The Sims Wiki:Categorization

This page contains guidance on the proper use of the categorization function in. For information on the mechanics of the function, category syntax, etc., see Help:Category. For the category system itself, see Category:Browse.

The category system
There is one top-level category, Category:Browse. All other categories are found below this. Hence every category apart from this top one must be a subcategory of at least one other category.

There are two main kinds of category:


 * Topic categories are named after a topic (usually sharing a name with the Wikipedia article on that topic). For example, Category:Simology contains articles relating to the topic a Sim's "biology".
 * Set categories are named after a class (usually in the plural). For example, Category:Sims contains articles whose subjects are Sims.

Sometimes, for convenience, the two types can be combined, to create a set-and-topic category (such as Category:Aspirations, which contains articles about particular aspirations as well as articles relating to aspirations in general).

If logical membership of one category implies logical membership of a second, then the first category should be made a subcategory (directly or indirectly) of the second. For example, Category:Twinbrook Sims is a subcategory of Category:Sims from Ambitions, which in turn is a subcategory of Category:Sims from The Sims 3.

Categorizing articles
Adding categories to an article makes it easier for the reader to find information within a specific area. Categories are added by putting  in an article. An article may be in more than one category, but the editor should make sure not to put an article in categories just because it might be remotely related to them, but rather because it is directly related to them.

Pages are not placed directly into every possible category, only into the most specific one in any branch. This means that if a page belongs to a subcategory of C (or a subcategory of a subcategory of C, and so on) then it is not normally placed directly into C.

Every article should belong to at least one category and it should be clear from verifiable information in the article why it was placed in each of its categories. Categorize articles by characteristics of the topic, not characteristics of the article. An article about the architecture of specific lot, for example, does not belong in Category:Architecture.

Articles on fictional subjects should not be categorized in a manner that confuses them with real subjects. For example, Category:Games is for real life games while Category:Game objects is the category of in-universe games.

Category names use the same general naming rules as articles. By convention, category declarations are placed at the end of the wikitext, but before any stub templates (which themselves transclude categories) and interlanguage links.

The order in which categories are placed on a page is not governed by any single rule. Normally the most essential, significant categories appear first. If an article has an eponymous category (see below), then that category should be listed first of all. For example, Category:Goths is listed before other categories on the Goth family page.

If the desired display text in a particular category is different from the title of the article, it may be appropriate to categorize a redirect, either instead of or along with the article itself. For example, if library is a type of building in several neighborhoods, but used the name Papyrus Memorial Library in Sunset Valley, then the lots in Sunset Valley category declarations can be placed on the "Papyrus Memorial Library" redirect page as well as (or instead of) on "library".

Often an article and a topic category will share the same name or occasionally similar names referring to the same thing. Such a category is called an eponymous category. Usually the article itself will be a member of the category (and should be sorted to appear at the start of the listing, as described below under Sort keys).

Subcategorization
Subcategories may have two or more parent categories. For example, Category:Riverblossom Hills families should be in both Category:Families from Seasons and Category:Families by neighborhood. When making one category a subcategory of another, ensure that the members of the first really can be expected (with possibly a few exceptions) to belong to the second also. Category chains formed by parent-child relationships should never form closed loops. If two categories are closely related but are not in a subset relation, then links between them can be included in the text of the category pages.

Although there is no limit on the size of categories, a large category will often be broken down ("diffused") into smaller, more specific subcategories. For example, Category:Premade families is broken down by families into the subcategories Category:Goths, Category:Altos, etc.

A category may be diffused using several coexisting schemes; for example, Category:Sims is broken down by age, by state, by gender etc. Metacategories may be created as ways of organizing schemes of subcategories. For example, the subcategories called "life stage Sims" are not placed directly into Category:Sims, but into the metacategory Category:Sims by age, which itself appears in Category:Sims.

Sort keys
Sort keys are sometimes needed to produce a correct ordering of member pages and subcategories on the category page. If an item ought to be positioned within a list on the basis of an alternative name (sort key) for that item, then this can be specified in the category tag that places the item in the list:.

For example to add an article called Bella Goth to the category "Sims" and have the article sorted by "Goth, Bella", you would type:.

The magic word,  can be used for articles not in the main namespace to sort by the article name and not the namespace.

It is possible to set a default sort key which is different from the page name by using the magic word thus:. Conventionally, this is placed just before the list of category declarations.

Categories of characters are usually sorted by last name rather than first name, so "surname, forename" sort keys are used. Entries containing modified letters should be sorted as if the letters were unmodified (for example, Łódź has the sort key "Lodz").

Other sort key considerations:


 * Leading articles—a, an, and the—are one of the most common reasons for using sortkeys. Please also apply these sort keys to deliberate misspellings of these words—e.g. "da" or "tha" for "the."
 * Entries containing numbers sometimes need special sort keys to ensure numerical rather than alphabetical ordering (for example, 19 and 103 come before 2 in alphabetical order, and IX comes before V). So Haydn's 13th symphony might have the sort key "Symphony 013", the zero ensuring that it is listed before symphonies 100–108; Pope John IX might have a sort key "John 09". It is important to stick to the same system for all similar entries in a given category.
 * In some categories, sort keys are used to exclude prefixes that are common to all or many of the entries, or are considered unimportant (such as "List of" or "The"). For example, in Category:Lists of Sims the page List of Urbz by location would have the sort key "Urbz", and in Category:Urbz the page List of Urbz by location would have the sort key "Location".
 * Use a space as the sort key for an article matching an eponymous category, or for a key article for the category. For example, the article Skill includes the category sort key . This places the article at the start of the listing for that category. (Note: if the key article should not be a member, simply list it in the category text itself.) Typically, these eponymous categories are listed first even if they do not appear first in alphabetical order.
 * Use other sort keys beginning with a space (or an asterisk or a plus sign) for any "List of ..." and other pages that should appear after the key article and before the main alphabetical listings. The same technique is sometimes used to bring particular subcategories to the start of the list.

Content of category pages
Rather than leave the text of a category page empty (containing only parent category declarations), it is helpful – to both readers and editors – to include a description of the category, indicating what pages it contains, how they should be subcategorized, and so on. The description can also contain links to other pages, in particular to other related categories which do not appear directly as subcategories or parent categories.

Various templates have been developed to make it easier to produce category descriptions, such as categoryimagecategory, and Templatecategory.

A maximum of 200 category entries are displayed per screen. To make navigating large categories easier, a table of contents can be used on the category page. CategoryTOC adds a complete table of contents (Top, 0–9, A–Z). Subcategories are split alphabetically along with the articles, which means that the initial screen of a split category may not include all its subcategories. To make all subcategories display on each screen, add a category tree to the text of the category page using

Interlanguage links work on category pages just as they do for articles, and can be used to link to corresponding categories on other language Wikias.

Non-article and maintenance categories
A distinction is made between two types of category:


 * content categories, intended as part of the encyclopedia, to help readers find articles, based on features of the subjects of those articles;
 * project categories, intended for use by editors or by automated tools, based on features of the current state of articles, or used to categorize non-article pages.

Project categories include stub categories (generally produced by stub templates), maintenance categories (often produced by tag templates such as cleanup and fact, and used for maintenance projects), project and assessment categories, and categories of pages in non-article namespaces.

There are separate project categories for different kinds of non-article page (template categories, disambiguation page categories, project page categories, etc.). There is no need to categorize user pages, talk pages or redirects, although these can be placed in categories where appropriate. See the guideline on categorizing redirects, and the Categorizing user pages section below.

Images
Category tags can be added to image pages too. Images are not included in the count of articles in the category, but are displayed in a separate section with a thumbnail and the name for each. A category can mix articles and images, or a separate image category can be created. An image category is typically a subcategory of the general category about the same subject, and a subcategory of the wider image category, Category:Images. To categorize a new image when uploading, simply add the category tag to the upload summary.

Categorizing user pages
User pages are not articles, and thus do not belong in content categories such as Sims. They can however be placed in user categories – subcategories of Users.

Similarly, user subpages that are draft versions of articles should be kept out of content categories. If you copy an article from mainspace to userspace and it already contains categories, remove them or comment them out. Restore the categories when you move the draft back into the article space.

Categorization using templates
Many templates include category declarations in their transcludable text, for the purpose of placing the pages containing those templates into specific categories. This technique is very commonly used for populating certain kinds of project categories, including stub categories and maintenance categories.

However, it is recommended that articles should not be placed in ordinary content categories using templates in this way. There are many reasons for this – editors cannot see the category in the wikitext; removing or restructuring the category is made more difficult (partly because automated processes will not work); inappropriate articles and non-article pages may get added to the category; sort keys may be unavailable to be customised per category; ordering of categories on the page is less controllable.

When templates are used to populate project categories, ensure that the code cannot generate nonsensical or non-existent categories, particularly when the category name depends on a parameter. Also, see Category suppression for ways of keeping inappropriate pages out of template-generated categories.

Category declarations in templates often use as the sort key, particularly if they are designed to be placed on talk pages, as this suppresses the Talk: prefix. Note that this overrides any DEFAULTSORT defined on the page.

Redirected categories
Because of software limitations, ordinary (hard) redirects should not be used with category pages. If a category name needs to be redirected to another, use the move template to create a soft redirect. A bot traverses categories redirected in this manner, moving articles out of the redirected category into the target category.