!!! JSPWiki Categories

See [JSPWiki:WikiCategory] for the JSPWiki definition of a category. The Encyclopaedia will make heavy use of them by use of the  [JSPWiki:ReferringPagesPlugin] and [JSPWiki:ReferredPagesPlugin] plugins.

!!! Wikipedia Guidelines

We will be following the Wikipedia guidelines for categories:

!! What are categories?

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"Categories allow articles to be placed in one or more groups, and allow those groups to be further categorized. An article belonging to a category should contain a special link to a page that describes the category. Similarly, a sub-category belonging to a parent category should contain a special link to the parent category's page.Each category page contains an introduction that can be edited like an article, and an automatically generated list of links to sub-categories and articles that belong to the category.Categories do not form a strict hierarchy or tree of categories, since each article can appear in more than one category, and each category can appear in more than one parent category. This allows multiple categorization schemes to co-exist simultaneously."
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!! What is the purpose of categories?

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There are two main ways to use categories:  [sets|Wikipedia:SETCAT] (lists of items sharing a characteristic) and topics. When starting a subcategory, making an early decision about whether it is a set list or a topic will reduce later renames, recategorizations, and discussions. The category page can be used to tell others whether it is a set list or a topic, and to link to a main list or main article. 

"There is one top-level category,  [Category:Contents|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Contents]. All other categories are found below this. Hence every category apart from this top one must be a subcategory of at least one other category."
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This page is not to be considered a category, but simply an article about categories. [Category.Contents] is the one top-level category in the Encyclopaedia. 

!! What categories already exist?

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A list of all categories can be found at  [Special:Categories|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Categories]
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The Encyclopaedia equivalent is [Special.Categories]. The list shall include all pages starting with "Category.".

!! What is the naming convention for categories?

The Encyclopaedia shall follow the rules in [Wikipedia:Category_names|Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Category_names] except where the limitation of JSPWiki comes into play, specifically with single quotes in a name, such as Asha'man. In such cases, the single quote shall be removed and the letter following the single quote shall be capitalized, such as AshaMan. This allows the links in content to appear normal: [Category.Asha'man]. Also, colons, ":", will not be used after "Category" as JSPWiki translates that into an InterWiki link. A period, "." shall be used instead, which follows the JSPWiki convention.

!! References

# [Wikipedia:Wikipedia:FAQ/Categories]
# [Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Categorization]
# [Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Categorization#Subcategorization] (for diffusing and non-diffusing subcategories)
# [Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Category_names]