Glottopedia:Forum/Categories

This page is intended for discussions regarding categories, categorizations, and category tools.

As resulting out of attempts to sort articles into categories and several subsequent conversations with Wohlgemuth, here's a list of issues and suggestions concerning the categories:

mergable categories:

• Phonetics_and_Phonology, Phonetics_and_phonolgy, Phonetics, and Phonology (cf. category list) all coexist and should possibly be merged into one category. As both areas are sometimes hard to distinguish, a superordinate category like 'Phonetics and Phonolgy' with two subordinate categories for either of them could considered.
• Valency and Valence should also be merged into one category as they name the same topic.

Moreover, a closer look into the category seems necessary. There are several categories that shouldn't be major categories but rather subordinate ones. Tasks like this could either be done by hand or via the usage of a bot. The possibility to create something like a category tree doesn't only make it easier to navigate the page but also allows the usage of - for example - plugins that automatically sort articles into their superordinate categories when they are put into a subordinate one.

A further suggestion that came up in yesterdays conversation is one regarding category languages: most of Glottopedia's users are students which most likely will search for articles and categories in their native language. Since there is quite a number of German categories (and some even have a portal already), the idea was to allow creating categories both in English and the respective article languages. This wouldn't go along with the original idea of having all category names in English, but might be worth thinking about as it would allow Glottopedia to be searchable way easier and would additionally enable the category tree to be more specific. It would also prevent categories from getting too large because they subsume articles about the same topics in several languages.

Katja Politt (talk) 12:17, 7 June 2013 (CEST)

Some additional points by me

• Articles should only be added into their laguage's categories. On the category pages (and portals) themselves one should place links to the same categories in other languages.
• We need some kind of plugin like categrory tree ( http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CategoryTree ) to avoid cluttering articles with superordinate categories' labels. This would also be extremely useful for articles on languages / doculects.
• The categories need proper definitions and guidelines.
• The metalanguage categories like DE, EN, ZH should not be at root level. They ought to be subsumed under some more general Metacategory.

--wohlgemuth (talk) 15:53, 7 June 2013 (CEST)

Addendum: We do have CategoryTree, ist's just not properly implemented on the pages etc. >> Special:CategoryTree --wohlgemuth (talk) 11:02, 14 June 2013 (CEST)

Since English seems to be our working language (see also this discussion) and the general meta language in this project anyway, we do not need categories in different languages. We are multilingual and can easily work with articles in different languages categorized under one English label, like we also often do for glosses. I am pro the other suggestions. --MRiessler (talk) 08:27, 11 June 2013 (CEST)

I think it is uncontroversial that the category list has to be cleaned/revised. So, who can do the work and what guidelines should be applied? I think MRiessler is right: We should use English labels whenever possible.--NaumSven (talk) 20:41, 13 June 2013 (CEST)

I repeat my point of view: If we allow different article languages, we should imho also allow different category languages. I had an offline discussion with Katja Politt, who brought up this topic in the first place. The main considereation for article-labguage categories as opposed to one meta(meta)language English is that most of our users and authors nowadays seem to be students from Germany. Many students, especially beginners, seem to prefer reading/writing in their native language. What, exactly, is the advantage of having huge categories filled with articles in many different languages? The category pages will, in the long run, become very cluttered and overcrowded. Since we have only one data base and not, like Wikipedia, a different db for each language, we will have to find a practical way to access articles by metalanguage. The metalanguage categories are at best helpful but they cannot do the job because the articles will only be alphabetized but not arranged in topics.

To allow cross-language access, I would suggest that all category pages themselves (like Category:Quantitative Linguistik) link to their equivalent categories in other languages.

Best, --wohlgemuth (talk) 11:01, 14 June 2013 (CEST)