Rules/Categories

This page explains how to use categories when creating new articles for the Knowledge Base. If you're a newcomer to the Knowledge Base and don't want to read through all this just to make a new article, you can leave your article uncategorized (it will then be listed here) and someone else will eventually take care of it for you. Discuss these rules on the Talk page; other pertinent information is in Rules and Rules/Templates.

Categorizing articles

• Each article in the Knowledge Base should belong to one or more categories. To categorize an article, simply insert one or more category tags into the article and save it. A category tag has the form [[Category:Category name]], such as [[Category:Profiles]] or [[Category:Issues (Firefox)]]. It's conventional to put category tags at the very bottom of the article.
• A list of categories currently in use can be found on the talk page.
• Put articles into the most specific categories you can. For example, this means that Category:Firefox should only contain those articles that couldn't be put into deeper categories such as Category:Extensions (Firefox).
• Each article should be put in all categories it belongs to (as many as possible). In particular, all articles in one of the "Issues" categories should also be put into a non–“Issues” category. For example, the article ‘Lost bookmarks’ belongs to Category:Issues (Firefox) and Category:Bookmarks.
• However, in general, when an article is put into category A, it shouldn’t be put into "parent" categories of A. For example, an article in Category:Extensions (Firefox) shouldn’t also be put into Category:Firefox.
• Avoid adding development and other non-support articles to user-support categories.

Creating a new (sub)category

Before creating a new category, please note:

• Names of user support categories should follow the article naming conventions. When an application name is needed in a subcategory it should be preceded by a dash, e.g. Category:Startup - Firefox.
• Avoid creating/using generic categories. E.g. instead of creating a category like "Category:Miscellaneous (Firefox)" for articles that don't fit neatly into another category, put/leave those articles directly in Category:Firefox.
• In general, avoid creating a new category when there are very few articles to go into it.
• If you're unsure whether to create a new category or if you can't think of a good title for it, use the Talk page or Knowledge Base changes to get input from others.

To create a new subcategory and start using it:

1. In a new or existing article, insert the category tag for the new category (such as "[[Category:Foobar]]") at the end of the article.
2. Save the article. A link for the new category will now appear at the bottom of the article.
3. Click on this category link to open the new category page.
4. Edit this category page to make the new category a subcategory of another category, as described below.
5. If you were editing an existing article you can now remove the tag for the old subcategory in that article if you wanted to switch it (not just add it) to the new subcategory.
6. Continue adding other articles to the new category. You no longer need to click on the category link.

Categorizing categories

• Each category except Category:Top level must be a subcategory of one or more other categories. To make one category a subcategory of another, edit the subcategory page and insert the category tag for the parent category. For example, the page Category:Extensions (Thunderbird) has been edited to include [[Category:Thunderbird]], making it a subcategory of the main "Thunderbird" category.
• Additionally, it is helpful to use the {{upto}} templates to provide another hyperlink from the subcategory to its parent(s).
• Make sure that, in a given category, the immediate subcategories have an approximately equal level of specificity (e.g., we don't want "Category:Cookies" sitting next to "Category:Settings", since cookies are not as general as settings.
• "Issues" categories shouldn't have a deep subcategories tree. In other words, don't create a subcategory to a subcategory to "Issues".

Using links and redirects with categories

• To link to a category, simply put a colon prior to the word "Category" in the category tag. E.g., [[:Category:Privacy and security]] will produce the link Category:Privacy and security. Like with regular internal links, you could use [[:Category:Privacy and security | this link]] to produce this link.
• See Rules/Templates for templates that can be convenient for linking to categories.
• This version of MediaWiki (1.5.0) doesn't seem to allow redirecting to a category. [1]
• Likewise, categorizing redirect pages also does not seem to work well. [2]

Other

• Eventually, "listing" pages (like Issues with Firefox) may be replaced with categories. We may use the editable part of category page to provide a manually sorted listing of pages that belong in that category. The advantage here is that when we put an article in a category, we get a link to the category page for free.

External links

• WikiMedia categories