Wikipedia talk:Yellow Pages

My idea for this project is to create a hierarchy and directory of the meta pages. I created a few of what I thought were natural categories. ANybody who thinks of another should add it, or if you think of pages to add within the existing categories, please do that. An essential part of this system, as far as meeting the need I hope it will meet, is to create on the linked-to page a prominent link back to the index that links to it. My idea of a prominent link has been to make it a notice across the top, as in A Community Information page or A Style and How-to page. Right now, the "see also" links are unreliable. Sometimes the ideal link is there, sometimes it's not, often there are a bunch to choose from, and the titles don't make it obvious just how related the topics might be. Once people get the idea of the top link, they'll know that that's where to go to get a lay of the land. Instead of leap-frogging from one page to the next on a random search of uncertain duration, they can go to the index and see exactly what related articles exist grouped together and with names that help to make their relationship clear. I think this will not only make info a million times easier to find, I think it will make the meta content better. I think it will diminish the number of redundant and overlapping pages, because people won't be creating pages or appending to them in ignorance of the related pages, and because they are more liable to pick just the right page to add their thoughts to. Perhaps ultimately if there remain just a handful of primary taxa in the directory, they should just appear on the Main Page, and the Main Page in effect will become the top directory page (then we won't need a name!). BTW I picked "Yellow Pages" because the meta pages are yellow in the "classic" Wikipedia skin (which I use) and because the mode and purpose of this Wiki thing--categorization to help people easily find what they're looking for--seemed more or less the same as this familiar name for the phone book pages. Some people have objected to the name, which stuns me, because it seems absolutely perfect to me. 168...|...Talk 06:26, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)


 * Well, it's nice to know the reason for the name. It makes sense, but it can't cure the connotation of containing commercial listings, so I still object to the name. Regretfully, because it essentially feels like I'm being dour and objecting to a little sly humor. The problem is, when people are looking for information, humor can be confusing. I'll throw out a suggestion for a replacement: Information Library. --Michael Snow 23:41, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Optim's Linkies
LOL gettem — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.188.81.210 (talk) 14:57, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
 * I had started something similar a long time ago. See User:Optim/Links and use it if you like it. Optim 00:47, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Redirecting to community main page
With the new community main page, I think 168's project is no longer needed. We should be able to get everything we need on the new community page, so I propose to redirect there. --Michael Snow 20:15, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Your suggestion makes no sense at all and could have been said with regard to the old Main Page design. The Main Page is part of the problem, not the solution. There should be links to all the subdirectories like this one from the Main Page, b/c there's not enough space on the Main Page to put together everything that ought to be grouped.168...|...Talk 21:42, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)