Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Categorization (section)

== Creating category pages <span class="anchor" id="CREATECAT"></span> ==
{{shortcut|WP:CREATECAT}}
Sometimes proper categorization requires the creation of a new category.

===Before creating a new category <span class="anchor" id="BEFORECAT"></span> ===
{{shortcut|WP:BEFORECAT}}{{main|Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates|Wikipedia:Overcategorization}}
{{see also|Help:Sortable tables}}

Categories are not the only means of enabling users to browse sets of related pages. And categories have [[WP:DOAC|several disadvantages]], including that categories only show ''the page name'' of each page being categorized, therefore:

*While the [[#Category description|category description]] may provide broader information, individual category members cannot be annotated with descriptions or comments, so they give no context or elaboration for any specific entry.
*There is no provision for referencing any specific entry, to [[WP:V|verify]] a page meets a category's criteria of inclusion.

So, consider whether a [[WP:LIST|list]] would be more appropriate for such a grouping of pages. Lists would also be more useful where it is important to see dates, for example, a [[list of Nobel laureates]]. And can provide options for sorting the entries.

Also, consider whether the category might be considered category clutter. Please see [[Wikipedia:Overcategorization]], for more information on this.

=== Choosing a name for the category <span class="anchor" id="CATNAME"></span> ===
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{{see also|#Naming conventions}}
A good category name is accurate and '''[[Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view#Naming|neutral]]''', and, as much as possible, defines the category's inclusion criteria in the name itself. 

{{OOUI icon|alert}} ''Important:'' Moving non-conventionally categorized pages to another category name (see {{tl|Category redirect}}) imposes an additional overhead – an edit for ''every'' categorized page and subcategory. 

So, when choosing a name for the category, please be sure a similar category does not exist. Before creating a category, try to find it under a similar name. You can search existing category names as described [[Help:Searching|here]] (top of page). Another way to determine if suitable categories already exist for a particular page is to check the categories of pages concerning similar or related topics. 
*For example: You might want to add a subcategory for people to [[:Category:Mexicans]]. By starting at [[:Category:People by nationality]], you will discover that Mexicans are placed in [[:Category:Mexican people]].

{{OOUI icon|information}} ''Note:'' [[#Eponymous categories|Eponymous categories]] (categories whose name and topic is the same as an article, such as a category named after a person) should only be created if enough directly related articles exist.

=== Creating the category ===
After you have determined an appropriate category name for the category, next try to find a suitable place for the new category. (For example, categories of people should be in the [[:Category:People|tree of "people" categories]].) Please see [[#Category tree organization]] for more information on this.

Once you have determined where to categorize this new category, you should be ready to create the new category. 

To create a category:
# Add a page to the intended category. Do this by editing that page, and add the name of the new category: (e.g.:&nbsp;{{code|[[Category:New category name]]}}&nbsp;)
#* {{Anchor|CATORDER}}{{Shortcut|MOS:CATORDER}}By convention, categories are placed at the end of the wikitext, but before any [[Wikipedia:Stub|stub]] templates, which transclude their own categories. 
#* [[#Eponymous categories|Eponymous categories]] should appear first. Beyond that, the order in which categories are placed on a page is not governed by any single rule (for example, it does not need to be alphabetical, although partially alphabetical ordering can sometimes be helpful). Normally the most essential, significant categories appear first. <!-- There is currently no [[WP:CON|consensus]] about the order in which categories should be placed at the bottom of an article. -->
# Save your edit. The as-yet-undefined category name will now appear as a [[Wikipedia:Red link|red link]] in the category list at the bottom of the page.
#* {{Anchor|CATREDLINK}}{{Shortcut|WP:CATREDLINK}} A page should never be left with a non-existent ([[Wikipedia:REDLINK|redlinked]]) category on it. Either the category should be created, or else the link should be removed or changed to a category that does exist.
# Next, click on that red link, which brings you to the new category page to create. 
# Finally, at the bottom of the category page, simply add the parent category (e.g.:&nbsp;{{code|[[Category:Parent category name]]}}&nbsp;), which should usually be a [[hypernym]] of the subcategory. This will add the new category into the appropriate parent category. 
{{n.b.}} If something goes wrong, double check to see if you followed the steps properly and check if the wikitext is correct. For example, if the category fails to list in the parent category, the wikitext should be <nowiki>[[Category:Parent category name]]</nowiki>, not <nowiki>[[:Category:Parent category name]]</nowiki>.

=== Category description <span class="anchor" id="CATDESC"></span> ===
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While it should typically be clear from the name of an existing category which pages it should contain, sometimes, a common-sense guess based on the name of the category isn't enough to figure out whether a page should be listed in the category. So, rather than leave the text of a category page empty (containing only parent category declarations), adding a main article which describes the topic, see {{section link|#Articles with eponymous categories}}, can help with that. 

However, only linking to a Wikipedia article explaining the title is often not sufficient as a description for a category. It can be helpful – to both readers and editors – to include a clear description of the category, indicating what pages it should contain, how they should be subcategorized, and so on, and linking to one or more pages as background information.  

In such cases, the desired contents of the category should be described on the category page, similar to how the [[WP:LSC|list selection criteria]] are described in a stand-alone list. The category description should make direct statements about the criteria by which pages should be selected for inclusion in (or exclusion from) the category. This description, not the category's name, defines the proper content of the category. Do not leave future editors to guess about what or who should be included from the title of the category. Even if the selection criteria might seem obvious to you, an explicit standard is helpful to others, especially if they are less familiar with the subject.

The description can also contain links to other Wikipedia pages, in particular to other related categories which do not appear directly as subcategories or parent categories, and to relevant categories at [[Wikipedia:Wikimedia sister projects|sister projects]], such as [[Wikipedia:Commons|Commons]]. Another technique that can be used is described at [[Wikipedia:Classification]]. Like [[Wikipedia:Disambiguation|disambiguation]] pages, category pages should not contain either citations to [[Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources|reliable sources]] or [[Wikipedia:External links|external links]].

Various templates have been developed to make it easier to produce category descriptions; see [[:Category:Category namespace templates|Category namespace templates]]. There are hatnote templates including {{tl|Category main article}} and {{tl|Category see also}}; others are listed at [[Wikipedia:Hatnote#Categories]].

=== Additional considerations ===
Categories may have hundreds of members, displayed over many pages, with, at most, only 200 category entries on a single category page. To make navigating large categories easier, a table of contents can be used on the category page. The following templates are some of the ways of doing this:
* {{Tl|Category TOC}} – adds a complete table of contents (Top, 0–9, A–Z)
* {{Tl|Large category TOC}} – adds a complete table of contents with five subdivisions for each letter (Aa Ae Aj Ao At)
* Consider using <code>{{tl|CatAutoTOC}}</code> which uses the appropriate TOC for the number of pages on a category page.

Likewise, a maximum of 200 subcategories are displayed at a time, so some subcategories may not be immediately visible. To display all subcategories at once, add a category tree to the text of the category page, as described at {{Section link|Help:Category#Displaying category trees and page counts}}.

Category pages can have [[Help:Interlanguage links|interlanguage links]] in the "Languages" list in the left sidebar (in the default skin), linking to corresponding categories in other language Wikipedias. To edit these on [[Wikidata]], click on the "Edit links" link at the end of the languages list.