Help:Categories

Table of Contents

Introduction

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

What are Categories?

Categories help keep The Reed and Rite organized by grouping pages with related content. You can think of them as functioning like hashtags on social media, but with the added functionality of a file system with files and subfiles.

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. All categories stem from the Root Category, which then branches off into the various subcategories.

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. The more categories tagged, the easier it is to find what you're looking for.

Creating Categories

You shouldn't have to create categories very often, as most of them you may need should already exist! But 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: 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 within that category.

Subcategories

Create subcategories by categorizing a category page itself. For example, the Emma M. Lion (Series) is tagged with [[Category:Books]], which makes it a subcategory of Category:Books

Categorizing Pages

Using Templates

Many templates will automatically categorize the article they are placed in. This includes infoboxes, navboxes, and many other commonly used templates. For example, the {{book}} infobox template, used at the start of any book article, will automatically put the article into Category:Books. No need to do it manually. We'll cover templates in detail on the Help:Templates page.

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:

Content Categories

There are currently three content categories. Every article belongs in one (and only one) of these categories. They are:

• Category:Books
• Category:Characters
• Category:Locations

The content category is automatically added by the relevant infobox template, which should be located at the very top of articles, and thus there should be no need to add the content category manually when these inboxes are used.

Book/Series Identifier

The book/series identifier notes which book or series to which an article is related. As The Reed and Rite is dedicated to the works of Beth Brower, most articles will be related one book or another. You can see what book/series categories already exist by looking at Category:Books.

Quality Tags

Quality tags are used on content pages to indicate the quality level of a page. These are especially useful to editors as they create a quick way to view what pages need further attention. Including a quality tag on a page will do three things: add an indicator symbol in the top right corner of the page (on the same line as the page title), add a text notice wherever the tag is used, and automatically add that page to a category of similarly tagged pages. The tag should be added in the notes section below the <references /> tag. See the table below for the various quality tags and a brief description of their usage.

Quality Tags
Tag	Symbol	Description
{{stub}}		Use {{stub}} to categorize articles that have very little to no information or content. Using it automatically adds a page to Category:Stubs
{{partial}}		Use {{partial}} to categorize articles that contain some information or content, but still need work for them to be considered complete. Using it automatically adds a page to Category:Partially Complete Articles
{{complete}}		Use {{complete}} to categorize articles that you believe are complete. Automatically adds a page to Category:Articles Nearing Completion
{{complete}} (Admin Reviewed)		For an article to be fully complete, it needs to be reviewed by an admin. If an admin agrees an article is complete, they will sign off on the page by appending |—~~~~ to the {{complete}} tag. This will also indicate when the article was last reviewed. Using it automatically adds a page to Category:Complete Articles
{{excellent}}		{{excellent}} should be only used by the admins to highlight excellently formatted articles that other users can look to as examples. Using it automatically adds the page to Category:Excellent Articles

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Categories

Templates ❯