Talk:Main Page/Page Organization

This is a discussion on the organization style used by wikihowto

Standard MediaWiki Categories (all pages included)

 * Description: any pages can be put in the standard implementation of Categories. Pages are added automatically to the category by placing the following code.
 * Example:
 * Category example: Category:Example
 * Page in Category example User:ZyMOS/examplePage
 * Pros:
 * If howtos and guides are sorted into categories, then this would allow people to see a while list of howtos and guides that are all in the same category. This would be good because, for example, a person interested in "environmentally sustainable" activities would probably find it interesting to browse a list of howtos/guides that fit in the category of their interest.
 * Cons:

Standard MediaWiki Categories (objects only)

 * Description: only object pages can be put in the standard implementation of Categories. Pages are added automatically to the category by placing the following code.
 * Example:
 * Pros:
 * Cons:
 * An object could have howtos and guides related to it that fit into several categories, so if a person went to an object page that was in the category "food" they may have to sift through other howtos that are not related to "food".
 * Cons:
 * An object could have howtos and guides related to it that fit into several categories, so if a person went to an object page that was in the category "food" they may have to sift through other howtos that are not related to "food".

Portals

 * Description:
 * Example:
 * Pros:
 * Cons:
 * Pros:
 * Cons:
 * Cons:

Possible categories/portals for wikihowto:

 * Environmentally sustainable practices
 * Internet
 * Computers
 * Hardware
 * Linux
 * Windows
 * Construction
 * Houses
 * Objects
 * Cars/automobile
 * Bicycles
 * Science
 * Food
 * Food storage
 * Recipes
 * Electrical
 * Plants/gardening
 * Art & craft
 * Living skills
 * Communication

Discussion

 * Thanks for explaining that. I really like the idea of categorizing ALL wikihowto pages (not just the object pages). Perhaps we should make a list of the main categories that existing howtos and guides seem to fit into and when we agree on the categories that seem appropriate to use, we can start adding category tags to pages.  It would definitely make it more interesting for a user to be able to only look at the category that they are interested in.  I think BOTH the standard wikimedia categories AND new categories specific to wikihowto should be implemented.  From what I've seen in Wikipedia, it seems that a page can belong to several categories, so I imagine implementing both shouldn't be a problem.  The categorized lists in the "some recent howtos and guides" section on the Main Page is like a mini version of the kinds of categories I am imagining, --A vivid dreamer 16:23, 11 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Here is the Wikipedia list of categories. It does thoroughly cover a lot of topics.  Will it help in the long run if we just use the same categories as Wikipedia rather than my suggestion of inventing our own based on the howtos and guides we create? Perhaps we can list the categories we think would be useful for wikihowto and then when we have brainstormed the list, we can rename them according to the categories wikipedia uses. A vivid dreamer 16:48, 11 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Would it be at all useful to also have the categories:
 * Howtos
 * Guides
 * Objects
 * Or do the "bots" already sort pages into these categories sufficiently?--A vivid dreamer 16:36, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
 * The main reason why we havn't done that is because the categories look ugly. categories are automated but as of now the bot is working properly and i think it is sufficient.  For now. ZyMOS 20:55, 11 July 2006 (UTC)