Iron Chariots Wiki:Categorization

This page is intended to provide a focus point for categorization efforts on this wiki &mdash; that is, efforts to develop and implement guidelines related to the creation and maintenance of categories. Please discuss any relevant issues on the talk page first, then transfer guidelines to this page when a consensus has been reached.

Basic philosophy
The special  of the [[Project:MediaWiki|MediaWiki software provides for a "bottom-up" approach to page classification. This is in contrast to the "top-down" approach provided by the construction of "index" or "topic" pages (pages whose main purpose is to link to other articles). Both approaches are useful and can coexist on a wiki.

Viewing the current categories
The current category structure can be browsed beginning at Category:Browse categories. An alphabetical list of categories actually in use (regardless of whether wiki pages for them exist) is available at Special:Categories. See Iron Chariots Wiki:Searching for other ways of searching and browsing the categories.

Category policies
See Wikipedia:Categorization for an idea of some of the issues that might arise and their possible solutions.

Naming of categories
One convention that has already seen wide use is the following:
 * Use "sentence style" capitalization, as opposed to "title" style. That is, one should capitalize the first word of a category (technically this is optional since the first character is case insensitive) and thereafter only words that would normally be capitalized in running text.
 * Correct: Category:Arguments for the existence of God (Note: God is a proper noun)
 * Incorrect: Category:Arguments for the Existence of God, Category:Arguments For The Existence Of God, etc.