A number of groups are just beginning the process of going through wiki pages and renaming them so that they work better with the MediaWiki search engine and adding categories to help group them together by topics.
Here are the resources I have used to work through this process with Docs Project and Package Maintainers.
The official instructions
Read these pages first! Everything else on this page is just another way of saying some of the same thing again.
- Help:Wiki_structure describes the overall structure for page names, categories, and special namespaces.
- FedoraProject:Deletion describes the very few cases where a page may be deleted. The general rule is to use a redirect or the Archive namespace.
- Category:Wiki_policy is a category which contains the above pages and a few more.
Using categories
In some instances page naming is easier, in some instances assigning categories is easier, in most cases you need to think about both at the same time. Also when choosing category names, be sure to follow the same guidelines as page naming concerning natural language and case.
Examples
Category:Fonts has been the poster page for using categories. Notice that this category has no pages but only subcategories. There is a brief description at the top of the category.
A category page can have more than a brief description, in fact it can be used as the process page for a number of pages. Category:In-progress fonts and Category:Packaging guidelines drafts are simple examples and Category:Package Maintainers is an example where what was originally a manually updated page of links to pages is now a category page where outside resources are still manually linked, but pages in the category are added dynamically at the bottom.
Category:Ambassadors and Category:Events should end up with few (if any) pages but instead be collections of subcategories. Events can be a subcategory to marketing as well as ambassadors. Events can have subcategories by region North America events or year Events 2009 or both. Recurring events such as OpenExpo might have their own category and large events with lots of separate pages such as LinuxTag should have their own category.
Tools
Make use of the special pages. Special:SpecialPages has a list of useful lists. [Hint: there is a link to Special Pages on the left of every wiki page]].
- All pages lists all pages starting for a specific point. For example, to list all pages currently names Events/ which should be renamed and added to an events subcategory.
- Categories lists all the currently used categories. If your page fits into one of these, use it. If not, create a new one.
- Uncategorized categories and Uncategorized pages show categories and pages that should be put into categories.
FAQ
Question: It doesn't let me add the page to a category. The category name shows up at the bottom but is red as if it does not exist. What am I doing wrong?
Answer: Nothing. A category that does not have any description or is not a subcategory to another category will show up as red even if there are 100 pages in the category. Click on the link to edit the category and add some description or make it a subcategory and the red will go away.
Question: There are 50 pages in category FooBar and I want them to be in Foo at bar to follow the naming guidelines. Is this a manual process of editing each page?
Answer: Yes, at least at the moment. There has been a script to rename pages but it too still requires a person to go through an list the old name and then the new name in a file. The script cannot (yet) add or change categories even if the person had manually decided what categories and added them to the file.
Question: What if there are multiple categories for the same thing? Such as Events 2009 and Events in 2009 or FAD and Fedora Activity Day? Which should I use?
Answer: The best end result is that all the pages are in one category (see previous question about changing each page). Your team (in this case Marketing or Ambassadors) should decide which one works bests and move all the pages to that category. Then the empty category is no longer needed. Since we rarely delete anything and there is not a move button on a category page, the solution here is to edit the category page and add a #REDIRECT line. In this case, Events in 2009 is empty (even though it is the better name) so edit that category page and add
#REDIRECT [[:Category:Events 2009]]
Note the colon in front of Category so that it links to the category and does not just make it a subcategory.
Example of choosing a page name
Help:Wiki_structure has several good examples [I know you read that page], but here are a few more things to think about:
- Use a natural language name.
- Do not use upper case except to start the first word or for proper names
- How would you describe the page?
- Think about the first line in the page.
- Do not use level 1 headers - if you normally would use one, then that is probably your title.
- Does it translate easily?
Here are a few more examples: LUCI should be moved to Linux UC Irvine or even better to Linux UC Irvine (LUCI) This way a search for Irvine will find the page. Since many people who are familiar with the event would likely search on the acronym than it can also be included in the title.
Here is a harder one: LinuxTag 2007 Social Event As it is, this should be LinuxTag 2007 social event (note the lower case for social event) but there are other options as well such as Social event at LinuxTag 2007 This is where we need to think about categories where the pages are sorted lexicographically. If the page is in Events in 2007 then I want it sorted on the L of LinuxTag but if it is in its own category of LinuxTag then perhaps I want it listed under S for Social event. No, you cannot have it both ways, if the page is to be in both categories someone will need to decided which makes more sense to more people. For public facing pages (rather than sub project status pages) you are encouraged to think about how to help a new user or contributor find the page. Most likely for an event page it will be best to use the name that will best represent the event and do not worry about where it appears in a category listing.
To move a page, use the Move tab at the top of the pages. For more details check out the User:Ianweller/Wiki_tip_of_the_week for moving pages.
How to use the Archive: namespace
The Archive space allows a page to still exist if someone looks for it including with an advanced search, but is not searched by default. This means that a new user or contributor to Fedora Project would not find Archive:Marketing rewards in a default search at the same time that some other page that gives the history of the marketing team might still link to the page.
Here is an example I gave in an email to actually archive a page: Take the page: Marketing_rewards Which is known to mediawiki as Marketing rewards Use the move tab and make the new name Archive:Marketing rewards this will set up the redirects. If you go to Marketing rewards you should end up at the archived page. [Note: the URL in the browser will not change, but look just below in the page itself where it will have the Archive: title and it will say "redirected from"]
Help:Wiki_structure says to also use an archive category. Some groups are putting these files in a Category:<Group> archive others are not bothering. Archive: is not searched by default but can easily be searched if you need to find something.
If you think you will reference them some, but don't want them in a default search for users, you will want a category as a shortcut to finding them all at once.
Archive and redirection are strongly preferred over deletion.
How to use the Meeting: namespace
There is also a Meeting: namespace so that, like the Archive space mentioned above, meeting logs do not show up in a default search that a new user might initiate. In addition you can then put them in a sub category.
If you look at Category:Docs_Project You will see under subcategories both Docs Project meetings where we have summaries and agendas and such and Docs Project meeting logs which have the IRC logs.
All of the Ambassadors/Meetings/* pages should be moved and categorized such as moving Ambassadors/Meetings/2006-11-16 to Meeting:Ambassador meeting 2006-11-16 and putting it in a Category:Ambassador meetings 2006 which would be in Category:Ambassador meetings which would be in Category:Ambassadors