Category talk:Tolkien

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This category is within the scope of WikiProject Middle-earth, which aims to build an encyclopedic guide to J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Please visit the project page for details.

[edit] Parent for this category

section title added retrospectively Carcharoth 09:11, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

a category with no parent categories "functioning as a portal" is rather unorthodox. That's what we have actual portals for. I suggest merging with Category:J. R. R. Tolkien (also since no difference in scope between the two is self-evident from lack or presence of initials). dab (ᛏ) 14:48, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

The intended distinction is explained on the category page: "J. R. R. Tolkien" concerns the person and his works. "Tolkien" is the broader subject area that covers more than just Tolkien and his works. It also covers Tolkien's legacy, adaptations of Tolkien's works, the area of Tolkien studies (studying Tolkien and his works), Tolkien fandom, and more. The distinction may not be clear yet because the strucuture is still being worked out. Could you wait a few months and then see if merging is still justified? As for the lack of initials, I feel that this actually helps people find this category. If you were trying to find a category to put something Tolkien-related in, what would you type? Think of the difference between Category:William Shakespeare and Category:Shakespeare. Having said that, it is possible that the correct structure is to have Category:J. R. R. Tolkien as the top-level category, and to have various other categories below that, all of the structure "Tolkien FOO" rather than the cumbersome "J. R. R. Tolkien FOO". Also, people may expect the existence of Category:Tolkien and Category:Shakespeare.

As for the portal thing. I think that some of these broad categories are very similar to the smaller portals, but that is a wider categories/portals issue. Take a look at a fairly small portal and consider how many of the articles you might expect to find in the same category. Then look at a broad category (the eponymous categories are a good example) and consider whether that broad category could be used to create a portal. It is possible that categories and portals are beginning to meet halfway. Carcharoth 16:42, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Also, having no parents would make it permanent member of Special:Uncategorizedcategories. -- ProveIt ^(talk) 23:21, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

For now, I've put this category in Category:Categories by person, which may soon be renamed to Category:Categories named after people. This leaves both Category:J. R. R. Tolkien and Category:Tolkien in that parent category. These categories are the only ones to use this 'single word for the subject' versus 'full name for the person' distinction, but IMO both are now in the correct parent category, with maybe only some minor reorganisation needed. Is everyone happy with this? Carcharoth 09:11, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I have read the above, and still think that this category shuold be merged with Category:J.R.R. Tolkein. — goethean ॐ 15:15, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Oh dear. A few months have passed, and my promised completion of the organisation of the categories hasn't been done! :-) I think the distinction I have set up here is useful, but maybe the naming of the categories confuses people. Can anyone think of a better name for these two categories? Carcharoth 01:02, 19 October 2006 (UTC)