Help:Categories

This page explains what categories are, why they are important, and how you can create and use them. For more details, see Wikipedia's Help page on Categories.

What are Categories?

Categories help keep the LOTC Wiki organized by grouping pages with related content. Every article, template, and file should be categorized. It is important to categorize everything correctly, as categories are one of the primary ways that an article can be found. Articles should be able to be found from the main page in the primary categories or through the secondary categories in the sidebar on the left.

The categories for any given page are listed at the bottom of a page in a box. Note that categories are more like tags than folders. Pages will belong in multiple categories--usually at least three, as you'll see below. Keeping things relevant to any given category is essential to keeping the LOTC Wiki orderly and easy to navigate.

Creating Categories

You shouldn't have to create categories very often, as most of them you may need already exist however a category is created just like an article. You can navigate directly to the page by entering a URL or you can follow a red link to a nonexistent category. Create the page and you have created the category.

Note that you can use a category name even if the page doesn't exist. It will simply show up as a red link, and somebody else can come along later and create the page.

Category Pages

Category pages are titled Category:NAME, where NAME is the specific category name. A category page should begin with a description of what the category incorporates. The rest of the page will fill in automatically with any subcategories, followed by all articles, files, and templates that are tagged with this category.

Subcategories

Create subcategories by categorizing a category page itself. For example, the Category:Settlements is tagged with [[Category:Locations]], which makes it a subcategory of Category:Books.

Categorizing Pages

Using Templates

WIP

Manual Categorization

A page can be manually categorized by putting the name of any desired category page(s) in double brackets: [[Category:NAME]]. These tags should be placed at the very end of an article! They should be the last item in the "Notes" section as mentioned on the Help:Guidlines page.

Required Categories

There are three types of categories that every article should be tagged with:

Primary Catagory Identifier

The Primary Catagory Identifier notes which primary category the tagged page will be listed in. The five primary category identifiers are as follows:

• Political Domains
• Locations
• Characters & Figures
• Magics & Abilities
• Creatures

If a page does not fit within the primary categories, you may categorize it as Misc.

Each template should automatically add the correct primary category, however additional categories are to be added by the page creator and any editors thereafter.

Primary Categories

There are five Primary Categories that are not mutually exclusive. Every article belongs in at least one of these five categories. They're the five categories you see listed under "Categories" in the sidebar at the left and on the main wiki page. They are: Template:columns

The high level content category is automatically added by the infobox template, which should be located at the very top of articles.

Quality Tags

Quality tags indicate the quality and completion level of every page. These are very useful to editors because they are an easy way to determine which articles need more attention.

Quality tags must be added in the "Notes" section of an article (see Help:Guidelines), directly between the <references /> tag and the navbox. They are added using special templates; the four you should know about are:

◔ Stub

Stubs are articles that have barely any information. If it's very short and needs a lot of work, it's a stub. Use {{stub}} to categorize.

◒ Partially Complete

Partially complete articles are off to a good start, but need more work before they can be considered complete. Use {{partial}} to categorize.

◕ Nearing Completion

Mark an article as nearing completion when you believe the article is content complete. Use {{complete}} to categorize.

⚫︎ Complete

The admins will review articles that are "nearing completion" and mark them as complete when they agree, adding a |~~~~ signature to the existing {{complete}} tag. This helps us know when the article was last reviewed.