Category talk:Missionaries

message: This category and its sub-categories are in a mess, largely as a result of a spate of ill-considered category-creation. I suggest that a lot of categories should be deleted or merged, and that others should be renamed to create a more logical and consistent structure.
Amongst the problems so far:
*inconsistency of naming: we have  and , but  and .
*some inappropriate use of hierarchies, which in many cases is simply due to misnaming (e.g.  is a sub-category of  and explicitly refers solely to to Christian missionaries
*far too many underpopulated categories of Methodist missionaries.  Mostly subcats of {Cl|Methodist missionaries in Asia}}, e.g.  (pop:1) and  (pop:1)
*some grossly underpopulated categories of missionary by area of activity, many of which are not even categorised under : e.g. ,   --BrownHairedGirl (talk)  • (contribs) 11:42, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  The problem 

message: In reply to Dr Submillimeter's point about subdivision by Christian subdenomination, I agree that there seems to be no need to categorise missionaries by different strands of (for example) methodism or presbyterianism (hope I am correct to assume that's what you mean by subdenomination). In general, I don't see any need so far to categorise the protestant denominations more precisely than by clusters (Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist etc) ... but I wonder whether there is any reasonably useful and straightforward way of grouping the likes of  and . --BrownHairedGirl (talk)  • (contribs) 14:48, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: In addition, I don't think we need to rename before merging. We can just bring the whole lot to a merging nomination. Xiner (talk, email) 18:57, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

text: If we pick on Daniel Kumler Flickinger I would be content to see him placed precisely in :Category:Bishops of the Evangelical United Brethren Church (as he is) and more generally in :Category:Christian missionaries in Africa. (No more exact than this.) I see he was actually a Missionary Bishop ... aaargh, these are supposed to be something else. roundhouse 00:40, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  sub-denominations 

message: To help keep track of what's happening, this is a list of discussions at WP:CFD relating to :Category:Missionaries or its sub-categories.  Plase list any further discussions as appropriate. --BrownHairedGirl (talk)  • (contribs) 12:15, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  List of CFDs 

message: First, do we currently need :Category:Missionaries by region of activity, which looks like a duplicate of :Category:Christian missionaries?  Should this category be kept until Buddhist, Hindi, and Muslim missionaries are also differentiated by continent?
Second, is it appropriate to keep :Category:Christian missionaries in the Middle East given that :Category:Christian missionaries in Asia and :Category:Christian missionaries in Africa already exist?  Dr. Submillimeter 12:59, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Category:Missionaries by region of activity and Christian missionaries in the Middle East 

message: :Category:Methodist missionaries to British North America looks like it should be renamed or merged into another category.  At the very least, the term "British" should probably be dropped.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Dr. Submillimeter 17:06, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Category:Methodist missionaries to British North America