Category talk:Lists of fictional characters by species

Suggested renaming
this category did not make sense at the time of Categories_for_discussion/Log/2008_September_23, and IMHO it is no better now. I propose to merge it back, but am consulting you first in case you can persuade me otherwise. – Fayenatic  L ondon 19:13, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh, I didn't know it was a deleted category. I just made it in parallel with Category:Fictional characters by species. The conflict was that Category:Lists of fictional characters has a banner that says that all pages should be moved into sub-categories, but there was no sub-category for these lists. We can re-merge, and get rid of the banner? What do you think? __ E L A Q U E A T E  19:17, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

Fayenatic, it looks like that merge discussion was to put these subcats into a category called Category:Fictional characters by nature, but that category was left empty and deleted in October 2008. Did the merge not happen? I was just trying to clean up the mish-mash of Category:Lists of fictional characters. __ E L A Q U E A T E  19:55, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for replying, and for your agreement to re-merge which saves bureaucracy! I have changed the banner. However, I was not able to trace what happened to the pages that were put into Category:Fictional characters by nature.
 * I have just come across Category:Lists of fictional life forms; do you think that would make a better target for merging? – Fayenatic  L ondon 21:21, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

Oh no problem, and I hope things are better after we're finished with it. There's a messy and complicated description I have to get out of the way so bear with me here. There's a few vectors to keep straight, and I think that's why it's been muddled for so long.
 * The Category:Fictional characters tree is for articles about individual beings with individual names in fiction (Let's say "Mr. Herbert Gnome").
 * The Category:Lists of fictional characters is for lists of those specific individuals (Mr. Gnome and his family). 
 * The Category:Fictional life forms was for classes of creatures (Gnomes)
 * The Category:Lists of fictional life forms is for lists of those classes (List of Small Fictional Lifeforms: Gnomes, Imps, Leprechauns).

Basically it's one tree for named individuals, and a different tree for general types of creature (and then a cat each for organizing the "Lists"). The general rationale behind it is so that readers can navigate one list of fictional individuals (Count Dracula, Count Chocula, Edward, Mr Bloodsucker) or they can navigate another list (Ghosts, Vampires, Zombies) without being faced with a list like this: (Count Chocula, Count Dracula, Edward, Ghosts, Mr Bloodsucker, Vampires, Zombies).

The main problem with this is I can't just add any of the "Lists of fictional life forms" to the "Lists of fictional character tree without adding a bunch of articles only about classes, to a tree that's supposed to only be individuals. That's why I was making a category like the one we're talking in, solely to organize the "List of individuals" with a "List of individuals who are x". If I haven't lost you yet, I was approaching it as a need to give Category:Lists of fictional characters some of the same subcat structure as the same individual-type Category:Fictional characters. __ E L A Q U E A T E  22:11, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
 * And all of this being said, I know there's already some overlap in a few of the subcats. What I don't know is whether to increase it and risk a bigger mess, or tighten the individual categories more. __ E L A Q U E A T E  22:46, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Ah, you're right; I thought the members of Category:Lists of fictional life forms were lists of characters, but they are lists of "species" (sort of).
 * I will nominate the parent "by species" to go back to "by nature". – Fayenatic  L ondon 10:10, 25 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Result was: no consensus. See link in box above. – Fayenatic  L ondon 14:46, 11 April 2014 (UTC)