Portal talk:Dogs/List of dog topics

There is now a Category:Dog types. What do folks think about putting links to categories inside articles in place of links to articles that are just lists? E.g., we could replace the whole new list section "Dog Groups" and its subcategories with a link to the category, which will have an inclusive list of all dog types that's automatically updated (whenever someone remembers to put a new article into that category, anyway). Elf | Talk 06:41, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)
 * I think we've got too many d*d categories, lists and talk pages, that's what I think! Anything to consolidate!


 * Are you saying, Elf, that you're going to get ride of Talk:List of Dog Topics and put everything listed there into Category:Dog Types? Are you further saying that with some kind of IT magic this will be updated automatically whenever someone writes a new article??!!  You genius, you!  Quill 06:54, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * Oh, I do so love being called a genius! If only it were so! I'm talking about the new Categories feature that is slowly spreading its way thru Wikipedia.  If you look at the end of the  Dog article, for example, you'll see a category box that says it's in  Category:Dogs  (and also at the moment Category:Pets). If you edit the page, you'll see the markup at the end of the article that puts it into those categories--looks like  .  The Category pages automatically display a list of all articles that contain a category link to that category (so, no, it doesn't figure it out automatically--someone has to assign an article to a category--but the Category page knows all the articles that have been assigned to it).


 * More info in m:MediaWiki User's Guide: Using Categories


 * Furthermore, each category can be assigned to a category, too--hence, Category:Dogs is in Category:Domesticated animals which is in Category:Animals...


 * Eventually, probably List of dog breeds *could* be replaced by Category:Dog breeds, but I think in fact we'd lose something because the category is a list of ONLY existing articles in the category--so any breeds for which there are no articles wouldn't show up AND we'd lose our handy-dandy cross references that we currently have within the List of dog breeds that makes it easy for people to look up variations on the names. So it might not replace the list artcile, but it's a good starting place if/when people start browsing by category rather than groping for article names to put into the search box.


 * Maybe List of dog topics could be replaced by Category:Dogs...there's a discussion about what kind of hierarchy of categories we could use at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Dog breeds (which you've seen already). Some debate about whether we'd want to flatten out the list that's in the List of dog topics or set up nested categories that reflect that structure.


 * You can't get rid of any Talk: pages. Those are automatically associated with every page (article) in the pedia. That's what the "discussion" button takes you to.
 * Yeppers; I follow. I misspoke; I didn't mean were you getting rid of the TALK page, but the List of Dog Topics as you typed above.  Quill 04:56, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * What I was suggesting at the moment was merely getting rid of the "Dog groups" and its subitems on this page that you just added and replacing it with a link to Category:Dog types; I'm just not sure whether people are starting to link to Category pages from within articles or whether that will be frowned on.
 * That's fine with me, but who puts the articles (in this case 'Dog Groups' and its subitems) into the place where 'Category: Dog types' picks them up automatically? Not I, said the cat.  Is that what you mean by 'the markup at the end of the article'?  If so, I haven't been doing that--not up to that yet.  I'm fine with it if someone else wants to got ahead and do the linking.  Quill 04:56, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * I'm fine with it if someone else does it, too. :-) It's not putting articles somewhere--it's adding the simple markup  to each article. It's a dirty job but someone has to do it. I've been adding categories to articles as the mood strikes me or as I go into an article for some other reason.  Sannse just bit the bullet and opened every danged dog breed-specific article and added  to each! Sannse gets big bonus points from me for that. Elf | Talk 06:02, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * Hope this makes sense; I'm a bit ill and sleepless as a result.Elf | Talk 12:38, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * I'm following along slowly. It'll help if you keep repeating yourself, using very small words so that I can understand!  Quill 04:56, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * Me Elf. Me tired. Go bed now. Woof. Elf | Talk 06:02, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * My opinion is that there is a need for a list / lists and a need for a category / categories too.
 * List of dog topics should be a good staring point. All lists and also all categories should be mentioned there. Gangleri 22:12, 2004 Oct 26 (UTC)


 * Again I'm having a little trouble sorting out what you're suggesting. Actually I've been working hard (off and on) on making this page go away completely because it can be replaced by Category:Dogs and its subcategories. Elf | Talk 04:18, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)