Category talk:Babylon 5: The Universe

From The Great Machine

Categories are a difficult to manage beast so I want to start an overall discussion on them:

I am trying to manage categories such that we don't have redundant categories yet still have useful categories. At the same time we don't want so many categories that people can't find what they are looking for. Therefore cross referencing categories is important (using either the Category or :Category tags as appropriate).

I think the following rules are needed:

1. If everything in a category can be placed in another category and it does not hamper finding important information, then the category is redundant. This means that Shadow Technology is not redundant with Technologies becuase Shadow Tech is a specialized area of technology and needs to be self contained, especially in light of Season 5 of B5 and the Crusade episodes.
2. If a subcategory is used for seperating specific information (such as Shadow Technology) then any echoing categories that are expected to have potential items should be created (such as Vorlon Technology). However, extraneous categories (such as Human Technology) should not since this falls under the "common technology" of the galaxy which is covered by the overall Technologies category.

As for placing items in a category:

1. Some categories have special rules for placement. If this exists, place only based on those rules.
2. Place in multiple categories based on where you would look for the item.
   1. Example: Psi Corps should be under Organizations (special rule: all sub category entries are put here), Radical Organizations (becuase it is connected with so many black projects), Other Organizations (for those that want to look for it not thinking about its rogue elements), and Telepaths (becuase it is an organization of Telepaths).
3. Do not place items into categories that are not directly related.
   1. Example: An episode that has a battle in it that includes several Earth Force destroyers should NOT be placed in the Ships category. Instead the ships should be linked to and those ships should be placed in the Ships category and backlinked to the episode.
   2. Example: A planet that has an annual festival should NOT be placed in the Events category. Instead the Festival should be created and placed in events, linked to from the planet, and backlinked to the planet.

Now we can discuss :)