and we want to make sure we've considered all the permutations before we start implementing.

[msilverstar]

oh, if it's going to change, I want to wait until the changes happen. Please post here (maybe as a beta test too?)

[melina]

The real basics of it aren't going to change, so. You could go ahead and draft, I think!

Everything is beta :) and we'll of course announce it here as soon as we can.

[lian]

just wanted to add that from my persepctive (occasional gardener) I believe it's perfectly fine -- esp. for noobs -- to just leave out categories entirely. One the one hand, it may not be behaviour that we should encourage, but on the other hand, I seriously don't think there's any harm done: It's a lot easier to work with an uncategorized article than one which has been haphazardly shoved into an ill-fitting one (and I'm not blaming people one bit, either -- that category stuff *is* confusing!), because those will show up on the 'uncategorized pages' list, which I know gardeners go through once in a while. (Which...is your point :>)

But anyway, looking forward to learn about the restructure!

[aethel]

I was thinking about writing a post on categories, but then saw this one. Have you added anything to the wiki on categories yet? It might fit in the Help:Tutorial section.