Wikipedia talk:Categorization

message: I'm not that much of a CAT-gnome, and I recently ran into a problem with a blank sort key that had been properly used in an article, until a well-meaning editor incorrectly "fixed" it by removing the blank, who I guess figured that a blank param is meaningless, so why not get rid of it. I undid their change, but I can understand why an editor might do that. I wonder how frequent a problem this is, because I've got an easy fix. The solution would be simply to create a template, maybe to be called , that resolves to a space. Nobody is going to remove a template call embedded in a Category item who doesn't understand precisely what it's doing there, so that will stop it from happening. But is it a problem that's frequent enough or annoying enough to bother with? Even if infrequent, it could be the kind of thing that would slip by without anyone noticing for quite a while. Mathglot (talk) 03:55, 13 February 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: A template would work as a prevention mechanism. Unfortunately, nobody is going to use it because it's so long to type. I think it's better to use incorrect removals of space as sort keys to inform new editors about the guidelines at WP:SORTKEY. —⁠andrybak (talk) 14:41, 12 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mis-corrected blank sort key: how much of a problem is this? 

message: Apologies if this is in the wrong place.
I'm really struggling with this sentence: "The central goal of the category system is to provide navigational links to pages in Wikipedia, in a hierarchy of categories which readers, knowing essential—defining—characteristics of a topic, can browse and quickly find sets of pages on topics that are defined by those characteristics."
I started to make minor edits, but realized I wasn't even sure what it was trying to convey.  "Which" should probably be "that", the punctuation is random, there's no agreement between subject/verb/object, and it's run-on.  I've taken my best stab and edited it to read:  "The central goal of the category system is to provide navigational links to pages in Wikipedia within a hierarchy of categories. Using essential, defining characteristics of a topic, readers can browse and quickly find sets of pages on topics that are defined by those characteristics." Ghost writer's cat (talk) 22:51, 12 April 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Categorization is something I have used many times, and that I sometimes fix. However, I am not a super expert about it. Still, I would say that you nailed it with your edit. Well done, -- Kjkolb (talk) 08:24, 12 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sentence structure help needed 

message: Wikipedia:Categorization#Sort keys says "In English Wikipedia, sort order merges (ignores) case and diacritics." I dearly wish this was true, but it appears it is untrue for macrons (a diacritic), and always has been. Am I missing something or is the statement inaccurate? Nurg (talk) 04:53, 14 April 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Nurg, so you have an example? —⁠andrybak (talk) 09:37, 12 May 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for asking. I can't find an example now and it appears that the statement is true after all. I am not sure when I did last see an example. Perhaps sorting of diacritics was fixed years ago and I was confusing English Wikipedia with Commons, where diacritics are not merged. Nurg (talk) 10:48, 12 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title: Sort order not merging all diacritics

message: Hello all,
I'm going to be subdividing :Category:Archaeological organizations down by country, i.e. Category:Archaeological organizations based in (country), similar to how :Category:History organizations by country functions (as some have a wider scope than the nation they're based in).
There is currently only one subcat serving this purpose, the relatively new :Category:British archaeological organisations, which does not seem to conform to category naming standards. Can this be safely moved to :Category:Archaeological organizations based in the United Kingdom? – TCMemoire 14:22, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: @TCMemoire, you can nominate the category for speedy renaming according to criteria WP:C2C. —⁠andrybak (talk) 09:41, 12 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:   Category:Archaeological organizations 

message: Our friends over at WikiProject Higher Education are having a conversation about when to add disestablishment categories to colleges that are closing this summer. Your input (pro/con/other) is always welcome right here. - RevelationDirect (talk) 01:53, 27 May 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Solution is simple: per WP:CRYSTALBALL and WP:WIP – don't rush and add the corresponding category  the disestablishment has happened. —⁠andrybak (talk) 06:07, 27 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Categorizing Colleges that are Closing this Summer