From Forgotten Realms Wiki
Every article should be in one or more categories, and there is no limit to the number of categories that a single article can be in. Forgotten Realms Wiki has a category structure that ensures its readers can find information about a specific subject, and other, related information, quickly and easily.
[edit] Basic guidelines
No matter what category you are putting your article into, a few basic guidelines exist. Always put your article into the most specific category, then also into its parent categories up to an appropriate point. Note that this goes against Wikipedia convention, because we are a more specialized wiki and can provide extra usability for our readers.
For example, consider the article on Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun. He is an inhabitant of Waterdeep so he should be in that particular inhabitants category. Because Waterdeep is in Northwest Faerûn, he is also an inhabitant of Northwest Faerûn, so he should be in that category too. Northwest Faerûn is part of Faerûn as a whole, but there is no need to add the Khelben article to Category:Inhabitants of Faerûn, because this is such a broad category that is it not useful to browse through. So, we would add:
[[Category:Inhabitants of Waterdeep]]
[[Category:Inhabitants of Northwest Faerûn]]
Note that these are not the only categories that this article should be placed into. See below for more detailed categorization guidelines for the type of article you are writing or categorizing.
[edit] Choosing a category
Consider what your article is about. Usually, articles can be put into one of several main categories.
- Authors
- Your article is about a person who has contributed to a piece of canon Realms material. This might be a sourcebook, a novel or an article on the Wizards website.
- Books
- Your article is about a published (or forthcoming) piece of canon Realms material, whether it's a novel or a sourcebook (including adventures, boxed sets and the like).
- Creatures
- Your article is about a type of creature that inhabits the Realms. Do not confuse this with an inhabitant of the Realms (see below). For example, an article on red dragons is an article on a creature, but an article about a specific individual red dragon is an article about an inhabitant.
- Inhabitants
- Your article is about a named inhabitant of the Realms. This is not necessarily a humanoid, since dragons and nagas are as much inhabitants as humans and elves.
- Locations
- Your article is about a location or place in the Realms. This could be a river, mountain, road, building or any of number of other types of location, including whole regions and continents.
- Settlements
- Your article is about civilized, inhabited place in the Realms. This could be a hamlet, village, town or city.
- Spells
- Your article is about a specific named spell that exists in the Realms.
A category is a software feature of MediaWiki that provides automatic indexes, that are useful as table of contents. Together with links and templates they can structure a project and aid navigation.
Using categories
How can I categorize pages?
Any page can be put in a category by editing the page and adding a link to the category. Just type [[Category:]], and put the name of the category between the colon and the brackets.
[[Category:NAME]]
You can create new categories just by typing a new name. Pages can belong to more than one category, by having multiple category tags on the page.
All categories will appear at the bottom of an article page, in a "Categories" box. Clicking the category name will take you to a Category description page which will list all articles and subcategories contained within that category. You may click "edit" on a category description page to add additional text or images to the top of the page above the subcategory lists, and to place the category in another category.
Please note, category description pages are not designed to carry general content - they do not get counted in article statistics, and will not be found via many Special pages.
How do I create subcategories?
A category becomes a subcategory when you edit the category description page to add a Category tag for a "higher level" category. There is no limit to the number of subcategories a category may contain, or to the number of levels of categories. It is possible (though rarely desirable) to create category "loops".
The root category on most wikis is called Category:Browse. It is good practice to build a complete Category Tree, ensuring that all categories on your wiki have a place as subcategories of Category:Browse or its descendants.
How do I link to a category page?
To create an internal link to a category page without placing the edited page into the category itself, you must put a colon before the word "Category":
[[:Category:NAME]]
Can I redirect a category to another category?
No - attempting to Redirect a category will not work correctly (though it is technically possible). What you can do is add a notice (such as Wikia:Template:Category redirect) to inform users that a different category name should be used. You may then delete the old category once everything has been edited to show the correct category. However, if anyone might unknowingly try to re-create the "wrong" category, the template should remain in place for ever.[1]
Where can I see the currently used categories?
You can see a list of all currently used categories for each Wikia at Special:Categories. This list also displays how many pages are within each category.
You can reach this page by clicking the word "Categories" at the beginning of the box at the bottom of any categorized article, or by clicking "Special pages" in the sidebar.
Extensions
Category Tree
Special:CategoryTree is an alternate way to display the contents of a category. It can be transcluded in other pages. See mw:Extension:CategoryTree for details.
The extension also adds the ability to expand subcategories on a category page, allowing you to see further subcategories.
CategorySelect
CategorySelect (also sometimes referred to as 'Category tagging'), is a Wikia developed extension that allows users to quickly add a category to a page, without going into the edit mode for the page. It adds a small (usually green) button in the category area of the page, that uses AJAX functions to add the category code to the page for you.
Read more at Help:CategorySelect
See also
Notes
- ↑ See Wikipedia:Template talk:Category redirect for discussion.
