Wikipedia:Categories for discussion

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On this page, deletion, merging, and renaming of categories (pages in the Category namespace) is discussed. Categories are used to organize other pages, and aid browsing of related articles. See How to use this page for the official rules of this page, guidelines for Speedy Deletion and Speedy Renaming, and how to do cleanup. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) for the policies guiding many renaming decisions.

Unless the change is non-controversial (such as vandalism or a duplicate), please do not remove the category from pages before the community has made a decision.

Categories that have been listed for more than five days are eligible for deletion, renaming or merging when a rough consensus to do so has been reached or no objections to its deletion have been raised.

Deletion of a category may mean that the pages belonging to it (articles, images, etc) are transferred to its parent category, or to another category (newly-made or already existing).

Contents


[edit] Current discussions

[edit] How to use this page

[edit] Procedure

To list a category for deletion, merging or renaming, follow this process:

I.
Preliminary steps.

Determine whether the category needs deleting, merging, or renaming.

  1. If it is a "red link" and has no articles or subcategories, then it is already deleted (more likely, it was never really created in the first place), and does not need to be listed here.
  2. Read and understand Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) before using this page. Nominate categories here that violate policies, or are misspelled, mis-capitalized, redundant, need to be merged, not NPOV, small without potential for growth, or are generally bad ideas.
  3. Please read the Wikipedia:Categorization of people policy when nominating or voting on a people-related category.
  4. In the following three special cases:
    1. If the category in question is a stub category, go to Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion.
    2. If the category is only populated by a template, go to Wikipedia:Templates for deletion. For a template with the same name use {{catfd}}.
    3. If the category is empty for more than four days, use {{db-catempty}} for a speedy deletion.
II.
Edit the category.

Add one of the following tags at the top of the category text of every category to be deleted or renamed.

If the category is a candidate for speedy renaming, use:
and follow the instructions at Speedy renaming.
If a single category:
If a group of similar categories or a category and its subcategories, use an umbrella nomination (each category must be tagged, for nominations involving large numbers of categories tagging help can be requested at the talk page):
  • For deletion, {{subst:cfd|CfdSectionName}}
  • For a merger, {{subst:cfm|OtherCategory|CfdSectionName}}
  • For renaming, {{subst:cfr|ProposedName|CfdSectionName}}
  • Please include "cfd", "cfm" or "cfr" in the edit summary, and don't mark the edit as minor.
  • Preview before saving. The display will give more precise instructions about the next step.
  • See the talk pages at Cfd, Cfm, and Cfr for more specific information.
  • Consider adding {{cfdnotice|Cfd section name|date=yyyy Month dd}} to the main article's talk page or to categories that are merge targets to notify users that the category has been nominated for deletion or renaming. Doing so would not only extend an additional courtesy, but possibly also bring in editors who know more about the subject at hand. See the talk page at cfdnotice for more information on how to use this template.
III.
Create the Cfd subsection.

Click on THIS LINK to edit the section of CFD for today's entries.

Follow the instructions in the comments (visible during edit), to copy and paste the template shown. All categories are specified without the Category: prefix.

For {{Cfd}}, use:
{{subst:cfd2|ObsoleteCategory|text='''Delete''', Your reason(s) for the proposed deletion. ~~~~}}
For {{Cfm}}, use:
{{subst:cfm2|FromCategory|ToCategory|text='''Merge''', Your reason(s) for the proposed merge. ~~~~}}
For {{Cfr}}, to a definite name use:
{{subst:cfr2|OldCategory|NewCategory|text='''Rename''', Your reason(s) for the proposed rename. ~~~~}}
For {{Cfr}}, to an indefinite name use:
{{subst:cfr2|OldCategory|to be determined by consensus|text='''Rename''', Your reason(s) for the proposed rename. ~~~~}}
For umbrella nominations, the standard templates should build the "Cfd section name" for the 1st nomination, although the 2nd and subsequent nominations must be added manually, like this:
==== Cfd section name ====
  • 1st category
  • 2nd category
  • '''Your vote''': Your reason for nominating the category ~~~~
  • Preview before saving to ensure all the fields have been properly listed.
  • Link both categories to delete and categories to merge into. Failure to do this will delay consideration of your suggestion.
  • Always add a colon (':') in the link to the category being listed, like [[:Category:Foo]]. This makes a category link that can be seen on the page (and avoids putting this page into the category you are nominating).

[edit] Notes for nominators

It is generally considered civil (but by no means mandatory) to notify the good-faith creator, any main contributors of the category and the relevant wikiprojects that you are nominating the category. To find the main contributors, look in the page history or talk page of the category. On the other hand, interested parties should watchlist categories. When notice is provided to creators, contributor or wikiprojects, it is suggested that the nominator indicate on the nomination that notice was provided and to whom.

Once you have previewed your entry, please make sure to add your signature after your proposal. If nominating a list of entries as a batch below your rationale, it is somewhat neater to place these after the signature (rather than leave the signature dangling at the end of the list, apparently unrelated to your reasons).

Once you have submitted a category here, no further action is necessary on your part. If the nomination is supported, helpful administrators and editors will log the result, and ensure that the change is populated to all affected pages.

Also, consider adding to your watchlist any categories you nominate. This will help ensure that your nomination tag is not removed by a vandal or mistake.

[edit] Users without accounts and users with new accounts

Users without accounts (anonymous users) may nominate and comment on proceedings, just as in Articles for Deletion (AfD). Votes from anonymous users or users who have made very few edits may be discounted. See Wikipedia:Sock puppetry and Wikipedia:Suffrage for details.

[edit] Redirecting categories

It is our general policy to delete categories that do not have articles in them. Unlike articles, categories are mostly for internal use only. If they don't have any articles, they shouldn't have any links from any articles or any other categories, because they are not useful for navigation and classification.

However, some categories frequently have articles assigned to them accidentally, or are otherwise re-created over and over again. In these cases, we use a form of "soft" redirection.

Categories cannot be redirected using "hard" redirects (#REDIRECT [[target]]) due to limitations in the MediaWiki software. Instead, use {{Category redirect|target}}. Helpful bots patrol these categories and move articles into the redirect targets.

You can see a list of redirected categories in Category:Wikipedia category redirects.

[edit] Special notes

Categories relating to stub articles should not be nominated here, but should be taken to Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion. If a group nomination of several similarly-named categories includes a stub category, it may be discussed here, but a note should be placed at Wikipedia talk:Stub types for deletion indicating that discussion on it is taking place.

When nominating a category, it's helpful to add a notice on the talk page of the most-closely related article. Doing so would not only extend an additional courtesy, but possibly also bring in editors who know more about the subject at hand. You can use {{cfd-article}} for this.

Shortcut:
WP:CFDS

[edit] Speedy renaming and speedy merging

Categories may be listed here if they fall under the criteria specified at Wikipedia:Category renaming and repeated below. Deletion and de-listing may occur after 48 hours if there are no objections. They must be tagged with {{subst:cfr-speedy|new name}} so that users of the categories are aware of the proposal. This delay is to allow for objections over correct spelling, etc. to be made and to ensure that items are not listed here that do not meet the criteria.

Categories that qualify for speedy deletion (per Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion, e.g. "patent nonsense" or "recreation") can be tagged with the regular speedy tags, such as {{db|reason}}, and no delay is required for these.

[edit] Speedy criteria

Criteria for speedy renaming or speedy merging are strictly limited to:

  1. Typographical errors (such as, Brdiges → Bridges).
    • Note that differences between British and American spelling (for example, Harbours → Harbors) are not considered errors.
  2. Capitalization fixes (such as, characters In harry Potter → Characters in Harry Potter)
  3. Conversions from singular to plural, or back (such as, Steamship → Steamships)
  4. Non-conformance with "x by y", "x of y", or "x in y" categorization conventions specified at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories).
    • This should only be used where there is no room for any doubt whatsoever that the category in question is being used for the standard purpose instead of being a potential subcategory. It should not be assumed that an incorrectly formatted "radio stations" category was intended to be a "radio" category, or that an incorrectly formatted "archaeological sites" category was intended to be an "archaeology" category.
  5. Expanding abbreviations for country names: The name of the country should appear as it does in the name of the article about that country (for example, US or U.S. in reference to the United States should be renamed to United States, but this criterion specifically does not apply to renames between the terms "American" and "United States").

When proposing that the category name should be reformatted in addition to one of the speedy criteria, or two or more criteria apply, make a regular nomination rather than a speedy nomination.

Note: If the nominator decides to change a nomination based on comments, simply delete the old nomination and create a new one as long as it still meets the speedy criteria.

[edit] Add requests for speedy renaming here

If the category does not match one of the five criteria listed above PRECISELY, do not list it here, but list it in the main section instead. If you are in any doubt as to whether it qualifies, do not list it here. Use the following format:

Don't forget to tag the category with {{subst:cfr-speedy|NewName}}

Please add new entries at the TOP of the list and sign and datestamp your entries with ~~~~.

  • Category:Fire brigades of the United Kingdom to Category:Fire and rescue services of the United Kingdom Outdated term "fire brigade" formally changed by Fire And Rescue Services Act 2004 to: Fire and rescue service/s. This issue has been discussed for over a month on the category talk page.Escaper7
    • Oppose Not eligible for speedy. "Fire brigade" remains the normal everyday term. Haddiscoe 12:08, 27 March 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Ready for deletion

Once the renaming has been completed, cut and paste the listing to the Ready for deletion section of Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working.

[edit] Discussions pending completion and recently completed

[edit] Pending completions

Further information: Mainspace categories in progress
Further information: User categories in progress

[edit] Recently completed discussions

Further information: Mainspace categories in progress
Further information: User categories in progress


Archive and indices
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