Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Categorization (section)

==Categorizing pages==
[[File:Category explanation.ogv|thumb|A screencast showing how to categorise pages and explaining the usage of the [[Wikipedia:Tools|tool]] [[WP:HOTCAT|HotCat]]]]
{{details|Help:Category}}
{{see also|Wikipedia:Categorization dos and don'ts|Wikipedia:Categorizing redirects}}
Every [[Wikipedia:Page name|Wikipedia page]] should belong to at least one category, except for [[Wikipedia:Talk page|talk pages]], [[Wikipedia:Redirect|redirects]], and [[Wikipedia:User page|user pages]], which may optionally be placed in categories where appropriate. 

{{anchor|CATSPECIFIC}}{{shortcut|WP:CATSPECIFIC}}Each categorized page should be placed in the {{em|most specific}} categories to which it logically belongs. And [[#SUBCAT|subcategories]] should be categorised under the {{em|most specific}} [[#PARENTCAT|parent categories]] possible. 

Pages (and sub-categories) should not normally be placed in both a given category, and any of its subcategories or parent categories. For exceptions to this, see [[#Eponymous categories|§&nbsp;Eponymous categories]] and [[#Non-diffusing subcategories|§&nbsp;Non-diffusing subcategories]]. 
* For example, the article "Paris" need only be placed in [[:Category:Cities in France]], ''not'' also in  [[:Category:Populated places in France]]. Because the first category (cities) is in the second category (populated places), readers are already given the information that Paris is a populated place in France by it being a city in France.

Note also that [[Wikipedia:Stub#How to mark an article as a stub|stub templates]] categorize stub articles for maintenance purposes into [[#Wikipedia administrative categories|administrative categories]], not for user browsing, so they do ''not'' count as categorization for the purposes of Wikipedia's categorization policies. An article which has a "stubs" category on it ''must'' still be filed in the most appropriate content categories, even if one of them is a direct parent of the stubs category in question.

Since all categories form part of a [[#Category tree organization|tree-like hierarchy]], ''do not add categories to pages as if they are [[Tag (metadata)|tags]]''.