Mistipedia:Categorization Guidelines

Types of Categories

Categories take two main forms:

• Content categories - intended as part of the encyclopedia, to help readers find articles, based on features of the subjects of those articles. (Examples: Category:Monster, Category:Ship)

• Project categories - intended for use by editors or by automated tools, based on features of the current state of articles, or used to categorize non-article pages. (Examples: Category:Candidate for Deletion, Category:Disambiguation pages)

Content categories are either Topic categories or Set categories:

• Topic categories are named after a topic. They contain objects that are related to the topic. For example, Category:Vampirism contains articles relating to the topic of Vampirism.

• Set categories are named after a class of objects (usually named in the singular). They contain objects that are members or examples of the set. For example, Category:Vampire contains articles whose subjects are Vampires.

Neither Topic nor Set categories are mutually exclusive. Azalin can be a Category:Wizard and a Category:Human and a Category:Lich, even though those three categories are distinct.

Combined Pages and Categories

The wiki software allows Pages and Categories to have the same name and many wikis do this. Mistipedia however takes a different tactic.

Specifically, pages with the same name as a Set category should be combined with the category. The text of the page should go on the category, and the page should be a redirect to the category. (Example: Vampire is a redirect to Category:Vampire, and all text about vampires is on Category:Vampire.)

For Topic categories, the Page and Category should remain separate. (Example: The Twisting is a page about the phenomenon of The Twisting. Category:The Twisting is for pages related to The Twisting).

(Easy way to tell the difference:

• Strahd is a vampire and is in Category:Vampire. Vampire just a redirect to Category:Vampire (Set category)
• Freaks are related to The Twisting and are in Category:The Twisting. The Twisting is distinct from Category:The Twisting. Category:The Twisting is effectively shorthand for [[:Category:Things related to The Twisting]]

)

Subcategories

The wiki software allows the creation of loops, but this is frowned upon. Avoid doing so. (This is one reason not to make NPCs into categories; you could put Category:Senmet into Category:Anhktepot and ALSO put Category:Anhktepot into Category:Senmet. Don't do that.)

Categories should only go inside Set categories in two cases:

1. If everything in the subcategory also fits in that category. (Example: Beryl Silvertress and Axrock go in Category:Dwarven Vampire. The Category:Dwarven Vampire goes in Category:Vampire (along with all the other vampires). Category:Vampire goes nicely in Category:Undead, which is in Category:Monster.)

1. If the subcategory itself is a member of the category. (Example: Wizard is in Category:Class, which is in Category:Game Rule, even though the members of Category:Wizard are not classes, and the members of Category:Class are not game rules. This is OK because Wizard itself is a class, and Class is itself a game rule.)

This is the "containment rule" for Set categories: "X is in Category:Y if and only if X is a Y. Category:Y is in Category:Z if and only if all Y's are Z's, or if Category:Y is a Z."

Topic categories do not have a "containment rule".

Subcategorization levels

The rules in this section are somewhat ad hoc, and are designed for usability, sometimes at the expense of consistency.

NPCs and Monsters get labelled with every category up to their top-level monster category. (see Axrock example above.) There should be no pages in Category:Monster, only subcategories.

NPCs also get Category:NPC as well.

Locations get all subcategories up to their top-level location category. There should be no pages in Category:Location, only subcategories.

The rules for other categories are to be determined.

Category Names

Most category names should be singular. (Example: Category:Vampire, not [[Category:Vampires]])

Exceptions include:

• names of societies that are plural (Example: Category:The Talons)
• Locations in ____ (Example: Category:Locations in Barovia)
• Inhabitants of ____ (Example: Category:Inhabitants of Barovia)

Category Order

For NPC's a rough guideline for category order follows:

NPC first. Society if any, preceded by rank in that society (hence Umbra followed by FoS). In-game profession preceded by specialization(s) in the profession (hence Historian before Professor). Social class if any, preceded by rank in that class (hence Lord before Aristocrat). Game mechanics base class(es), preceded by any prestige classes. Race and Nationality second last and last respectively. (Generally, the most impressive title, achievement, etc. should be first.)

For example: Lord Balfour de Casteelle has the following Categories: NPC | The Umbra (society) | The Fraternity of Shadows | Arcane Loremaster | Historian | Ravenloft Loremaster | Professor | University of Dementlieu | Dementlieuse Lord | Aristocrat | Illusionist | Wizard | Human | Neutral Evil | Dementlieuse | Inhabitants of Port-a-Lucine | Inhabitants of Dementlieu