Wikipedia talk:Category names/Archive 7

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"United States" or "U.S." in Category titles

NOTE: Copied from the Village pump discussion Wikipedia:Village_pump_(policy)#.22United_States.22_or_.22U.S..22_in_Category_titles Semiconscious · talk 01:16, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

I've proposed changing the category title Category:United_States presidential candidates to Category:U.S. presidential candidates (see proposal here). It looks like there's an opinion on the "Categories for deletion" page against changing. That's fine with me. But we need some consistency.

What I'm looking for is a consistent standard for Category titles when the name of the country starts the title. This isn't about Articles, Templates, or content (although it's not unrelated). If you look at Category:U.S. presidential elections you'll see both used.

Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) says to use "United States" when in a list of countries or when using "…of the United States" or "…in the United States." But what I'm talking about is when "United States" starts the category name, such as Category:United States presidential candidates, or the like. Surf around near Category:United States presidential candidates and see what I mean.

—Mark Adler (markles) 13:40, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

This debate is done and dusted. Abbreviations are deprecated and converting U.S. to United States in category names is one of the speedy correction criteria on categories for deletion.
There is no reason to have abbreviations in article, category, etc. titles. Avoiding ambiguity is the goal of an encyclopedia, and claiming "everyone knows what 'US' means" (which you are not necessarily doing, but would be the only rational counterargument) is americocentric. I could just as easily say "everyone should understand 'CAR' is the Central African Republic. Semiconscious · talk 10:02, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
I agree with Semiconscious; this has been clearly hammered out and established already, and the example category is clearly an artifact. Avoid abbreviations. siafu 21:44, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
I agree with Semiconscious too. Also note, if you put Category:U.S. presidential elections into a notional Category:Presidential elections by country it immediately becomes part of a list of Presedential elections by country, therefore it should not be abbreviated. Categories are just a technical way of displaying lists. Hiding talk 21:55, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

policy or guideline

As Radiant! points out, most sub-naming conventions are tagged with template:guideline rather than template:policy. Why should this one be different? The answer is that this one includes both guidelines (for example, the "General naming conventions" section) and procedural instructions, specifically the first paragraph in the "Categories by country" section which elevates conformance to the list of "by country" conventions to the list of speedy rename criteria and specifies how the list of conventions are maintained. The speedy rename criteria is included in Wikipedia:Category deletion policy (which is marked with template:policy), although the list of "by country" conventions is not included there. I'd be OK with moving (all) the policy related information elsewhere and reducing this page to a naming guidelines page, but without doing that I'm reluctant to simply tag this as a guideline. -- Rick Block (talk) 15:36, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

I was going to make the same remark. I'm fairly familiar with every Wikipedia policy, and this is probably the "softest" one. It is simply a collection of conventions and guidelines. I don't see how you could even give someone a slap on the list for violating anything here, which is not true for, say, Bots, No open proxies, Three revert rule, Username or Banning policy. Rick, I suggest you make the change you mention. Stevage 21:09, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Trade unions

I picked up on the "Nationality x" vs. "in country" issue recently while expanding Category:Trade unions by country. I've held off creating more cats because I'd like to see them migrated to the in country format. I left a note at WikiProject Organized Labour, but it is a fairly small project still, and there has been no comment on the issue. Personally, I don't think there will be any objection to making this move, but perhaps people here have more experience in judging that. I'm willing to do the work on the change over, but would appreciate help in ensuring the proper steps are followed at CfD. (As a side note, I think it should be "in country", not "of country" because of the international nature of some unions.)--Bookandcoffee 22:04, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd support that. Of course, I've long wanted to depopulate all the "nationality x"-based categories that aren't specifically part of "by nationality" categorization trees. The Tom 03:20, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
I put this up at CfD, Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 March 7#Category:Canadian trade unions to Category:Trade unions in Canada. Comments would be appreciated. --Bookandcoffee 18:37, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Trade unions by country (part 2)

A previous discussion here [1] was unable to reach a consensus on converting to Category:Trade unions in **** from Category:****ian trade unions. Further discussion has been started at WikiProject Organized Labour. Comments and opinions are welcome. --Bookandcoffee 22:46, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

Political office-holders

I've tried my best to outline the rule of thumb that's evolved for the various political office-holder categories over successive CfDs and added it to the page, explaining why some categories take "in" and some "of". That said, I realize that sticking this up here out of the blue might give it a false sense of legitimacy, so I'd welcome any comments or criticism before it gets entrenched into the general body of rules. The Tom 00:07, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Family categories?

Two recent discussions have taken place at CFD, and perhaps we might want to codify the categorization based on them if there is enough precedent:

It seems that royal dynasties are going with Category:Dynastyname (ie Category:Bonaparte) while political family names are going with Category:Familyname family (ie Category:Roosevelt family, being converted from Category:Roosevelt atm).

Thoughts? --Syrthiss 16:24, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Disambiguation subcategories

Quite a few disambiguation subcategories have popped up in recent history - but their naming is all over the place (the category is a self reference and for maintenance). We had a discussion at Wikipedia:Disambiguation to decide on a new naming convention.

The result was to change names like:

to

I tried to introduce the new naming convention at Category talk:Tropical cyclone disambiguation but someone said it "doesn't meet requirements of naming conventions for categories". How to I get the new naming convention approved?--Commander Keane 22:50, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

The "result" was contested, had insufficient discussion, and is contrary to previous consensus. It's not a matter of getting them approved, as they simply don't meet the guidelines for naming categories.
  • Category:Lists of Interstate Highways sharing the same title was chosen to match other existing categories. It begins with "Lists of ..." because every page in it is itself a list; in this case, of "Interstate highways" (plural as required by this guideline). While "... sharing the same title" may not be my first choice, the highways folks preferred that to "ambiguous Interstate highways", as the highways themselves are not ambiguous.
  • Category:Ambiguous three-letter acronyms is an old category in the process of being emptied, replaced (after CfR Feb 20) by Category:Lists of three-character combinations. Again, "Lists of ..." as all the pages are lists, and "three-character combinations" include both letters and numbers, not merely acronyms. The formal list of acronyms is not appropriate as a category: "comprehensive lists ... which must include all items regardless of whether an article already exists for them, should not be replaced by categories." Those are maintained at the TLA lists.
--William Allen Simpson 07:12, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Natural features

Currently Natural features are named "of country". I'm proposing that this be changed to "in country", with the exception of National parks and protected areas, which should remain "of country".

Country categories on Wikipedia are used in the sense of a country being a state. These categories stem from list of countries, which is comprised of "internationally recognized and generally unrecognized independent states", as well as "inhabited dependent territories, as well as areas of special sovereignty." Using these parameters for a country, something can only be "of" that country if it is of the state. Such as Category:Militaries by country (a branch of the government), Category:Companies by country (an organization which must be granted a corporate charter designed by the government), or Category:Heads of state by country (a position of office designated by the government). Each of these examples all stem from the government itself, and so their categories by country are named "of country" on Wikipedia.

Natural features however almost always pre-date the formation of any country, and do not stem in any way from a government. Some infact cross or have multiple state borders, such as the Amazon River, the Caspian Sea, or the Columbia Mountains. These natural entities are not "of" a country, they are instead in a country, or in more than one country. Moreover, in many cases natural entities have outlasted countries, such as Category:Rivers of Czechoslovakia. Changing the naming convention of Natural features to "in country" instead of "of country" is the most appropriate wording to use.

Lastly, man-made entities that fall under the subject of natural features should remain with the wording "of country", such as National parks and protected areas. This is appropriate given the "of country" naming of government-dependent entities such as companies. National parks, protected areas, and companies all require the legal approval of a government for their existance, and so are rightfully "of" that country given their creation and dependance on that country.

As an aside, I just noticed there is no entry on Wikipedia for natural feature or natural features. It looks like landform has the same meaning. Perhaps this would be a better subject title?

I welcome thoughts and comments about this proposal. Kurieeto 23:45, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm in broad agreement. For what it's worth, I'd say there's a bit of intentional ambiguity on "country," which can ambiguously either refer to stuff linked to state apparatuses (ie Category:Naval ships by country), which aren't necessarily spatial, or stuff within territorial divisions of the earth (ie Category:Cathedrals by country). Both of those can be contrasted with the non-spatial non-state-linked categories which are tied to "by nationality" (cultural stuff, individual people, etc.) While I don't think an ironclad "territorial = x in y; state-linked = x of y" rule that applies to all categories is in our best interest, in this particular case there's some conceptual clarity to be gained in moving to "in"s with the exception of the protected areas. As for landform terminology... while it seems a bit odd to think of a river as a landform, the article seems to make it clear that that's the accepted geographical word, so why not. The Tom 05:26, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
I've renamed Natural features to Landforms on the main page here. I think the next step is to setup Category:Landforms by country categories, which would fall between Category:Geography by country and say Category:Rivers by country. I think there should also be a parent cat of Landforms by country, like Landforms by region, to accomodate Antarctica or Mars or other entities. Kurieeto 12:29, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Organizations

I'd also like Category:Organizations by country to change from "Nationality x" to "of country". Organizations should be treated as Companies are, as they both require a charter from the government as a corporation, non-profit corporation, or charitable organization. Comments welcomed. Kurieeto 23:45, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm in strong agreement. Those "Nationality x" categories that are under "by country" are anomalous and need to be dispersed one way or the other. Going to "of country" makes the most sense in the case of Category:Organizations by country and Category:Environmental organizations by country. The Tom 05:18, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
In regard to Nationality x categories I've put up a proposal at CFD here for the renaming of Youth wings of political parties by country categories, and another one here for the renaming of Aircraft manufacturing companies by country categories. Kurieeto 11:52, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Sadly enough, I'm not seeing traction on the media categories over at CFD. They're probably the only ones that ought to go the other way, ie, keep the nationality. The Tom 18:02, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Actors and Actresses!

As I said here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Categories_for_deletion/Log/2006_April_17#Category:Iranian_actresses_to_Category:Iranian_actors

Ok, let me be clearer, if somebody want to know how many Iranian, American, Japanese, Indian blah blah blah, actresses are in Wikipedia, how he\she can find out such information? I've just said, having these two words in English, is a very good opportunity, Wikipedia should be most easiest to use as well as most reliable\largest encylopedia in history, just say me how many actors and actresses are stated in wikipedia, you don't know ! and this is another problem guys, for God's sake believe SOLID materials like Wiki's current laws are fragile, not today but someday they will kill wikipedia, Mammuts were so big and unflexible so they died but ants were tiny but flexible and they are alive!. We NEED such classifications, because we can't say our readers how to search or use wiki, we can predict all of their actions and we have to do most we can, I will start another discussion about wiki laws, let go there and continue our discussion there, ok?Sasanjan 22:07, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

we have to separate Actresses from Actors.Sasanjan 14:31, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Acting is the same job, involving the same activities, whether carried out by a man or a woman. We don't generally separate other professions by gender. You've not made any argument as to why actors should be a special case. The usefulness of being able to count male and female actors separately would be the only gain I can see from the suggestion you're making; I'm not sure why that is a particularly useful thing to know. Valiantis 13:37, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
Just for a minute think, this is your opinion, so what about other wiki visitors, somebody may wanna know how many female actors are available in Wikipedia, what to done then?Sasanjan 15:22, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
Erm, yes. This is my opinion. What else would you expect me to post? If anyone else feels strongly enough on this issue, no doubt they will post comments here. If you feel that the current policy on naming conventions should be changed, you might like to make a specific proposal as is described in the opening paragraphs of Wikipedia:Naming conventions. Valiantis 13:26, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
YES?! ... we're talking about WIKIPEDIA ! not about our favourites !!! I don't like any kind of change anywhere ! I like my habbits, because I'm Iranian, I hate any change ! BUT (a big BUT) I'm here to say what's the best way of classifying information! only because of visitors!!! nothing else! Sasanjan 06:52, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Abbreviations: to expand or not to expand?

There has been some dispute in Wikipedia:Categories for deletion about when to expand abbreviations in category names. A lot of people think it is an absolute requirement that all abbreviations be expanded. Some make exceptions for only a very few extremely well-known abbreviations. The relevant portion of Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) is:

  • Avoid abbreviations. Example: "World War II equipment", not "WW2 equipment".

Although this is not an absolute prohibition, it doesn't give any indication as to what the exceptions might be.

I'd like to argue that the length of the name should be a factor for category names (which is in sharp contrast to article names for which a really long name isn't much of a problem). Because category names appear at the bottom of articles in a format which puts as many categories on a line as will fit, really long names add to the clutter and make it hard to sort through more than a few categories.

Therefore I think the convention should be updated to explicitely say that avoiding long names and keeping well-known abbreviations are valid reasons for keeping an abbreviations in a category name.

I'd also like to change the criteria for speedy renaming of categories to not include the expanding of abbreviations. --JeffW 21:11, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for taking the time to instigate this thread, JeffW. Having tended to favor the expansion of abbreviations in category names, I'm now thinking it might be better to favor using or retaining them, especially if there'd be no consensus or prospect of modifying the category-listing routine (to prevent splitting long or wordy category names across lines). However, if abbreviations were to be (re)embraced, I'd say it should become a requirement that anyone creating or proposing to move a category to a name that uses an abbreviation must at the very least include a sentence at the top of the category's page that expands the abbreviation. (If appropriate, a neat way to achieve this might be via a {{main}} link.) Regards, David Kernow 01:40, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
I agree - a note at the head of the page expanding the abbreviation should suffice. i nominated using acronym naming for sub-cats, but it looks like it ll be rejected. i think now that the criteria should be that as long as no other common meaning for the acronym exists (eg.ATP would be problematic) and as long as the abbreviated name is at least nearly as commonly used as the spelled-out name, then the abbreviated name should be used. i do think though that the supra-cat name should be the same as the name given to that entity's article page (eg. National Hockey League and Category:National Hockey League should be kept, but Category:NHL players should be used; NASCAR and Category:NASCAR should be used). page naming in wikipedia has tended strongly to reflect common as opposed to official name use and acronyms are very commonly used as adjectives to describe things such as players, teams, members (take Category:WTO members - when we talk about members of a WTO, we know which WTO we are refering to, and if someone doesn t, the page header clarifies) Mayumashu 01:55, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
i do think though that the supra-cat name should be the same as the name given to that entity's article page
Absolutely; something I forgot to include in the above. Thanks, David Kernow 12:44, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
There must be billions of people in the world who don't know what the WTO is, and Wikipedia should be easy to use for them too. Bhoeble 16:29, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Category:LGBT, has been criticised, but never for having an initialism as name (afaik). I think one should avoid the use of abbreviations and acronyms in page names where possible (Compare WP:WOTTA, which is about abbreviations in project namespace, so doesn't really apply here, nonetheless interesting for comparison), but for categories maybe not as strict as for article names (compare wikipedia:naming conventions (acronyms)). But maybe an explicit "permission" would be as unneeded as an explicit prohibition (even for article names there's no real prohibition): I think the first principle of page naming is recognition, meaning that only well-recognised, and generally used acronyms could be used; Another principle is to make page names not longer than needed (which in the case of categories is often somewhat more an issue than for articles, so defensible to be a bit less strict on the avoidance of acronyms in the case of categories); And then, there's "good taste" (aka avoiding to be contentious when there is no need for it) - maybe that's why the acronym works better for the LGBT category. --Francis Schonken 09:20, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Oppose The category system is a navigation tool. As far as possible people who are unfamiliar with a topic should be able to form an accurate idea of the contents of a category without clicking it. This can only be done by eliminating abbreviations. Bhoeble 16:27, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

As above, I'm coming round to agreeing that the longer the abbreviation, the longer and more unwieldy the expansion; and the longer the abbreviation, the more specialist it's likely to be, so anyone finding such an abbreviation that doesn't already know what it means is probably already motivated (i.e. happy) to go that further click to find out. (What then needs to be ensured is that the category page carries the expanded version.) I'd hope more and more folk are using tabbed browsers these days, which, if so, makes me think opening an extra tab to view a category page is not particularly inconvenient. Regards, David Kernow 16:43, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
As I navigation tool I don't think people are coming upon categories blind. Either their coming at it from the bottom or from the top but they will have some idea of what the category is about just by where it is placed in the category hierarchy. It's a tradeoff, but I think that the disadvantages of an unwieldy category name shouldn't be discounted. --JeffW 21:17, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

From Category:WAGGGS member organization to Category:World Association of Girl Guides etc etc etc:
...That puts it into areas of closing admin discretion so I am closing this as no consensus pending some insightful outcome at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (categories)#Spelling Out Acronyms. I personally agree that while insiders to the community know WOSM and WAGGGS, anyone from outside the community shouldn't (and likely wouldn't) open the category just to try and figure out what the acronym meant. In those latter cases, the categorization scheme on Wikipedia has failed. In the case of NASCAR, the popularity of the branding makes the acronym itself a proper name. I reserve the ability to reopen this debate with all votes in place if the above discussion doesn't break new ground. I await howls of Rouge Admin at my talk page. ;) --Syrthiss 15:06, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
 No howls of "Rogue admin!" here; instead thanks for a considered approach. Essentially I support the above, but fear new cans of worms will be opened as people argue over whether certain abbreviations are or aren't popularly/generally known. Instead, I'd suggest pitching the policy along the lines of:

Use an abbreviation unless you or someone else makes a case that it can stand for more than one popularly/generally known thing.

That way abbreviations such as WAGGGS, WOSM, NASCAR, CCABG etc would remain as abbreviations, while (shorter) abbreviations such as ABA would most likely need expanding. Regards, David Kernow 16:32, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

  • Oppose The above example shows that things are already decided on a case by case basis, so the only reason to change the policy would be to increase the number of abbreviations which are kept, which is not the way we should go. There are no space restrictions so it is better to spell everything out unless the full version is less clear, as with NASCAR (but few others). Sumahoy 17:17, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
    • The space limitation is at the bottom of articles. --JeffW 19:51, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
    • ...things are already decided on a case by case basis...
      Well, searching for some compromise between the benefits of expanded abbreviations (assists comprehension) and its drawbacks (the longer the abbreviation, the more unwieldy the name), how about:
      All abbreviations of four or more letters remain as abbreviations, to prevent unwieldy category titles; all those of three or less are expanded.
      —Preceding unsigned comment added by David Kernow (talk • contribs)
  • Expand -- Especially in the case of categories, expansion is crucial. If "WW2" is insufficiently well known and should be expanded, just about anything else is less known. Why treat the World Toilet Organization (WTO) differently? Or "NASCAR" (what does that stand for)? And truly obscure "WAGGGS" and "WOSM"? The longer and more obscure, the more necessary to expand. Expand them all! There's no bit tax (yet), and multi-line lists of categories are not a serious problem.
    --William Allen Simpson 22:10, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
    • One thing to remember is that some some groups are no longer abbreviations. So if NASCAR was the correct name, it should not be expanded to National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Some terms no longer stand for something but are in fact the name of that something. Vegaswikian 22:32, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
      • I think it is important to distinguish between abbreviations and acronyms. NASCAR, for example, is an acronym. I think this is what Vegaswikian is alluding to. Generally, abbreviations should be spelt out; acronyms are often the word that has meaning to most readers. Other examples that might benefit from being left in their acronymic form would be NATO and NASA. Valiantis 01:17, 30 April 2006 (UTC)
        • No, all acronyms are still abbreviations, and all initialisms are still abbreviations. Vegaswikian is (correctly) describing the fairly common practice of adapting an abbreviation to become the official name. For example, the acronym "Michigan Educational Research Information Triad" (MERIT) became a "Tetrad" and eventually reincorporated as just Merit Network, Inc. when it built the NSFnet. Did National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing officially do that? (It's not actually national, and not actually stock, either.)
          --William Allen Simpson 13:16, 30 April 2006 (UTC)
      • OK, apologies if I am misrepresenting Vegaswikian. And yes, acronyms are a type of abbreviation. Do you know the correct term for an abbreviation that is neither an acronym nor an "initialism"? I still consider that acronyms that are commonplace are better left as acronyms rather than expanded to a form that is less comprehensible. In the case of NASCAR, you know what NASCAR is and means. I (a non-American with no interest in motor-sport) also know what NASCAR is and means (vaguely). A reader who has never heard of NASCAR will be little wiser whether they encounter the word in its acronym or spelt-out form, but for those who have heard of it, it would be less comprehensible if spelt out - you stated in your earlier comment above that you don't know what it stands for! It would seem daft to increase confusion by slavishly following a rule which was introduced with the intention of reducing confusion. Valiantis 00:54, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
        • You are looking for Apocopation. No, until this debate, I'd never bothered to learn the expansion of NASCAR, and did not know what it meant. It was not popular in my area of the US as I was growing up, and is often sneered at now. Apparently, it's one of those annoying organizations that calls itself "national" when it was actually regional, and according the the article "Stock Car" was only in its first year, nearly a century ago. Anyway, the obscurity is a very good reason to expand the silly "Car Auto" faux initialism, a meaningless string of words strung together to make the acronym.
          --William Allen Simpson 10:32, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Valiantis' clarification re acronyms – thanks for mentioning – and since the majority view here (thus far) is to expand all abbreviations, let's forge on. Suggest the "Avoid abbreviations..." guideline under ../#General naming conventions modified to include Valiantis' point. Regards, David Kernow 11:36, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

DO NOT ALWAYS EXPAND Some categories are left alone because they're supposedly well-known (NASCAR), but others are left alone that arena't well know (ARCA). On any given day, you can find cats with abbreviations that have never been proposed for deabbrev. Some cats deabbreviations would create names almost TWO LINES LONG (like World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts member associations in the western hemisphere)...Let's get real here. Is this what we want at the bottom of articles---a cat that is a full sentence? The current policy is inconsistently enforced and would justify a category for "Articles with ridiculously long names". In such a case, an explanation at the top of the categroy page should suffice. Rlevse 20:08, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

PS - why is okay to have ARCA drivers and LGBT not spelled out despite the current policy? I could go on and on with more categories, but the bottom line is this policy is inconsistent and needs to be modified.Rlevse 15:56, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Case by case basis I agree with Rlevse. Some things are ridiculous to expand. You can have too many words. I found a great quote: My great-grandfather used to say to his wife, my great-grandmother, who in turn told her daughter, my grandmother, who repeated it to her daughter, my mother, who used to remind her daughter, my own sister, that to talk well and eloquently was a very great art, but that an equally great one was to know the right moment to stop. ~Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Coffeeboy 18:16, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
Oppose Nearly all of them should be expanded. NASCAR is one of only a handful of exceptions I can think of, and that is because it is much more familiar than the full form. Hawkestone 18:30, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

NASCAR is special because why? And who gets to decide this? Some arbitrary group? How many foreigners do you think know what it is? I also noticed you conveniently neglected to mention the "LGBT" and "ARCA drivers" categories. Rlevse 10:08, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Case by case: Most of the times, a user will see a category for the first time at the end of some page. If I go to a page such as Cars (film), I will be left wondering what NASCAR is, because NASCAR is only mentioned once in the text and never explained (and I am under the impression that almost no one outside the USAUnited States of America knows what it is). If I go to the page of a member of organization X, it will probably say at the very beginning "this is member of organization X, which stands for xx xxxx xxx". (if the article doesn't say this, it will need this clarification anyway, whatever the result of this discussion on cathegories). In this case, there will be no need to expand the abbreviation in the category name, because the reader already knows what it means. --Lou Crazy 21:24, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Case by case: As per Rlevse, Lou, Coffee. --Naha|(talk) 22:32, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

What do each of you mean by "case by case". The text of the convention currently just states:
Avoid abbreviations. Example: "World War II equipment", not "WW2 equipment".
It seems many people are currently taking this to mean that the only exceptions are very rare and only on the basis of how well-known the abbreviation is. Would you favor adding text to say that it is reasonable to take the length of the resulting category name into consideration when deciding whether to keep an abbreviation? Do you think abbreviation-expansion should be a speedy-renaming criteria? --JeffW 22:57, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

I'd prefer this to be decided on a case by case basis as well. Some clarifying language would be helpful. I think some editors have interpreted "avoid abbreviations" to be an absolute dictum "Thou shalt not use any abbreviations", which IMO is silly. older ≠ wiser 02:20, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree with older/wiser. Also,it should NOT be a speedy criteria. ALSO NOTE: The NASCAR category DOES NOT EVEN EXPAND ITS ACRONYM OUT IN THE TEXT OF THE CATEGORY PAGE, WHICH SOME OF THE CATS MENTION DO AT LEAST DO. Rlevse 10:08, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
Agree with User:Bkonrad aka older -wiser --evrik 19:26, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

I can see this isn't going to be easy. For example- which is more recognizable: laser or light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation? And yes, lasers is a category with sub-cats of laser science and military lasers. Under the no abbreviations rule, these would be expanded to the point where only the pundits would understand it. Ditto for radar with six sub-cats. The article for laser is under laser, but the graser article is under Gamma-Ray Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. (I knew that certification would come in handy someday). A hard and fast rule is simply not going to work here. I don't think the exceptions are as rare as some may think. A shallow dive into the categories revels sonar, NASA, GNU project, and BSD. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 02:37, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Why not throw my lot in with the radical expansionists? I would support expanding out even NASCAR. This is an encyclopedia: we always value added information over slightly increased brevity—especially in the "end material" of articles, i.e. everything below the "See also" section, with the possible exception of deleting linkspam, which is neither here nor there. People shouldn't have to click on a category to see what the acronym means—no point in creating nebulous distinction here over whether some acronyms are more well-known than others. There really is no added utility, even with the longer acronyms, of saving space in the categorization box. One exception I would support is if the acronym has become a word, which is distinct from well-known. Scuba, for example, appears in all dictionaries as a word in its own right.

It appears likely that the result of this discussion will be that this can't be speedied and that we need a case by case analysis. Even if that is true, we can still make general guidelines. I propose (for starters): I reserve the right to update this list

Things always to be expanded
  1. Organization names
  2. Country names and acronyms which only hold true in one country (MP for Minister of Parliament comes to mind)
Things never to be expanded
  1. Acronyms that have become words

Also, obviously this policy should only apply to the article space. For the project space, acronyms known by Wikipedians should be fair game. Also, LGBT isn't really an acronym in the traditional sense, so its not a good example for those who oppose expansion. But it wouldn't be the end of the world if that was expanded from my point of view. savidan(talk) (e@) 08:19, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

  • Agreed. Category:LGBT should be expanded. "Laser" may have originally been "LASER", and "Radar" may have originally been "RADAR", but both are now words (Neologisms). I'm opposed to the endless case-by-case debates, the exceptions should be exceptionally rare!
    --William Allen Simpson 10:32, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
Good. We have identified that neologisms are an exception to the rule. --Gadget850 ( Ed) 12:58, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
Another suggested exception: when the acronym in the category name is explained in all member pages. --Lou Crazy 03:12, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
Agree with Lou Crazy, plus there will always be debates about is and isn't a neologism. Rlevse 10:23, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
More suggested exceptions to be used with the traditional good judgment invested in the average wikipedian:
Acronyms in Category names are acceptable when the expansion of an "acronym'ed" organization would be a) unwieldly and long (which is why the acronym is commonly used: such as IBM and 3M, but not BSA or USA), or b) more confusing than just leaving it as an acronym (NASCAR, but not LGBT).
It is also inefficient to police on a "case-by-case" basis, so I greatly prefer that this be left as a non-binding recommendation. By the way, expanding GNU would open a Pandora's box (just try it, but not here). NThurston 18:10, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
The following survey is now closed in favor of this thread below.

Consensus to remove mention of abbreviations?

Further to the rationale here, i.e.

"...expanding abbreviations in category names makes scanning the category listings at the bottoms of pages less than straightforward. Discovering what an abbreviation in a category name means takes only one or two clicks, which I don't believe is inconvenient – especially when using tabbed browsers such as Firefox, which seem to be more and more popular..."

...I was wondering whether or not there'd be a consensus to remove the "Avoid abbreviations..." bullet from the General naming conventions section?  This is not to encourage use of abbreviations but not to discourage them either.

Survey

Please add  * Support  or  * Oppose  followed by a brief explanation and then your signature ("~~~~").

  • Support per above. David Kernow 15:02, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Support Sometimes the abbreviation is clearer then the expanded form and length has to be a factor. If this passes it should be removed as a speedy criteria as well. --JeffW 21:53, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose -- the same old argument AGAIN??? We just had a long discussion a couple of months ago, and a couple of months before that, and I'm really getting tired of it. Counting all the previous discussion, this new "survey" is very unlikely to advance. --William Allen Simpson 02:33, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Did the previous discussions consider the notion above, viz. "a consensus to remove the "Avoid abbreviations..." bullet... not to encourage use of abbreviations but not to discourage them either"...?  Apologies if I missed it and also any response to tabbed browsing. Regards, David 03:10, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
The discussion above is preserved as an archive.

User categorisation

For a proposal on how to name categories intended to contain wikipedia users, see this CfD entry. SeventyThree(Talk) 22:15, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

I propose that all Wikipedian or User categorization categories have "Wikipedian" as part of their name to avoid any ambiguity as to their function. This also eliminates the possibility of accidentally assigning articles to non-article categories that Wikipedians seem to generate with fecundity. 132.205.45.148 23:56, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Environment by country

The contents of Category:Environment by country currently go by the "Nationality x" wording. As the concept of nationality specifically regards a relationship between people and a nation, I'm curious why a direct sub-cat of Category:Nature uses this naming convention, which we generally only apply to socio-cultural topics that are represented as products of a nation of people, like Category:Art by nationality or Category:Rock music by nationality. Additionally, the primary cat involved here has always been named Category:Environment by country, not Category:Environment by nationality. I think it would be preferrable to switch to a wording not based on nationalities. Kurieeto 16:12, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

Strong support. Ont thing I'll add by way of a qualm is that picking the appropriate preposition is tricky, as neither "in country" or "of country" seems clearly more appropriate than the other. The Tom 18:33, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
I would propose "in country" to be more suitable. This category's parent of Category:Nature deals with subjects of "matter and energy" that pre-date and are irrespective of the formation of countries and borders. Therefore, I don't think that the preposition "of" is the most appropriate, because the word involves a reliance on the existence of whatever country is involved. Kurieeto 22:42, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
I'm somewhat in agreement from a conceptual stance. It's just Environment is a weird mass-noun and it grates awkwardly on the ear when modified by any prepositional phrase (to be fair, it grates equally so with the status-quo of nationality adjectives). "The environment in Fooland" maybe? "Environmental topics in Fooland"?
It's also worth noting that the thing that is colloquially called "the Environment" has wound up as Natural environment for its Wikipedia master article, with Environment reserved as an uber-disambig page. That might suggest "Natural environment in Fooland" in keeping with our category-titles-parallel-article-titles rule of thumb.
Now, oddly enough "Natural enviroment of Fooland" sounds markedly better than the "in" option, and I'm not entirely sure what rule of the language is leading me to think this. Maybe this is a situation like Category:History by country (and Category:Natural history by country) where "of" is the preferred preposition for whatever quirky English-language reasons even though they should by all rights fit under the "irrespective of the formation of countries and borders" envelope that you quite rightly pointed out. Maybe I'm overthinking things, but I suppose "History" is an automatic property that any territorial unit of earth automatically "has," the same way it has "Dimensions" or "Borders" or "Geography." With that in mind, perhaps there is justification for "Natural environment of Fooland" ? The Tom 01:39, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
Agree with The Tom's analysis above, that natural environment of <country> has a more authentic and idiomatic ring to it, as a property more so than a discrete entity which can be contained.--cjllw | TALK 03:10, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
While The Tom is right about natural environment being the master article now, I don't know if I agree with a change to it, unless Category:Environment and its associated sub-cats also move to that name (Category:Environmental organizations, etc.). If "Environment" is being used in all other sub-cats as the term with the widest and most appropriate scope, then I think we should continue to follow it in Category:Environment by country.
Also, I would support a move to "Environment of country", but I'd also add to my initial point that I just find "Environment in country" to have a broader conceptual scope than "Environment of country". I can't articulate exactly why though. Perhaps in some way it's similar to a question of "Law of Canada" or "Law in Canada" as the highest level article for a subject by country category? I should have been an English major so I could express myself about this! Sorry for being so vague, it's just a feeling in my gut. Kurieeto 14:02, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
I've made a proposal at CFD to switch to a by country wording. Kurieeto 21:16, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
oppose change. present system is more friendly to people searching. also fixing all the links to these articles would be a minor nightmare. Anlace 03:18, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
I disagree, the present system is in fact less friendly to searching. What are the borders of scope of Category:Chinese environment, for example? This would be addressed by going to a model which would allow for say Category:Environment of the People's Republic of China, Category:Environment of Taiwan, etc. Everything will still be sorted alphabetically by using the inclusion format of for example: [Category:Environment by country|People's Republic of China]. Also the number of renamings involved in this proposal are relatively minor, and will likely be taken care of by Bots anyway. Kurieeto 21:48, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Sory I had misspelled the link —Argentino (talk/cont.) 15:19, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Aircraft by country

I'm looking for comments regarding Category:Aircraft by country and its sub-cats. As an initial point, I think that Category:Aircraft by country and Category:Ships by country should use the same naming convention as they are both vehicles. Aircraft by country currently uses "nationality x" and Ships by country currently uses "of country". I would propose we use "of country" for both because this regards production or operation within the border of a country, not really the products of a nation of people.

I also find the sub-cats of Category:Aircraft by country to be very unwieldly and cumbersome. Several sub-cats like Category:Canadian sports planes 1990-1999 have existed for over a year and a half but contain only one article, and others like Category:Australian aircraft 1930-1939 would be much better suited as part of a list. I find this to be a systemic problem throughout all sub-cats of Category:Aircraft by country, and I'd appreciate comments on this category and its sub-cats. Kurieeto 13:51, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

A proposal to rename to "of country" has gone up at CFD. Kurieeto 23:11, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Landforms by country

I'm proposing that Landforms by country categories be named "in country" (such as Category:Rivers in England instead of Category:Rivers of England). Currently by country categories of permanently located man-made objects are named "in country", and I don't see a reason why this policy should differ for entities not made by man that are also permanently located. Like Ethnic groups, landforms pre-date the formation of countries and human concepts of borders, and often exist within the boundries of multiple states. For these reasons among others, ethnic groups by country were given the "in country" naming convention. As an example of existing within multiple states, the Nile River article is categorized as a River of Egypt, River of Sudan, and a River of Uganda. As the river existed long before the creation of these countries, the most appropriate term to describe it is not that it is "of" these states, but rather that it is simply in these states. Discussion is appreciated prior to a mass-cfru. Kurieeto 22:19, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Several good points in opposition have been made, so I no longer think a mass-cfru for all landform by country categories is appropriate. However, to make the encyclopedia as good as possible by using the most appropriate terms, I would like to see debate and cfrus allowed for some Landforms, such as those that are without question inside a nation's borders. My proposal is therefore ammended to only ask that not all landforms be named "of country" mandatorily, given support for some of them being described most appropriately by "in country". Kurieeto 14:47, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

  • Oppose. Quite a few of these categories aren't literally "in" the countries. Names like Category:Coastline in New Zealand sound ridiculous, and we could easily have a deep philosophical argument about whether "Bays in Wales" is correct (is the bay the land or the water?). All the man-made features, however, are in the respective countries. If we were going to make all of them uniform by having the same preposition "of" would be a far more natural one to use for the reason of inclusiveness (all places "in" are automatically "of"; all places "of" are not automatically "in"). Grutness...wha? 23:51, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for your comments Grutness, you make good points. As a question, considering by themselves landforms that are unequivocally within the borders of a country, such as Category:Caves by country or Category:Mountains by country, would you believe "of" or "in" to be the most appropriate? Kurieeto 01:32, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
FWIW, I'd probably use "of" in everyday speech or writing, though it would depend on circumstance and a subtle nuance of meaning - Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand (as it is located in New Zealand), but it is one of the mountains of New Zealand (as it is part of New Zealand). I suppose it comes back to a philosophical point again - are we categorising things because they are located somewhere or because they are part of a place? I'd say that the second is closer to the aim - these are the mountains (caves, rivers) that form part of X. Caes is a tricky one because they are literally "in" the place - if you wanted to be really technically picky, you';d have to describe most of the others as "on" the place, but I don't think anyone would support that as a naming option. Grutness...wha? 03:48, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
Considering ethnic groups, I think we categorized those because they are "in" a place, as opposed to being "of" a place, which I believe should be continued to landforms. Kurieeto 12:53, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
I would have thought "of" might bave been a more natural usage there too, but I've no real objection to ethnic groups being either "in" or "of". Grutness...wha? 05:19, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
  • Support for most of them. I don't see why we shouldn't use "of" for most types, and have a few exceptions for coastal landforms. This area would then be more consistent with the manmade categories, and "in" sounds more natural to me. Calsicol 11:35, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
The problem with that is that currently there are no exceptions to the rule - if it's manmade it's in, if it's natural it's of - it's easy and straightforward to remember. If we head down the track of "They're all in except for the following list..." then it'll become far harder to remember which name is used where, and we're also more likely to get doubling up of categories. Grutness...wha? 12:13, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
For currently existing categories, which ones come to mind as exceptions to any potential "in country" rename? By country landform categories we have right now are Category:Beaches, Category:Caves by country, Category:Cliffs, Category:Craters, Category:Depressions by country, Category:Deserts, Category:Fjords, Category:Forests, Category:Glaciers, Category:Headlands, Category:Hills, Category:Islands by country, Category:Mountain passes, Category:Mountain ranges by country, Category:Mountains, Category:Peninsulas by country, Category:Rivers by country, and Category:Rock formations by country. Kurieeto 14:10, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
well, fairly much as BL points out below, the ones relating to coastlines seem to be - if you'll pardon the pun - boderline at least. we don't talk about the coast in a country, nor coastal features in a country. So that instantly excludes cliffs, headlands, peninsulas, beaches, and fiords. Mountains, mountain ranges, lakes, and rivers often form the boundaries of countries too - the Pyrenees aren't in France or Spain, they form the boundary - but the slopes are part of both countries. In fact, anything that has the potential to be shared by two or more countries can't really be said to be in any one of them. Which is why in is an advantage with man-made features (since they are rarely in more than one country) but a disadvantage with natural features (which frequently cross borders). Grutness...wha? 05:56, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Abbreviations (again) - where the well-known logo is the abbreviation

I'm trying to tidy some parts of a WikiProject, and I've bumped into the issue of whether to expand an abbreviation or not. In view of the long discussion here Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_(categories)#Abbreviations:_to_expand_or_not_to_expand I'd like to tackle this as a generic thing rather than another case-by-case problem. What we've got in the National Health Service in the UK is an organisation where its well-known logo just says "NHS". And, without personally reading every page of 62 million Google search results for "NHS" I think the acronym is pretty unambiguous worldwide. In other words, the logo is a recognised alternative name that's a whole lot shorter. Without trying to draft Wikipolicy, I'm thinking that after "former abbreviations that have become the official name should be used in their official forms where there are no other conflicts" it might make sense to say a little bit more about possible exceptions. Maybe, "similarly, where there are no other conflicts, an abbreviation that is used as an official alternative name or logo with global recognition can be considered as an exception." For example, can we sensibly standardise on the short version of NHS? (The issue "NHS v. National Health Service" surfaced in Wikipedia:Categories_for_deletion#Category:NHS_defunct_bodies_to_Category:NHS_defunct_organisationswhere I now recognise some of the usernames!) --Mereda 16:10, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

  • Did you forget about the National Honor Society, that's the most well know. At least in the US? This is likely the most common use in the US. If you look at the NHS dab article there are several listed, all of which use NHS as the TLA. So really in this case expansion for the article and cat help since I clearly know what the National Health Service is. Vegaswikian 16:43, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
  • Sorry, but logos aren't dispositive. Heck, even the [www.nhs.uk main web presence] calls itself "NHS England" to distinguish from other parts of the UK. US doesn't have anything like a national health service, but has various health systems, and lots of "High Schools" (all with logos). I graduated from "LHS" and one of my classmates became an internationally famous (single named) artist, who designed our logo and various other emblems. Folks create new logos all the time. Best to expand.
    --William Allen Simpson 17:18, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I think the wrong end of the stick has been seized here. It is not just a question of the logo, which was created a long time after the acronym 'NHS' gained general currency; thus logo criteria are not germane to the issue. The National Health Service is, according to various calculations, the 3rd, 4th or 5th largest organisation in the world. Its structure is extremely complicated and that necessitates a number of categories so that the topic can be clearly defined and 'routed' for Wikipedia readers. In these circumstances it is apropriate to continue to use the generally accepted acronym NHS, which has been used for over 50 years. There is no case, or reason under Wikipedia conventions, to expand it.--Smerus 09:15, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Natives to People

Recently, "Greek exceptionalism" advocates (mainly 2-3 folks) were using the categories named "Native of Foo" to mean non-immigrant, excluding folks actually born in a place whose great grandparents had been immigrants or refugees. Nativism rearing its ugly head.

During the debate, it was mentioned that several other places use the "Native of Foo" in the same way:

While it's hard to tell, I don't doubt that there is some confusion, and that some folks are using those categories in that nativist fashion. The rest of the 'pedia seems to use the "People from Foo" form instead.

I'd like to standardize on "People from Foo" to avoid further confusion.

--William Allen Simpson 04:19, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
Ok for me (renaming all "natives of .." to "people from"). "People born in .." would be find as well. -- User:Docu
  • Support "People from..." as less binding. David Kernow 15:30, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

After related discussion at the Village Pump, added subsection on Residence, distinguished from Occupation.

--William Allen Simpson 01:41, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Proposed amendment to the "Avoid abbreviations..." statement in General naming conventions

Further to the above, perhaps a consensus may be reached over the following:

Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories)#General naming conventions

Replace

  • Avoid abbreviations. Example: "World War II equipment", not "WW2 equipment". However, former abbreviations that have become the official name should be used in their official form where there are no other conflicts.

with

(a) Only use abbreviations if they are adjectival (i.e. if they act as adjectives)...
Example: "WTO members", not "Members of the WTO"
...or if they are four or more letters long.
Example: "United States Navy SEALs", not "Members of the United States Navy Sea, Air and Land Special Operation Force"
(b) Only abbreviate whole words to single letters, i.e. don't use abbreviations such as "Univ".
(c) Don't abbreviate country names.
Examples: "United States", not "US" or "U.S."; "Argentina", not "ARG"; etc.
(d) If a category name includes an abbreviation, ensure an expansion of that abbreviation may be found on the category's page.
Example: Category:ARCA racetracks has "Racetracks that host events held by the Auto Racing Club of America (ARCA)." at the top of its page.
(e) Note that some abbreviations have become names in themselves, i.e. they are no longer treated as abbreviations.
Example: Category:ECHL and its subcategories.

Discussion/Survey

  • I believe the balance between using and not using abbreviations in category names is tipping too far in favo/ur of the latter, producing overly long category names. I suggest the above as a position between this situation and debating each instance on a case-by-case basis (cf previous discussions). There are probably more effective examples than those used above. Let's work out a consensus!  David Kernow 11:25, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
  • I agree, there are definite advantages to shorter names. - SimonP 14:46, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
  • I can see the benefits, but I am of the belief country names should never be abbreviated. I would ask that that position be considered. Hiding Talk 12:56, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
Have added sentence to the proposed wording above to reflect this; perhaps there are better examples to use...?  Thanks, David 13:17, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose -- I'm getting mightly tired of these constant polls.
    1. The length of category names is not a problem, and it's not a problem when they are on multiple lines.
    2. "single letters" are initialisms, one of many forms of abbreviation.
    3. WTO should never be abbreviated in a category.
    4. SEALs should never be abbreviated in a category, as most folks have no idea what it means without looking it up, and it is not by any stretch of the imagination unique, there are many conflicts.
    5. Folks should NOT be constantly clicking on category after category to learn the meaning!
    --William Allen Simpson 02:45, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
I'm getting mightly tired of these constant polls.
Perhaps their recurrence is an indication of a groundswell for change?  Perhaps they don't all address or propose the same things (cf. queries here)...?
1./3. Okay, your opinion is clear. Thanks.
2. Not sure to what this is referring; apologies. If you mean "Only abbreviate whole words to single letters...", I'm not sure why you're pointing this out.  (updated 18:59, 4 July 2006 (UTC))
4. Not sure why it therefore follows that it has to be expanded in the category name...?
5. I agree. I just don't believe they would. When using/browsing the encyclopedia, I only come by categories with expanded abbreviations (or categories whose abbreviations haven't yet been expanded) occasionally – and when I do, the article to which they're attached usually indicates the abbreviations' meanings or suggests their likely meaning. I notice those abbreviations that have been expanded in category names, however, because the length of those names is often in marked contrast with the length of other category names beside them. For the sake of keeping the lists of categories at the bottoms of articles consistently scannable, is it really that much to ask someone to open a tab on their browser? If they don't already know what the abbreviation means, paying attention to it suggests they are sufficiently interested by it to find out...
Thanks for your thoughts, David Kernow 02:21, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Perhaps their recurrence is the same people bringing the same old arguments back again and again, in the hope that the old folks have gone away or are busy elsewhere. The "scannability" is enhanced by expanding the abbreviations. There's no problem with displaying as many lines as it takes.
--William Allen Simpson 07:05, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
I don't agree that the scannability is increased by changing say, NASA to National Aeronautic and Space Administration. If the abbreviation is more well known then replacing it greatly decreases scannability. --JeffW 17:26, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
I'll readily admit, I don't know the history of this debate. I do remember the CFD discussion on the ECHL cat. So, I dunno. WTO is debatable, so are most others, but I've never, ever, ever heard anyone not call them "Navy SEALs." As a general rule, I like expanding acronyms, but I would oppose the idea of that as an absolute policy. Good ideas, signed into writ, can quickly become suicide pacts; aren't we better off leaving ourselves with the room to apply our own judgement? Ultimately, ease of browsing is the standard I usually go for. Just a few thoughts. Luna Santin 10:03, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

A brief history of discussions etc regarding abbreviations and category naming

Folks may be interested and perhaps surprised to learn that there appears to've been very little discussion of category naming and abbreviations in general until recently. Most of the history appears to concern the use of abbreviations for country names – which is not the issue here.

  • The first – isolated – expression of disapproval toward abbreviations in category names other than those involving country names seems to be here, in August 2005: ""...Although I would use US Marine Corps in speech, I would almost always write United States Marine Corps, as I think abbreviations are generally clumsy and unencyclopaedic."
  • Going back a year, the suggestion that "...Issues that will be debated at a later stage [could include] Whether or not to use abbreviations in cat names" occurs here. There doesn't appear to be any record of such a debate (country names excepted) until #Abbreviations: to expand or not to expand? above.
  • A second to possibly a fourth expression of general disapproval toward abbreviations in category names appear in this talk page's most recent archive, /Archive 7.
  • A debate about abbreviations in category names other than for country names does not commence until #Abbreviations: to expand or not to expand? above. Statements in favor and against some specified use of abbreviations in category names follow thus, without listing repetitions:

#Abbreviations: to expand or not to expand?

  • (Query by JeffW with implicit support; becomes support below.)
  • (Prospective support from David Kernow; becomes support below.)
  • Prospective support from Mayumashu.
  • (-) Implicit opposition from Francis Schonken.
  • - Opposition from Bhoele.
  • (-) Implicit opposition from Syrthiss.
  • - Opposition from Sumahoy.
  • - Opposition from William Allen Simpson.
  • + Support from Rlevse.
  • + Support from Coffeeboy.
  • - Opposition from Hawkestone.
  • + Support from Lou Crazy.
  • + Support from Naha.
  • + Support from Bkonrad (aka "older ≠ wiser").
  • + Support from evrik.
  • Prospective support from Gadget850.
  • - Opposition from savidan.
  • Prospective support from NThurston.

#Consensus to remove mention of abbreviations?

  • + Support from David Kernow.
  • + Support from JeffW.

#Discussion/Survey in this thread

  • + Support from SimonP.
  • + Support from Hiding.

I believe all the above indicates that:

  • (a) Until recently, i.e. within this current talk page, there has been very little consideration of abbreviations' use in category names other than as regards country names (where the history indicates a consensus against their use);
  • (b) Of the two polls conducted to date (#Consensus to remove mention of abbreviations? became the #Discussion/Survey in this thread; see above) there is no consensus over the issue.

I don't believe the "Avoid abbreviations..." statement should include directions for which there is no consensus. Hence I suggest it is replaced by:

(a) Don't abbreviate country names.
Examples: "United States", not "US" or "U.S."; "Argentina", not "ARG"; etc.
(b) Note that some abbreviations have become names in themselves, i.e. they are no longer treated as abbreviations.
Example: Category:ECHL and its subcategories.

Regards, David Kernow 00:10, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
PS More detail from the review.

  • Begging your pardon, David, but what you have is no consensus to change!
    1. This policy was only adopted last August. That's why you don't have many old comments.
    2. The text at Avoid abbreviations was taken verbatim from an earlier guideline (then called "Wikipedia:Categorization#General naming conventions"). The earlier debate was held there, and approved in the poll here.
    3. The poll on adoption had many contributors in multiple places. You have few.
    4. Your listing and subsections (and silly images) were never adopted, and you shouldn't ascribe positions to people without their express consent.
  • However, thank you for taking the effort to read some of the history and bring your interpretation to our attention.
    --William Allen Simpson 03:49, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your information, William.

Re 2. "...The earlier debate was held there, and approved in the poll here", per the second bullet under here, please confirm the locations of the debate and poll, as I remain confused. Hence I'm not sure there ever was a consensus to introduce the current general policy, only a consensus as regards not using abbreviations for country names. Thanks.
Re 3. "The poll on adoption had many contributors in multiple places" – if so, how was it possible to guage a consensus? Who took the time and trouble to do so? Is there a record of their evaulation somewhere that I've missed? Please also indicate a few of the "multiple places" I've apparently missed; thanks.

Yours, David Kernow 01:33, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Don't hijack votes

You want to know my vote on something, ask me outright, don't vote for me based on your own interpretation of what I have said. People should always apply good faith. Also, if you want to know where abbreviations have been discussed look through the old manual of style archives, they've been discussed there a few times too, as well as at CFD. At the time this page was created, the consensus at CFD was that we should avoid abbreviations. There was no poll or discussion because the discussion had been held in cfd after cfd. It had wide agreement at the time and didn't need discussion. I wouldn't want people to think that a lack of transparency indicates anything other than the fact that Wikipedia is not a democracy, and nor should anyone attempt to build a position based on the perceived lack of transparency. Hiding Talk 13:45, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm assuming the above is directed toward myself. I'm sorry, Hiding, if you are/were under the impression that the listings above constituted a poll; they were no more than my effort to summariz/se the previous discussions and polls I had found in this talk page and its predecessor's history. I simply took your statement "I can see the benefits, but I am of the belief country names should never be abbreviated..." above to indicate your support for the idea of amending the "Avoid abbreviations..." statement in the General naming conventions. If this was not your position, please accept my apologies for misunderstanding your statement. I am also sorry that you appear to feel I acted in less than good faith ("People should always apply good faith"); it has always been and continues to be my intention to assume nothing other than good faith. If this is not what you meant by "People should always apply good faith", I apologiz/se again for misunderstanding you.
Though the issue involved – the use of abbreviations in category names – is relatively small, I spent some time trying to research its history (see, for example, the "PS More detail from the review" above) as I was concerned to find it very much less than straightforward to locate and establish the sequence of discussions, polls, etc leading to its adoption as "policy". As William (Allen Simpson) has not responded to the requests for assistance in my post immediately before yours, perhaps you might be able to help...?  Best wishes, David Kernow 17:09, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
I appreciate your response. The trouble is this is a frequent occurrence on Wikipedia, that people will summarise views or vote in polls for people based on comments they have read. My comment carries meaning within the context it was made, and I was stating that I could see the benefits, not that I supported the idea. I appreciate the explanation though, and apologise if my words were overly harsh. I've made my position clear, perhaps stronger than I should have done, for which I apologise, but I would say it's important to be careful when summarising.
I thought myself and Rick had outlined the process by which this became a policy below? It's worth noting that Wikipedia isn't a democracy, and there was no poll on this issue becoming policy, I argued against a poll quite heavily at the time the discussions were going on. I wanted to reach whatever goal we found through discussion rather than a quick poll. There was a long poll at the beginning of the discussion to sound out opinion, and start discussion, and then those of us who held the greatest interest thrashed out those views into the page itself, and decided upon labelling it policy. All of this tookl place with the discussions being advertised on all the usual places. It's also worth noting that a lot of things that had consensus were written into the page. On a wiki, somethings happen by poll, somethings happen by discussion, and some things happen because no-one reverts them; in the latter this is because it is felt high profile pages will soon be amended if the community disagree. A lot of issues had been hashed out at many debates held at WP:CFD prior to these discussions and were views consensually held. There was no discussion since no-one objected. I hope that helps to clarify the process somewhat, and might establish why the discussions you seek aren't necessarily to be found here. Either we hashed it out before-hand or we simply all agreed and there was nothing to discuss. Hiding Talk 16:23, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for your understanding, Hiding. I think what might've happened is that something (namely the details of the "Avoid abbreviations..." statement) was imported from somewhere where its scope had/has consensus (i.e. article-naming conventions/guidelines/policies) to somewhere where its scope doesn't necessarily have consensus (i.e. here). Both contexts might have consensus that abbreviating country names is a no-no, for instance, but the newer context (here) might not have the consensus to apply all the other original constraints ('don't abbreviate this', 'don't abbreviate that', etc). This is what I hope my response to your "What else do you refer to..." query below indicated.
Perhaps in future months and years more folk not put off by the morass of page histories etc might also question the long category names that the minimal use of abbreviation tends to produce; perhaps not. Perhaps also there might be some process and record that's easier to follow, refer to and hold to account as regards the creation of "policy". Regards, David Kernow 01:45, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
Plus, not having a record of the previous debate makes it really hard to see if the differences in usage between article names and category names was taken into account when the avoid abbreviations policy was added here. --JeffW 07:32, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
I can only offer that in my opinion there was a huge consensus in many debates at WP:CFD that the differences were discussed and that the merits of issuing the guidance in the context of categories had been discussed. However, nothing is binding. Start a discussion and try to gain a consensus on amending the guidance. Attacking the guidance for perceived flaws in the creation of that guidance isn't really the way we change things on Wikipedia. Wikipedia isn't a democracy, and Wikipedia isn't a bureaucracy, so not every consensus has to be annotated. But it is all there, in archived category renaming debates through the period this policy was discussed and settled upon. I can't agree that everything should be documented, we're all volunteers and that appears to me to be m:instruction creep, overly bureaucratic and against keeping it short and simple. It was thought long category names were not a problem at the time, and there seemed a benefit to them, in that they afforded a clear definition of the category through the name, and that aided classification. I appreciate you may not readily accept my descriptions of the events as I participated in them, but I think it is unfair to assert that something was imported from somewhere without consideration. Like I say, feel free to create a consensus to alter what you disagree with. I can't see any value in attacking the creation of something that has been accepted this long. Don't ignore a consensual decision, but do try to build a consensus to change it. Hiding Talk 10:37, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
Start a discussion and try to gain a consensus on amending the guidance
I believe that's what I tried to do, before becoming aware that it wasn't readily evident that there was consensus for the original (and current) "Avoid abbreviations..." statement.
Attacking the guidance for perceived flaws...
I can't see any value in attacking the creation of something...
I'm sorry if you feel my queries and suggestions have constituted an attack; this was and is not my intent, as I recognise it is unconstructive. My apologies if this is how they have appeared.
I appreciate you may not readily accept my descriptions of the events
I hope none of my contributions here suggest that I don't believe your (or Rick Block's) accounts. If they do, my apologies; I'd appreciate advice where this occurs (probably best placed on my talk page).
I think it is unfair to assert that something was imported from somewhere without consideration
I believe I've suggested rather than asserted that the possible benefits of the constrained use of abbreviations in catgory names (less constrained than at present) might've been overlooked through the consideration given to issues such as country names, a consideration I have seen and acknowledge. If my contributions have nonetheless appeared to constitute an assertion, my apologies.
Don't ignore a consensual decision, but do try to build a consensus to change it.
I don't believe I've tried to do anything other than you describe; I apologiz/se if it has appeared otherwise. I hope the sense of bad faith I unwittingly seem to've created may be transformed.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, David Kernow 12:51, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Stub categories

A proposal at Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion has generated some discussion regarding if Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) should defer to Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Naming guidelines#Categories, or the other way around, in regard to naming guidelines for categories exclusively containing stubs. Input there is appreciated. Kurieeto 16:52, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

This is POLICY, that is a GUIDELINE. Policy trumps Guideline.
--William Allen Simpson 02:49, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

ethnicity, hyphenation, and membership

There's a long list of ethnicity nominations heating up at Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 July 3.

We need a firm policy on this for Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories).

  1. When hyphenation should be used?
    • I propose that hyphenation should always be used where the ethnicity is followed by the nationality (for example, Category:Irish-Americans). It is my understanding that this follows common style practice in American newsmedia.
    • I propose that hyphenation should never be used where the nationality is followed by the ethnicity (for example, Category:British Asians). It is my understanding that this follows common style practice in British newsmedia.
  2. When categorized?
    • The recent earlier discussion indicates that membership should be self-identified and verifiable. I agree.

This needs clear policy and forceful enforcement. We have a real problem with racism among some of the editors.

For example, folks with 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16 Black ancestry are again being categorized as "African-American" without any verifiability. I don't want to go back to the days where folks were called "mulatto", "quadroon" and "octaroon". It's certainly not appropriate for a modern encyclopedia.

Another example:

No African or Caribbean or Asian or Indian immigrant is referred to as "English", no matter how long they or their generations have lived here.

I find the racist sentiment repugnant. It is contrary to current practices. For notable examples in the popular media:

Are there any existing Proposed guidelines or policy or essays? I'm planning on writing a new one, and it would be helpful to know where the previous attempts have been made.

If folks could point me at past discussion, I will try to formulate something in the next few days. Thank you.

--William Allen Simpson 07:06, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
I support your positions in points 1 and 2 as above. To make it emphatic that these categorizations are based on self-identification, perhaps that phrase or a derivative of it can be worked into the category title, at least at the top level. Kurieeto 14:19, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Self identification works very poorly when dealing with historical figures (100 years ago, etc). Facts of where they came from are more likely to be found. Thanks Hmains 03:06, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
That's a good point. Perhaps having two streams of categories would accomodate this, "people from X" and "X self-identifiers", with potential overlap accepted? Kurieeto 03:14, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
Self-identification with no parent-based facts seems pretty useless. My point is all the categories' population should be based on parentage facts and that self-identification should be superfluous. Thanks Hmains 19:05, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I have added to the policy page, new section Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories)#Heritage. Note that I'm deliberately using a very broad umbrella term, rather than a list of "ancestry, class, culture, ethnicity, national origin, race, religion, or previous condition of servitude".

The determinative use of hyphens to distinguish the adjectival word order was overwhelmingly supported at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) and recent Categories for Discussion pages, such as Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 July 3.

The requirement that living people must have self-identified was overwhelmingly supported on the Village pump, while the status of historical people was harder to determine. I've crafted wording that reflects a cross-selection of the arguments there.

Remember, these are Wikipedia:Naming conventions, and need to be concise. The detailed guidelines for inclusion and interpretation will be at Wikipedia:Categorization of people, where we can worry about other issues.

Any changes to hyphenation are now subject to speedy renaming, pursuant to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories)#Categories by nationality.

--William Allen Simpson 15:52, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
I am going to remove this section. It was added prematurely by a user with a vested interest and with inadequate support. The current discussion on Wikipedia:Categories for discussion shows that it is far from having consensus support. Chicheley 10:20, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Am I the only one who feels that this needed much more discussion before becoming policy? There are a lot of editors who edit the "Abcd American" articles that would have an opinion about this. It seems like this policy was just being passed under the radar and then unilaterally enforced.

And I'd like to point out that the U.S. Census does not use hyphens in its categorisations. Personally I would think that would be more authoritative. --- Hong Qi Gong 15:36, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

No, it seems you are not the only one. There is no consensus it seems; at least there wasn't after this recent discussion at WP:CFD. Can I propose that the correct formation of these category names, both Category:Fooian Barians and Category:Fooian-Barians, might be Category:Fooian-Barian people in line with the categories at Category:People by nationality which are all Category:Fooian people except where no accepted adjective for the nationality exists. Discussion here has been slow, it appears, which means that perhaps there is no perceived urgency in the community to implement a policy for these category names. --RobertG ♬ talk 11:27, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
I don't have an opinion on other nationalities, but since the US Census does not use a hyphen, I suggest that the Abcd American articles and categories be named without the hyphen. Whether or not the categories' names are followed by people, I personally don't care. --- Hong Qi Gong 18:25, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

The Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 July 14#unhyphenated-American result was "short with 64%". Apparently, despite the numerous previous such debates, and existing policy, the closer felt that the threshhold should be 67%, or that somebody was somehow proposing that everything should be renamed in the form: "American African" (the closer isn't clear). I didn't see any such ambiguity.

If you haven't been paying attention to this discussion for over 6 months, then it might seem "passed under the radar". For the rest of us, it seems long and drawn out.

The 2000 US census reports (alphabetically):

  1. "American Indian or Alaska Native"
  2. "Asian"
  3. "Black or African American"
  4. "Hispanic or Latino"
  5. "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander"
  6. "Some Other Race"
  7. "White"

Are you positing a straw man? Do you really think we should consolidate all the American categories to these few?

And should we do the same to the rest of the world?

--William Allen Simpson 01:17, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
And what exactly should I have been paying attention to? Deletion review, where hundreds of articles of no interest to me pass through? Was the discussion here in Naming Convention ever mentioned in any of the Ethnic American articles? I have several on my watchlist and I didn't notice that. Was it even mentioned in the Talk pages for the Categories prior to the move proposal template being added to them? Correct me if they were actually mentioned and I just completely missed it.
Like I said, there are a lot of editors at these articles. All of a sudden we would have to deal with inconsistencies between how the Categories are named and how the articles themselves are named. Would the next move be to rename all the articles themselves and add the hyphen?
About the US Census, those groups you listed above are not the only categorisation that the Census does. Here you go[2]. And no, I'm not presenting a straw man argument. You, on the other hand, are under a logical fallacy. While the Census may not categorise as many Ethnic American groups as Wikipedia here does, it also does not claim that those groups it does not categorise do not exist. The lack of categorisation is not lack of existence. --- Hong Qi Gong 01:46, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

The place that the policy was decided was myriad Cfd and Village Pump discussions over a period of more than 6 months. That's how it works.

Yes.

Why exactly are you referencing a decade old ACS report that used some old racial categories? Do you not know the difference? Or realize that the latest census was 2000? Or read the Congressional Record on the racial question changes? You either want the official US census designations, or something else, but you cannot have your cake and eat it too. I'd suggest a logic course....

And why do you think that any US designations apply to the entire world?

--William Allen Simpson 02:04, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
You seem to have missed a few things:
  1. The link I provided in my immediately previous post mentions that the ACS standards are to be fully implemented in "2003 and beyond".
  2. My posting right here on the Talk page at 25 July specifically said "I don't have an opinion on other nationalities".
  3. The US Census does not "designate" that those ethnic groups it does not categorise do not actually exist.
--- Hong Qi Gong 02:17, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Category naming conventions for clothing -- Please help!

Hi, a few of us have been working on articles about clothing/fashion and their history and we'd like to make a sensible set of top-level categories under Category:Clothing. We've come up with the following proposal and we'd appreciate your input very much

  1. Category:History of clothing
  2. Category:Clothing by nationality
  3. Category:Clothing by ethnicity
  4. Category:Clothing by culture
  5. Category:Clothing by geography
  6. Category:Clothing by use
  7. Category:Clothing by person
  8. Category:Design and construction of clothing

One point that may catch your eye is the distinction between nationality, ethnicity and culture. Presently, we're thinking of using these terms as they're defined in Wikipedia, roughly speaking, peoples defined by political boundaries, genetic heritage and common viewpoint, respectively. For example, "Polish clothing" (which would include clothing worn by Poles at all points in their history) would seem to belong under Category:Clothing by ethnicity, since Poland was politically Swedish, Russian and German at various points in its history. Similarly, "Clothing in ancient Rome" would seem to belong under Category:Clothing by nationality and, I dunno, "Goth subculture clothing" would belong under Category:Clothing by culture, since it covers people linked by a common culture, not genetically or politically.

The other categories are relatively straightforward. Category:Clothing by geography covers subjects such as "clothing worn in cold climates" or "clothing worn at high altitudes". Category:Clothing by use covers clothing by occupation and occasion, such as "fireman clothing", or "maternity wear", or "wedding clothing". Category:Clothing by person groups articles by the person wearing it, e.g., "women's clothing", "men's clothing", "children's clothing", etc. Finally, Category:Design and construction of clothing covers the technical details of how clothing is made and designed.

We've tried to make these top-level categories as independent of each other as possible, e.g., so that the time can be specified independently of the ethnicity, independently of the occupation, independently of the person, etc. We've also tried to be as consistent with Wikipedia definitions as possible. Please let us know if you like these categories and if you have any suggestions -- thanks muchly! :) WillowW 16:04, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi WillowW,

I'd suggest Category:Clothing by person becomes Category:Clothing by person type or something better, as the former might suggest "Clothing by designer", "Clothing by notable who wears it", etc. Otherwise, the categories seem good starting points. Thanks for your and your colleagues' work!  Best wishes, David Kernow 02:16, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Residence demonyms

Brought the language from Wikipedia:Categorization of people#By residence, as a description of the naming convention. This has been thoroughly vetted by recent CfD debates.

--William Allen Simpson 01:25, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Naming guideline or official policy?

Isn't this page a naming convention guideline that should have this tag: {{Wikipedia subcat guideline|naming conventions|Categories}} So why is it tagged as an official policy? CG 13:11, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

No. Both Wikipedia:Naming conventions and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) were elevated to policy. See Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines and Wikipedia:List of policies.
--William Allen Simpson 21:02, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

I know, I organised Wikipedia:List of policies. But I want to know why has it been elevated to official policy? CG 21:19, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

The switch from "guideline" to "policy" appears to've been made here by Rick Block, about half an hour before the same user apparently began a thread entitled "policy or guideline" on the talk page. (Use link or see /Archive 7.)
(The one subsequent post to this "policy or guideline" thread (a) gives the opinion that Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) is "a collection of conventions and guidelines", before (b) suggesting Rick Block proceed with his (presumably) idea of "...moving (all) the policy related information elsewhere and reducing this page [i.e. Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories)] to a naming guidelines page". This does not appear to've been tried, nor any consensus in favo/ur or against either matter obtained.)
Information about and direction to a procedural record welcome.  Regards, David Kernow 00:23, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
Cedar, I see that you made a couple of recent contested edits to the Wikipedia:List of policies, but it looks to me like Stevage did most of the original work. However, you were making additions to Wikipedia:Naming conventions at about the same time that Rick Block marked this page as policy there (2005-09-26), so you should have been aware of it.
David, you merely found the most recent (2006-01-22) Rick Block revert of Radiant's change. They also did the same (circa 2005-10-15) at revert of change.
The actual setting of Policy was 2005-09-25 by Raul654 (talk · contribs). My guess is that's the time frame for looking at the Village Pump....
Currently, the policy related things are here, while guidelines are at Wikipedia:Categorization and Wikipedia:Categorization of people. I'd oppose downgrading this to a guideline.
--William Allen Simpson 01:19, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for your information, William. Intriguing to learn that there has previously been dispute about the status of this page.
Unfortunately I'm having difficulty locating the relevant Village Pump archives from September last year; your assistance would be appreciated. Is that also where a survey to find consensus for the upgrade would be found?
Thanks also for exapnding the archive listing for this page. I suppose some folks might say it's incorrect as it includes archives from this page's predecessors, but I think it a good idea.
Regards, David 02:02, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
PS Hope you received my email. Any further thoughts re the latest here?

If this page is policy, then should it be changed or added to without the changes going through the same policy process? --JeffW 00:19, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

The policy process was the consensus arrived at on the talk page, following invitation to comment at all the usual places (such as WP:VPP). What happened was I asked Raul what the official policy is for designating something as policy, he took a look at the talk page and decided there was sufficient consensus to call this page policy, and added the policy tag. As I said in the policy or guideline thread in the archives, the reason to have this as policy is because it contains procedural instructions (which were vigorously contested relatively soon after it was designated as policy, specifically the additional criteria for listing category renames in the CFD-speedy section). The procedure for changing this page, specifically adding new by-country conventions by CFD consensus, is specified on the page itself. If anyone feels the need disentangle the policy parts from the naming guideline parts, I would have no objections. -- Rick Block (talk) 01:51, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the insight, Rick. I'll have a go at disentangling policy from guidelines sometime soon, I hope, once I make some time to do so. I'll be trying to distinguish procedural instruction (policy) from anything else (guidelines). Regards, David Kernow 17:32, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

There seems to be some confusion about what "policy" means. None of the Wikipedia:five pillars would even remotely be considered a procedural instruction.

Indeed, under the usual understanding in the legal field known as "administrative procedure", that's exactly backwards. The "statutes" and "regulations" are the policy. The "guidelines" are the procedures governing the application of policy. They are binding on the administrative agency.

Here, the policy is what to name the categories, and governs the decisions about what are legitimate categories. That is (hopefully) relatively constant. This provides coherent structure and organization, a very appropriate thing for a policy.

The guidelines are how to populate the categories. There are quite a few. If there are things here that seem better matched to one of the category population guidelines, let's discuss that -- where we agree, divert to the appropriate guideline.

--William Allen Simpson 01:12, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for your input, William. Rereading Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines#The differences between policies, guidelines, essays, etc. reminds me of my impression that "policies" are '"guidelines" that haven't changed for some time'. As the edit history of Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) indicates that this is not the case here, I am left wondering why Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) has earned the same status as Wikipedia:Neutral point of view, Wikipedia:No original research, etc. The latter certainly seem more policy-like to me, whereas Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) and the like seem more convention- or guideline-like. The processes that have led to at least one of these "policies"/"conventions"/"guidelines" seem very much less than transparent.
Regards, David Kernow 04:40, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

As another participant, I'll concur with Rick's memory. We advertised this thing everywhere. We hashed it all out on the talk page and settled on tagging it as a policy. Given it has survived this long as policy, I'd say that makes it policy. Hiding Talk 13:38, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the memory, Hiding; I hadn't started editing Wikipedia in earnest when this discussion occurred. Apart from the country-related issue, it certainly seems less than straightforward to find.
In the meantime, I'm not convinced that naming conventions are best placed on a par with policies such as NPOV, NOR, etc, but if that's the consensus, so be it; this is but one person's impression. Hopefully the presentation and/or interpretation of the label "policy" won't disuade too many folk from making suggestions as regards its development. Best wishes, David Kernow 04:09, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
What else do you refer to when you state "Apart from the country-related issue, it certainly seems less than straightforward to find." I may be able to help clarify points you remain unclear upon. I certainly agree with Rick that there are aspects of this page that should probably be moved to sub pages and tagged as guidelines. Hiding Talk 10:06, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
I mean accepting abbreviations, in certain less-constrained circumstances than those currently pertaining, for the sake of keeping category names from ballooning in length. Thanks for your offer, David 17:28, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Policy scope includes image and stub categories?

I have a question - If the naming conventions are policy with a scope of the entire Category namespace, am I correct in saying that for example Category:United States military images and Category:United States military stubs should be renamed to Category:Military of the United States images and Category:Military of the United States stubs? If discussion regarding such a renaming of for example the latter at Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion reaches no consensus or consensus in opposition, what course of action should an administrator take when processing the nomination? Kurieeto 01:45, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Of course they do. When a "vote" anywhere is contrary to policy, the closer should simply note that policy when closing, and follow the policy.
But I don't see where your particular example applies. "United States military" seems appropriate, and not contrary to any policy. Perhaps I missed something. There is an entire project dealing with these things.
--William Allen Simpson 14:05, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
My apologies, I should have referenced this in my last post. I ask because "military by country" categories should be "of country", as per this page's Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories)#State-based topics. That would make "United States military" a deviance from "military of X" category by country naming conventions (which is policy). Kurieeto 13:47, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
No, the conventions for the "by country" categories are very narrowly scoped to apply to just the specific category types mentioned. "military by country" categories should be "of country" means, for example, a category for the military of France should be "Military of France" rather than "French Military". It says nothing about any other categories that might have the phrase "French military" in their names, e.g. "French military images". -- Rick Block (talk) 14:24, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Labour disputes by country

A couple of us at WikiProject Organized Labour want to sub-divide the Category:Labor disputes into Category:Labour disputes by country. I'm of the opinion that the wording should be in the format Category:Labour disputes in Canada, not of Canada. Is this a clear enough case that we can just proceed, or would you recommend a more detailed discussion? --Bookandcoffee 16:53, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

"In country" seems most natural, and there's no reason to hold off using if there's no expressed opposition. Would this be a sub-cat of Category:Conflicts? Kurieeto 14:00, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
That's a good question. Currently it is "sub"ed under more political themes like Category:Labour relations, but conflicts might make good sense as well.--Bookandcoffee 18:31, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
If it does go under Category:Conflicts, the "in country" choice would be further supported because the same naming convention is used for Category:Conflicts in Canada, which would be a parent of one of your Labour disputes by country categories. Kurieeto 18:50, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

People by language, and "x by y"

After a bit of discussion at Wikipedia talk:Categorization now archived here, I've started work on creating and populating some occupation categories by language. The general idea is that when there are occupations that use language, it is often more useful to have the subcategories of that occupation split by the language used than split by nationality. For example, writers, philosophers, singers, directors. As recent discussion at CFD brought up (Category:German-language philosophers), by having language categories, we can combine groups that are artificially broken up by nationality. I have some questions about how these categories should be named.

  1. I've been using "Fooish-language fooers" as the naming model for these categories. Any comments?
  2. The big problem I'm having is how to name some of the categories that hold these categories, and I've noticed some inconsistancies with the naming of the "x by y" categories". For example, most "x by y" categories have members who are all x listed in order of their y, so for example, there is Category:American people by occupation. The members of this category are all Americans listed by their occupations. However one of the parents of this category is Category:Nationalities by occupation which lists categories of occupations listed by their nationalities. I think this category should be renamed Category:People's occupations (by nationality) or Category:Occupations of people (by nationality) or Category:People by occupation (by nationality) or even swapping names with Category:Occupations by nationality. The current Category:Occupations by nationality could also be renamed Category:People's nationality (by occupation) or Category:Nationality of people (by occupation) or Cateogory:People by nationality (by occupation). Of these, my choices would be Category:People by occupation (by nationality) and Cateogory:People by nationality (by occupation). Perhaps there are some better choices.
  3. I have created two similar categories for people by languge: Category:Languages by occupation and Category:Occupations by language. I'm wondering about renaming these to something like Category:Language occupations by languge and Category:Language occupations by occupation or Category:People by occupation (by language) and Cateogory:People by language (by occupation). There has to be a better name for these.
  4. Is there a need to explain how "x by y" categories get named?

Suggestions? Comments? -- Samuel Wantman 23:28, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

National varieties of English and category consistency

There is a current vote at WP:CFD to rename more than a hundred cats in the subcats of Category:Transportation by continent (i.e. Category:Transportation in Asia, Category:Transportation in South America, Category:Transportation in South America) to reflect the fact that 'transportation' is an American term, whereas 'transport' is the standard in British English. There doesn't seem to be any mention here on the potential conflict between category standardisation and the MoS, so I'm wondering if there has been discussion on this issue, and if not should there be? :) Ziggurat 22:10, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your sound decision to raise the matter here. Uniformity would be nice, but we've already decided in essentially all such spelling/dialect matters that diversity is the better choice for our community, since we end up not imposing one system on everyone. (And, in the end, it's beautiful!) We should not mess with that general, guiding principle, in my view. (Unless we were going to create a "compromise English", which, in fact, wouldn't be such a bad idea, though it will never happen....) I suspect Darwinek has misunderstood the Guidelines about national varieties of English. He, like many Europeans, seems to think something like "the whole world aside from the U.S. uses British English," and, thus, that every instance of "Transportation" that doesn't involve the U.S. or its "dependencies" (his word) can be changed to "Transport". (He's already made many of these changes to article names.) He is, of course, incorrect about English (which is spread out in all kinds of complicated and beautifully American, beautifully Brittish, beautifully Australian, beautifully Japanese... etc. ways all across the globe). Moreover, he's incorrect about his interpretation of the Guidelines about national varieties of English. "Transportation" would be wrong in an article about the UK, but about, say, Mexico, or Japan, or any other non-English speaking country, the rule that matters is "the dialect of the first überstub author". Let's retain this principle, and not engage in "orthographic imperialism". --Cultural Freedom 2006-07-17 -22:24 (UTC)
Does this apply in the case of categories, or does standardisation take precedence? I'm curious as to whether these two have been discussed at this point of intersection (in the archives of this page maybe?). I do note that the distinction between American vs. rest of the world is a difficult one, as even in the British bastion of New Zealand official sources seem to use both ([3] [4]). Ziggurat 22:30, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
That's a great question! In most cases, it seems standardization does not take precedence. Look at the various "Organis/zation" categories, for ex. So Darwinek's suggested move seems to me to be against what's generally done (though I haven't made an exhaustive examination). It's also extremely divisive, seems to me. I think we, as a community, need to be much more careful with wholesale changes like this. I've been trying to encourage Darwinek to withdraw his proposal, and allow much more time for reflection. It seems it's needed with a change of this magnitutde. But he is unwilling, unfortunately. I hope heads are cool, and that the coolest ones prevail! --Cultural Freedom 2006-07-17 22:52 (UTC)
I think the motto of consensus should be more eyes, so hopefully some people with this page on their watchlist can offer opinions (one way or the other!). Ziggurat 22:57, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
Existing precedent in the "by country" categories is to follow the WP:MOS guidelines and use British or American spelling as appropriate for the location. Examples are numerous, including shopping malls/centres, Universities and colleges or just Universities, sport/sports, and transportation/transport. user:CalJW was one of the most ardent supporters of this, but seems to no longer be active. -- Rick Block (talk) 23:19, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
I'm new to all this, so please don't bite my head off. I've added my comments here re this debate. I suggest to let things be and evolve naturally. As long as things are clear, does uniformity matter ? There are surely better things to get on with, like the huge issue of changing the systemic bias of (at a very wild guess) over 50% of the English language Wikipedia articles. Final suggestion - as the style issue will no doubt crop up again and again, if there is felt need for agreement, then why not seek the wider communities agreement via the main page, or else disputes will always arise because agreements have otherwise been via a self-selected few (as I said in my blurb on the user talk page I linked to). Good luck to one and all.--Phillip Fung 04:52, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
I'm not certain, but are you of the conception that User:Cultural Freedom initiated this series of moves? The initial changes appear to have been made by another editor in the name of uniformity, and CF's edits are disagreeing with that. Ziggurat 05:42, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
Right, it's Darwinek who initiated a massive, systematic name-change campaign several months ago. I'm trying to enforce (and, ultimately, improve!) policy. Diversity is good! --Cultural Freedom 2006-07-18 08:19 (UTC)
First, thanks to everyone for being civil! Just for the record, I have several concerns, some general (one of which Ziggurat got me thinking about), some specific. Of the general ones, one is the messiness of the Manual of Style rules about spelling. 1) The Manual of Style is actually self-contradictory in certain aspects. We probably don't need to get into that here -- but I do think it is at the root of many of these problems. I will be getting into this issue later, within a couple weeks. (Anyone interested should keep an eye on my user page.) 2) As Ziggurat pointed out, we need to address the consistency vs. "orthographic appropriateness" issue in category names (and, for that matter, in article title names). 3) The matter at hand: the Transport/ation articles. What Darwinek did was systematically change every single article title from "Transportation in X" to "Transport in X". Those changes -- essentially all of them (though "Transportation in the UK", Transportation in India, etc., should be changed) -- violated MoS guidelines. The guidelines do not say that Wikipedia uses British or Commonwealth spelling. Nor do the guidlines say that Wikipedia uses British or Commonwealth spelling "except for the U.S. and its dependencies" (this was Darwinek's phrase). 4) Now, he's called a vote for a mass rename of "Transportation in X" categories to "Transport in X" categories, and he's arguing this is a good idea because the categories should "match" the article titles, yet the article titles were changed in violation of policy, by him. I think we need to take a deep breath and address 2-4 above (and #1, if needed). But it seems we're dealing with a truly massive change here, one conducted in a questionable way. I've tried to get Darwinek to withdraw his requested category name change, so we can reflect. But he is unwilling. He seems to think that if the votes pass, that's all that matters. Is that really how things work here? Seven or eight people vote on a massive category renaming, only two or three of them question the idea, the vote passes, and suddenly guideline-violating article name changes are "locked" into place? --Cultural Freedom 2006-07-18 08:20 (UTC)

If I might propose a compromise which is inspired by a comment someone made on the Talk:Transport in Jordan page. Any country that has a Ministry of Transport or equivalent should use "Transport in ..." and countries that have a Department of Transportation or equivalent should use "Transportation in ..." Jooler 10:33, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

That's a creative, potentially Solomonic idea. One potential problem is that for most countries, we'll be looking at the "English" version/translation of a name that is not English. I've worked quite a bit as a translator, and English versions of proper names are often chosen haphazardly. But I think your idea is, at a minimum, an excellent way to start to get our bearings. (I might be away from the Internet for the next 6-10 hours; sorry if I can't continue this discussion right away.) --Cultural Freedom 2006-07-18 10:50 (UTC)
A quick note of reality, for what it's worth: whilst almost all countries that are today in the Commonwealth use predominantly British spellings (with a few Australian and Canadian and other variations), it is not true that countries not in the Commonwealth somehow default to US-spellings. So this does negate the argument to divide the world up into two 'spelling camps' as it were (which seems an option from the gist of all comments above). For example, most EU member states use British spellings, as do countries with previous British influence, but are not Commonwealth countries (such as Jordan and Hong Kong); but conversely US spellings are common in Caribbean countries with British influence, even those, such as Anguilla and Bermuda, that are existing British dependent territories. My view on this: let things be and evolve naturally, and if there are arguments, then let them be debated country by country. I hope this slightly incomprehensible argument puts some further food out there for the debate. --Phillip Fung 11:18, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

I am ready for civil discussion about this policy, I always was. Just one thing, I think all these articles were first named "Transportation in " cause when Wikipedia started a few years ago, users inserted info from PD CIA World Factbook which uses "Transportation" everywhere. - Darwinek 21:31, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Darwinek: Thanks for joining us! I've got a massive workload now, so I'll just add a couple comments here, first. 1) The precedent on WP is that variety, in order to respect national differences (see "...organization..."/"...organisation...") trumps uniformity. This is the way things are in most article and category names. I think this is a Good. 2) It is most definitely -- in my view -- not fair to say that all the "Transportation in X" must remain so because of the "First überstub version" rule, for exactly the reason you cite: They were in that form simply because they were ported from the CIA World Fact Book. That's what makes this a difficult case, and it's why slowing down (and, ideally, withdrawing your proposed mass-renaming -- pretty please!! :) ) would be best here. I think we should all be able to agree both that keeping all the articles as "Transportation in X" (aside from the UK, Ireland, etc.) is wrong, and, also, that renaming all the articles to "Transport in X" (aside from the US, the Phillipines, etc.) is wrong. Letting things naturally evolve might be best, but letting things naturally evolve from the forced start of the "Transportation" names is unfair to one "side," and letting things naturally evolve from the forced start of your systematic, mass-renamings is unfair to the "other side." The only solution may be to divide the world in the usual (coarse, but still: usual) way it gets divided here: Western Europe definitely gets British English, South American definitely gets American English, Middle East aside from Israel gets British, etc., etc., etc. --Cultural Freedom 2006-07-19 21:46 (UTC)
I'll repeat here a comment I made at CFD - user:CalJW worked through all the top level "by country" categories, country by country, and paid particular attention to British/English terminology differences. We could probably look up in the archives when this happened, but I'd be willing to bet the countries that are now "transport in xxxx" vs. "transportaion in xxxx" were done on his initiative. The overaching goal he used was "what terminology is locally used" (in the country the topic pertains to). Of course this rule doesn't help decide what to use for the vast majority of countries that are not English speaking, but for these I don't see any particular reason standardizing on either "transport" or "transportation" is particularly necessary. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:10, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
I totally agree with Rick and I'd like to add two points:
  1. Having a category with inconsistant names (tranport or transportation) is a good thing. It educates users that the subject is called different things in different places. The text for the parent category should explain the differences.
  2. There is a very important political reason to allow these inconsistancies. It is frustrating to battle them out and consumes too much attention that could be devoted to more constructive efforts. If there is no term that satisfies all speakers of English, then we should use the term for the location being described. If there is no local term, one used by the first editor should prevail. If we all agree to this common methodology, we can avoid many edit wars and CfD discussions. I bristle every time I see "Categorization" spelled with a "s". But I'm getting over it for the greater good. -- Samuel Wantman 00:26, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
Rick Block wrote: "but I'd be willing to bet the countries that are now "transport in xxxx" vs. "transportation in xxxx" were done on his initiative."" I will take you up on that bet! :) Virtually all of the changes were done in a series of mass-renamings by Darwinek.
They seem to start here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&offset=20060411090707&limit=500&target=Darwinek
(Page down to April 07, 12:38, and then go backwards.)
(Note: I think he did some other changes earlier, and did many later, as well.)
Most of these need to be changed back; that, for many reasons. (I've changed some of the obvious ones.) The most critical reason is that many people voting on the category name change are voting on the basis of misinformation. Darwinek introduced/justified his CfD proposal as follows: "Rename all to match main articles." If the main articles were inappropriately renamed, that's not a good reason to rename the categories, of course. (Darwinek: could you please respond to these points? Thanks.) The problem, of course, is that many voters don't think much about their vote. They just double-check the article names, and think, "Of course, 'Transport in Ecuador', 'Transport in Brazil', etc., yup, those are the article names: the category names need to be changed to match them!"
--Cultural Freedom 2006-07-20 08:15 (UTC)
No, I will not respond to you again. I think I have said all necesarry and all I wanted to say. Also I am tired of all this neverending "Darwinek changed this, Darwinek have done that" and so on. I am not a devil and if this will continue against my person I will soon withdraw from this discussion. Goodnight and good luck. -- Darwinek 09:14, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
I'm sorry you feel attacked personally. It was certainly not my intention (I can't speak to others' intentions, of course) to attack you personally. I am pointing out what I believe to be mistakes you made. What's frustrating for me is that you refuse to remove, comment on, or emend information in your CfDs that is clearly incorrect (or simply remove the CfDs, and let people discuss it). I can't understand why you won't do that. Voters are being misled. Anyway, no, I certainly do not think you are a devil! Accepting criticism from other users, taking the time to look into disputes carefully, etc., is part of what it is to be a Wikipedian. Indeed, accepting criticism without assuming someone is calling you a/the devil is part of being human. No one is perfect, right? We can learn from others' perspectives/criticisms. Could you please read the above issues, and respond with your views about these issues? Discussion is good! --Cultural Freedom 2006-07-20 10:27 (UTC)
Yeah, no problem. As I commented more widely at that page regarding my person, I have made a mistake by that mass renaming etc. I think there are 3 categories of voters: 1.) "Transportation or death", 2.) "Transport or death", 3.) Reasonable users. I don't think voters are misled, since you have written there what is all this situation about. However, it seems there will be no general consensus an these categories will not be renamed. I will not withdraw it, because then some people should tell something like "you have withdrew it but what if ...", you know that. I think you and other users after closing of these CFD votings (I doesn't want to be involved in it, since I have many other projects started) should go from country to country and then rename or propose for renaming some categories or articles. I am a Pole and live in the Czech Rep. and can say "Transport" is used in POL, CZE and SVK. -- Darwinek 11:06, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
I was specifically referring to the categories, not the articles. -- Rick Block (talk) 15:21, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
Update
Developments:
  1. WikiFair1 mass-reverted a bunch of Darwinek's European renames. Violetriga reverted WikiFair1, claiming that her main objection was that WikiFair1 didn't fix double-redirects. Fair enough. Well.... it turns out, Darwinek himself didn't check for double-redirects! The European ones were fixed by others, this is why WikiFair1's not entirely careful reversions left redirects. However, simple reversions of essentially all of Darwinek's South and Central American renames, and most of his Asian ones, are the easiest way to solve existing double-redirect problems.
  2. So, I reverted nearly all of Darwinek's South and Central American renames (and fix the very few double-redirects I saw). I've only changed a few of the obvious mistakes in the Asian ones. In a few cases, "Transport in..." is clearly correct. See Talk:Transport_in_Belize, and Talk:Transport_in_Malaysia.
  3. Someone mentioned the trustworthiness of User:CalJW. Based on what I've so far seen, I can confirm that: His changes (to "Transport in X") all seem well-motivated.
--Cultural Freedom 2006-07-21 17:50 (UTC)

New project (Regional English)

Related to the discussion above, I've started a new project for discussion, consensus building, and (later) enforcement of the use regional English language variants in WP articles (use shortcut WP:REDS). Certainly in its infancy now, but hopefully can become a helpful project in the future. SB Johnny 11:25, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Cities first?

We have categories of the form "Cities and towns in...", giving (natural) precedence to the larger entities. So why do we seem to use Category:Fictional towns and cities in Foo as a convention? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Grutness...wha? 01:11, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree, cities first.
--William Allen Simpson 00:16, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Hong Kong is not a country

Heads up. Some people refuse to accept that Hong Kong is part of China. We have a couple of sparse discussions at Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 August 6#Category:Hong Kong people and Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 August 6#Category:People of Hong Kong descent.

Hong Kong is not an ethnicity nor a nationality. Other than this, I'm unaware of any categorization of people by the city or town where ancestors were born. No other "colonies" of any civilization are treated as countries for "descent". Macau isn't treated this way. Nor was Hong Kong ever a "city-state" (like Athens) that warred and settled treaties with other nations. Hong Kong reverted to China after the end of a treaty between China and Britain (not Hong Kong and Britain).

--William Allen Simpson 01:48, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
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