User blog:Love Robin/Category Catacombs

I feel Villains Wiki categories need a massive revamping and reorganizing. I've already discussed a few of these thoughts with a couple Admins, and LucidPigeons asked me to put them down in one place.

As I've yet to absorb the entirety of the Gordian Knot which are the categories here, I may use as examples categories which are not used here. Please discuss the principle of such examples, and not attack the examples themselves.

Maybe not all of the following recommendation will be adopted here. Every wikia has its own needs and internal-logic for how it does things, but these certainly bear consideration and discussion.

Title/Naming
Many of the Cats have titles which are too wordy, which not only adds to a massive block of wall'o'text at the bottom of many articles, but makes remembering them harder for the occasional visitor and contributor to recall exactly. Was it "villains who…", or "villains that…", sort of thing. In my experience the less wordy and terser the Cat name, the better for all.

For example, Category:Villains who are biologically related to the hero is far too wordy and can be better serviced by "Related to Hero". You don't even need "biologically" as that is information which the article itself provides, and frankly not many visitors will make the distinction when searching for characters they want.

Villains and Evil
This wikia is for VILLAINS and EVIL characters. No pages which are not about either should be here. Therefore these words could and should be dropped. Categories renamed.
 * Admins, if you don't already know, there are Tools available which will Rename Categories. Don't even need to have Bot flag to use them, although with the sheer number of renames I'm recommending, it is advisable to have.

Therefore there it is unnecessary to have Cats which are "Evil anything". For example there are no "Good" clowns allowed on Villains Wiki, to say Category:Evil Clowns is redundant. It only adds to the number of words among the mass at the bottom of pages.

Same for "Villains". Again, every character here has qualified as a villain enough to be here. Therefore it is redundant to have the word in so many Cats. Category:Male Villains is the same as Category:Males with one less word.

Dropping these TWO WORDS ALONE will immediately reduce the bottom page masses by 2/3s to nearly HALF. Factor in the number of words which can be trimmed from many other Cats, and the mass-reduction will be even greater.

Default-level
There are some categories which are just plain "default level". Common-sense level. For example Category:Living Villains, or "Alive". This is unnecessary because a character should be presumed living until told otherwise. Any character NOT tagged with Category:Deceased Villains is of course "Living".

Same for Category:Recurring villain. Hey, any character NOT tagged with Category:One-Shot Villains is of course "Recurring".

Applying
Far far faaaarrrr too many cats are being attached to characters which do not need to be. A category should define a character, not be tagged to them due to 1 to a couple non-defining instances.

For example, if a character in an appearance puts on clown makeup or costume for any reason, especially Halloween and Parties, they should not be tagged with Category:Evil Clowns. That instance does not DEFINE them. So the Cat does not apply.

In addition, do not use categories which another is already tagged with similar or which better covers it. For example we have Category:Villains who have Died with Honor, Category:Died in Disgrace, and Category:Deceased Villains. The first two are contradictory and so should never be used on the same character UNLESS there was a resurrection involved at some point. They also convey more information than "Deceased" and therefore should be used instead whenever applicable.

Sub Categories
Categories also need a restructuring especially in regards to sub-categories. Sub-Cats should be subsets of their parents.

For example Category:Stranglers has Category:Telekinetics as a sub-Cat. I'm sure the reasoning is due to Darth Vader and other Force Initiates using the Force to do this act. However it really should not be. Telekinetics are not all stranglers. Or vice versa. Not because this character can do This&That, so because they are in Cat-This, then Cat-That should be Sub to it.

Sub Categories should make sense in their progression. For example a Category:Vehicles should have as sub-cats something like Aircraft, Watercraft, and Landcraft. Then under Landcraft' Wheeled and Hover (or Wheelless), etc. Then under Wheeled, Automobile, then under that "Limousines", "Cars", and "Cycles", etc.

See? Progression which makes sense. Something in a Sub-Cat usually should be applicable to every Cat-level above it. And in this example then, a jeep should ONLY be Tagged with "Cars" as every cat above should be understood as applying. We know a jeep is a car, a "Wheeled" "Landcraft" "Vehicle". We don't need ALL tagged to it.

Of course, times a page may fit more than one subcat that the same level. For example a the Back to the Future Delorean would also fit under "Aircraft" since it has also undergone a conversion enabling it to fly.

Or in other words, pick the subcat(s) which best apply and leave off all above them.
 * Another example:
 * Category:Deceased Villains
 * Category:Villains who have Died with Honor
 * Category:Died in Disgrace
 * Category:Resurrected or Resuscitated
 * Died Multiple Times