Thread:Calliebubba/@comment-24668482-20160219124437

Hi Callie,

Please be careful when adding categories to articles to make sure that the category already exists. It is often not necessary to create a new category for the sake it, particularly if another category already exists that would be equally appropriate. There are already approx. 150 categories on the site, which cover most common terms. In fact, this may already be far too many categories, considering the size of the site, as the more you have the more you dilute their effectiveness. We should be trying to reduce not increase at this point. Categories are supposed to be a form of organization system, grouping common items together. As such, having a category that only has one or 2 relevant things on the entire site is a sort of over-categorization, particularly if those things could easily fit other categories and by being in those other categories can be grouped with similar topics that people might also be interested in. Having 30 categories added to single page/item also is a form of over organization and leads to a lot of repetition. As an organization system, it works best when used sparingly, grouping items together in the most efficient way possible, using broad themes.

An example would be creating the category 'LBS' and adding it to the LBS players list and the news archives.

Firstly, it is not a good category for the news archives, the glitch is only mentioned once on that page, and it does not offer any useful information about the glitch. If you added the category for every topic covered in our news section to the news archives page, then you would have to add every single category to the news archives, since nearly every common term/theme is mentioned in the news at one time or an another, but that page brings nothing to those topics in terms of fresh information or relevancy. (The news itself would hopefully be added to the relevant pages on the topic if it is a big change to the topic).

That means the only page that a LBS category could be used on is the LBS players page. But even then, it may not be the best category for this page. This term is only used by forum members, anyone outside of the wiki would not know what it means. It is not an effective name for a category, since people would not recognize the term and know it would link them to other articles/media relevant to the locked boards glitch. Categories are also used for search engine indexes since they are grouping common themes together, as such the category should reflect a term that is most likely to be searched for by a new user to the site. No-one will ever search LBS on a search engine before ever reaching this website, since it is a colloquialism used here and not a general term used in the game.

It is also an over categorization, since there is only one page on the wiki about this glitch, and at most a handful of pictures. It is also likely at this point, that it may well be fixed, that there will be no further articles/media about it, and so no further need for a category linking them altogether. A more appropriate category for the LBS players page is 'glitches' since this links all articles/media that discuss big problems in the game together. People looking for information on LBS and not familiar with this site or forum or how people name or discuss the problem here will be searching for 'glitches to do with visiting friends' to best explain what they are seeing in their game. The LBS players page uses both the glitches and the visiting categories to reflect this, since it is a page that discusses a glitch in the visiting system, and so is most commonly linked with other discussions of glitches and the visiting system. Adding a LBS category does not add anything to the page.

But what it does do is create a new page called Category:LBS - which is done automatically whenever a new category is created. And this page will not exist, creating a dead link on the site. This page will also not be categorized, creating an uncatagorized page on the site. When creating a new category, the page for that category must be created and it must be categorized. And when you go to that page, all you see are the two articles linked to it and nothing else. A description would have to be added, and a category. The obvious category being glitches. So essentially, the LBS category becomes a sub-category of the glitches category. A sub-category with only one or 2 members, which begs the question is it really necessary? At this point, the answer is probably no.

There is not much point in adding categories just for the sake of adding them or winning badges. If they do not add to organisation system then they are not useful. And if they dilute the organisation system to the point that it isn't effective, then over adding them does more harm than good.

Sorry to be a pest. I think it is great that you are jumping in and editing, and I always want to encourage that as much as possible. Please don't take this message as a criticism, and don't let it put you off editing. It is just meant to give you some extra information on how this particular aspect of the site currently works to help you when you are editing. 