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There was some discussion about categories under a different forum thread so I thought I'd start working on fleshing out the category structure even if we don't have all the content for it yet. I'll create different sections here to discuss the various major categories. --
Alianin T • C 15:27, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
- I created a spreadsheet with a proposed category structure. The spreadsheet is not all-inclusive at this point but hits on the major categories with most subcategories being pretty easy to identify. Most current categories are present and/or follow this structure. This is a rough draft and recommendations are welcome. I hope the layout makes sense. The categories in bold are the category and what's listed to the right of the category are the subcategories. Each level of categories is indented. Category Structure Spreadsheet --
Alianin T • C 21:02, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
Missions[]
I think I have the mission category pretty much fleshed out. Suggestions on additions or changes are welcome. I have a couple of questions I'd like input on.
1. Do we need a daily mission category? All heroic missions are dailies and the only other missions that leaves is Category:Daily space combat missions which is already listed under Category:Space combat missions.
2. Would having a mission by level category be helpful? In it would list a subcategory for every level from 1-50.
3. Would Category:Mission items benefit from being subcategorized, possibly by planet? The list will be of considerable size once all the items have been added. -- Alianin T • C 15:27, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
- Hooray, I'm not completely useless! The spreadsheet you provided may have sent my head into a tailspin, but I can at least answer the questions and provide feedback on parts of the structure:
- 1 -- All heroic missions are repeatable daily, but there are daily missions that are not heroic. PvP missions, for example. As such I think we need to either include categories for both or eliminate the category for heroic missions and keep the category for daily missions.
- 2 -- I think missions by level categories would be useful for indexing purposes, though I don't imagine the structure would prove very useful to players in general. Basically, do we want to include an extra category that has little little functional purpose? I don't think we should bother.
- 3 -- This is a tricky one. The list is going to be extremely large, but it's not something our users are likely to be utilizing on its own; in most cases a user will only refer to a mission item when they are already looking at the article for the mission it belongs to. If we do add subcategories, I feel this is one instance were the item should belong to both the subcategory and the parent.
- I honestly don't believe mission subpages need to be categorized. They truly have no purpose other than supporting the parent article, in a similar capacity to that of talk pages; like talk pages they don't stand alone, and like talk pages I don't believe we should categorize them. Based on this we should be able to eliminate both Mission correspondences and Mission dialogs. The contents of these categories should probably also be combined, but we can consider that later. I'm also not convinced Mission items belongs under this parent category.
- I've never been fond of categories created strictly to contain other categories. Do we really need Missions by planet, Missions by faction, Missions by companion and Missions by class? I don't believe so, and I feel it adds needless complication. Missions by planet can be eliminated, and the individual articles for each planet's missions added to the parent category and sorted by the planet's name. I feel the same can be done for Missions by class.
- Missions by companion should be eliminated altogether, and rolled into the general class mission categories. Finally Missions by faction can also be eliminated, with one category for Imp missions and one for Rep missions added to the parent category directly. These factional categories are going to have to mirror the overall category structure. -- Heaven's Agent 23:14, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
- As a quick addendum, we also cannot forget special structures for KotOR and KotOR2 missions. The default structure should contain SWTOR content, of course, but these should be included as supplementary information. -- Heaven's Agent 23:17, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
Authorized and defined structure[]
A idea occurred to me while studying for my class on cataloging; how about an authorized and formally defined category structure, reminiscent of the system used by the Library of Congress (LC) for published materials? They maintain a system of defined, authorized subject headings that can be modified by what's called free-floating subdivsions.
An example of an authorized heading for this project would be "Humans", and it would correspond to the parent category Category:Humans. A free-floating subdivision for this heading would be "mobs", which we could define as being a valid subdivision for species and planetary headings. When combined, the two items would form the new category, Category:Humans, mobs or Category:Humans -- mobs, depending on how we wanted to combine the two. This would create a structure free of subcategories, but would also boast the non-alphanumeric characters needed for me to work on it. Additionally, the process could be codified into a policy article for anyone to refer to when there's a need to establish new categories; LC authorized headings are listed in what is known as the red books, a sizable four-volume printed resource, but for our specific purposes a much smaller and selective list should suffice.
What are everyone's thoughts on this? It would entail a lot of work, but ti might be something worth undertaking. -- Heaven's Agent
- I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. Would Category:Humans, mobs be a category under Category:Humans? Would Category:Humans, NPCs be another possible category? Can you provide other examples? --
Alianin T • C 12:13, 30 March 2012 (UTC)
- They would. "NPCs" would be another free-floating subdivision, also defined as capable of being applied to species and planetary headings.
- Another example would be "Missions", which could serve as both a heading and a free-floating subdivision. The primary category would remain Category:Missions. We could then define several free-floating subdivisions that could apply to this heading, such as "Republic", "Imperial", "Heroic", and "KotOR". These would produce several categories: Category:Missions, Republic, Category:Missions, Imperial, Category:Missions, Heroic, Category:Missions, KotOR. Additionally, we can define how the term "missions" can b used as a subdivision, as well as how it is combined with other free-floating subdivisions. This can be done to allow for categories such as Category:Alderaan, missions and Category:Alderaan, Imperial missions.
- The fact that you're having trouble understanding the idea, though, may be a sign that we shouldn't use such a system; others in my class are having difficulty understanding it as well, and this is the sort of thing we've decided to do as a career. Additionally LC headings are certainly not without its problems and criticisms; such a system may prove too complex and possibly serve as a barrier to new contributors. -- Heaven's Agent 12:31, 30 March 2012 (UTC)