Help talk:Wikihowto proposal

Categories
I think Wikihowto should include categories. In its current state, most of the howtos and guides on Wikihowto are related to complex or technical computer subjects. As a non-technical kind of person, it is hard to find "everyday life" howtos on Wikihowto. If there were category pages, people could browse category lists of howtos and guides that interest THEM, rather than being confronted with long lists of titles of Howtos that are meaningless to them.

Many people who have used Wikipedia are already familiar with the concept of category pages and attaching category tags to articles. Portals are harder to understand and less people are familiar with what they are.

I propose that we introduce some standard categories to begin with. People can choose to add one or more of these categories to their Howto/Guide page or not. I think we can come up with a short list that will broadly cover the categories that most howtos and guides fit into. --A vivid dreamer 09:39, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Suggested categories:

 * Computer software
 * Computer hardware
 * Computer programming
 * Art and craft
 * Music
 * Food
 * Communication
 * Science
 * Home improvement
 * Clerical
 * Mechanics
 * Electronics
 * Mathematics
 * Medical
 * Psychological
 * Gardening
 * Environmental sustainability
 * Personal care
 * Wikihowto
 * add more.....


 * I think categories are just a duplication of Objects, and are more difficult to make look nice becaue the page is automaticaly generated in alphabetical order. Since we make the effort to mantain Objects, I think we do not know how to use categories yet better than objects. Objects are forward while categories are backward and category pages look less structures because they are automaticaly generated in alphabetical order. Categories are hierarchical while objects are in a network. I think objects are very important, but categories can co-exist with objects if people want to contribute to both, so i think it is safe to let anyone use them semi-official and experimental. moa3333 01:45, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Actually yeh, I think I agree with you after all that. Categories would be a duplication of object pages... and even a duplication of Guide pages.  The only advantage I think categories have over object pages is that it is less work to add a category tag to the bottom of a howto than it is to go and add the howto to objects pages.  But even so, you've convinced me to not want category pages any more.  :) --A vivid dreamer 13:46, 9 August 2006 (UTC)