Feminist SF Wiki:Categorization

• See Manual of style#Categorization for information about capitalization, names, etc.

For information about ways of organizing information, see FSFwiki:Organizing information (covering categories, lists, infoboxes, navboxes, etc.).

Philosophical approach to categorization

The FSFwiki is a resource dedicated to FSF. Because this is not a general encyclopedia/resource, a certain level of "feminist SF" specificity is assumed as the norm. Things which are not feminist SF are therefore more likely to need explication and distinctive categorization.

However, a general category tree is useful. And the greater specificity and completeness of feminist SF on the resource indicates a need for greater detail in feminist SF categories.

How this affects categorization is being worked out. Below are some test cases:

Category:Publishers and presses

Category:Publishers and presses is a generic category. However, within it is a predominance of feminist SF publishers; also some women's presses; and some SF-specific presses. It fits within the larger structure of the Business of SF (which includes multiple media) and Category:Book industry (which includes multiple genres, including SF, queer, and women's oriented presses).

• Does it make more sense to have the generic category, and then diffuse into each possibly relevant subcategory (feminist SF, SF, queer, women's/feminist, academic, etc.)?
  • The advantage is that there are specific discrete groupings, and it's easy to isolate particular groups that are important -- feminist SF publishers.
  • The disadvantage is that it requires a lot of line-drawing; it splits things up perhaps unnecesarily; there are a lot of small categories.
  • Comments: But maybe small categories don't matter; this is a very specific and topical wiki, so small categories are to be expected.
  • Comment: Wikipedia is ultimately going to introduce category intersection features. Assuming that is embedded in the software, or an extension we can add, then treating the category structure as a fairly shallow structure for organizing tags might make sense.
• Or does it make more sense to have every press and publisher redundantly listed in Category:Publishers and presses; and also use appropriate category tags to tag them more specifically?

Proposed guidelines

Redundant categorization versus diffusing into subcategories

• Items should be placed in the generic category as well as more specific categories. Mediawiki software will allow intersectioning at some point, so combination categories won't be necessary. For example: The Left Hand of Darkness should get the general categories Category:Novels and Category:1969 publications and Category:Hugo Award winning novels. Intersectioning subcategories ([[Category:1969 Hugo Award winning novels]]) are not necessary.

Works of fiction

• Medium
• Year of publication (this is akin to year of birth for people; it should be a stand-alone)
• Specific format
• Subject terms
• Awards won
• Keyword for continuity/universe ("Earthsea", "LOTR", "Star Wars")
• Languages ("Works in language) (but category scheme in english? that's not right)

Characters

• Identity categories (rarely permitted in wikipedia)
• Occupational categories
• Keyword for continuity/universe

People

• Birth, Death, Living people
• Identity categories
• Occupational categories
• Awards won (rarely permitted in wikipedia)

Organizations

• Year of establishment ("1995 establishment") - akin to a year of birth for people
• Year of disestablishment ("1995 disestablishment") - akin to a year of death for people

Events

• Topic of event ("Category:Games and gaming"; "Category:Comics")
• Specific con event (Category:WisCon 30 panels) which is itself categorized into appropriate event categories and time categories (Category:2006 panels, and Category:WisCon panels or Category:SF con panels); OR
  • Year of event ("Category:2000 events"); AND
  • Type of event ("Category:SF con panels"; more specific type of event, e.g., "Category:WisCon 30 panels")

For example:

• The "Gender and Gaming" panel at Wiscon 30 is categorized with Category:Games and gaming and Category:WisCon 30 panels. WisCon 30 panels is categorized into Category:Panels by year and Category:WisCon panels.
• The "Gender of SF" panel at Penguicon 2.0 is categorized with Category:Event topic category missing, Category:SF con panels and Category:2004 panels.

Languages

We do not follow Wikipedia's Languages and interwiki protocols. This is (at least in theory and intent) a multilingual project.

• Tag for language that article is in ... default English no tag, until some reasonable proportion of non-English-language works are in the wiki; then everything should be tagged
• Language tags should be simply give a distinctive three-letter code for the primary language of that article, in that language, with no variations for regional or dialectic variations. For example:
  • Category:Deu not [[Category:Deutsche]]
  • Category:Eng not [[Category:American English]] or [[Category:Am Eng]]
  • Category:Esp not [[Category:Spa]]

• Category names that include accents probably should just go to the simplest ascii set for category tags. In article titles, we can keep the main article with the appropriate accenture, and use redirects from ascii-simple versions. But in category tags, there is no simple redirect method; items can be added to a non-existent category. So, for example:
  • Category:Laa not [[Category:Láa]]

• We should tag for each language that is substantively represented on a page. Short quotes and excerpts in a language that is not the primarily language of the article should include a translation to the primary language of the article. It is not necessary to tag that article with the tag for the language of the short quote or excerpt.

• Ideally, whatever language material is in, it should be categorized and linked to relevant material in other languages, again, regardless of the languages involved. Ultimately all articles should include multiple translations and the ability to add new ones. Visualizing it, "translations" would be an additional tab on an article. If you click on "translations" it displays a series of subtabs for existing translations, as well as a "New translation" subtab.
  • Clicking on "new translation" opens up a typical editing window, with the additional choice of "language"; it copies the original-language text into a side window for easy reading and translating, as well as a permalink to that version of the article.
  • A translation page should include a modifiable columnar format, with the original language translated and a link to the version translated in one column, and the translated text in the other column. The columns should be resizable and the "translation" column should be editable. Each translation should track its own history.
  • The system should be able to handle multiple translations into a single language; e.g., very different translations into French of a particular article. However, editors should generally edit and work with the original translation page unless they have a very different approach that will also add unique value.

Formatting

• Capitalization rules follow wikipedia rules: Proper names are capped; First letter of a phrase is capped.

Sorting and alphabetizing titles and names

• People's names should be sorted typically by surname; titles should be sorted ignoring articles (A, An, The, Le, La, etc.)

• DEFAULTSORT: Use the DEFAULTSORT magic word to help out with titles and names of people and organizations. Example:
  • {{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen Hayden, Teresa}}
  • {{DEFAULTSORT:Title, The}}

DEFAULTSORT is not helpful for subject-oriented categories, because the sorting may vary across supercategory. For instance, [[Category:Feminist SF]] would be categorized and sorted as [[Category:SF|Feminist works]] and [[Category:Feminist works|SF]].

Year of publication

• "Publications" is used in its broadest sense: made available to the public. Consequently, books, films, music recordings, theatrical productions, and other works of art are all considered to be published in the year they were made available to the public.
• All published works should include a publication year.
• Unpublished (private) works may be listed as forthcoming if they are by a previously published writer or if they have been accepted for publication.
• Unpublished works, such as personal correspondence, should be listed by year of creation; or, year begun and year finished; or, year begun and last year worked on. (This does not mean that unpublished works are necessarily OK to include; if they are okay to include, then this is how to date them.)

Mode of analysis

We need some categories, or perhaps tags, to indicate mode of analysis. For example, "feminist" is default and nothing should be tagged "feminist"; everything here will be either feminist or congruent with feminism. However, topics that come more out of specific strands of feminism or congruent analyses need some categorization or tagging. For instance, Category:Materialist analysis was added to the fan-fiction article. The article, if it is to remain a primarily materialist analysis, should be retitled; but what should the category be? Similarly, an article about Anti-racism analysis of Earthsea certainly belongs here; but how to categorize it: Category:Anti-racism? Category:Anti-racist analysis? It would be nice to have a scheme that was easy to understand.

Namespace, categories, tags

• Namespace is the tag in the name before the colon. "Main space" material has no namespace tag. Material such as FSFwiki:Mission with the FSFwiki namespace indicates that it's a subordinate or process or maintenance-oriented aspect of the FSFwiki project. For instance, the templates namespace is used to put templates, which have an operational and programmatic function. The talk namespace is used for discussions about the contents of articles; the material stays associated with the article.
• Categories are a type of namespace, and a way to organize articles together in a structure.
• Tags are a particular use of the category function; distinguished from the taxonomic use.