Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Categories

See also: WT:CAT and WT:CFD

"Template:R from deadname" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Template:R from deadname has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2023 August 30 § Template:R from deadname until a consensus is reached.

I’m notifying WP:CATP as one of the options is to turn Template:R from deadname into its own rcat, which would then result in the creation of Category:Redirects from deadnames or similar. Best, A smart kitten (talk) 17:45, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

"We Didn't Start the Fire" Category

I was thinking about creating a category for events mentioned in the song "We Didn't Start the Fire," but I can definitely see how that could be considered trivial. Certainly the election of Harry Truman is not most notable for its inclusion in a Billy Joel song, but there are song events that are arguably best remembered for their inclusion in the song (Syringe Tide comes to mind). I feel that this could be a useful category, but would like others' input. Remainsuncertain (talk) 21:30, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

Remainsuncertain Ask Koavf. I have seen them have some interest in such niche cats. Regards, --Thinker78 (talk) 03:08, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

Redundant cat

This categories seem to mirror each other. Category:Crime by century and Category:Crimes by century. Thoughts? Regards,--Thinker78 (talk) 03:11, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

The Crimes ones should be about particular events which were of a criminal nature, such as the Hatton Garden job. The Crime ones should be about more general topics, such as changes to the law and the events that precipitated the change. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 07:13, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

I think it is rather confusing such arrangement. Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 19:21, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

Wikipedia categories named after musical groups

Enforcement of WP:OCEPON seems to be particularly focused on eponymous categories for bands (at least when compared to other topics like political parties). I created Category:Greta Van Fleet earlier this year and it was deleted on this basis so I was wondering how big does a category have to be for it to be considered worthy? Charles Essie (talk) 20:21, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Any way to know number of entries of deleted categories

I was wondering if there is a way to know how many entries a deleted category had at any given time. Specifically in this case, Category:Assassinated American former and incumbent party officials. Regards, --Thinker78 (talk) 21:45, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

First, you would need to obtain a database dump from the time that is of interest. This is more a WP:VPT thing, not a WikiProject matter. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 23:09, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

Petscan question

I ran a Petscan query including Category:Homicide and Category:Politicians but for some reason, Zeus showed up, no idea why. Anyone knows why and how to find out? Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 01:04, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

a) Homicide > Infanticide > Child sacrifice > Cronus > Children of Cronus

b) Politicians > Heads of state > Monarchs > Monarchs in Greek mythology > Kings in Greek mythology

Both categories have actually more paths to Zeus than those. I had the same question not long ago (but can't remember where), and I was given the code for a query at quarry:, and I used that to retrieve the above results. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 02:33, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

Incredibly useful answer, I appreciate it! Best regards, Thinker78 (talk) 03:56, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia:Categorization

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Categorization#Caste-related category questions, which is within the scope of this WikiProject. Beccaynr (talk) 14:49, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

Archive categorization

Hello! What's the best way to remove the Cuisine by country category from this archive page: Talk:Cuisine of Luxembourg/Archive 1? It was linked by someone in a discussion thread and I don't want to modify any of the content since archive content generally should not be edited. BaduFerreira (talk) 13:37, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

It's perfectly legitimate to correct such mistakes. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 13:43, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Cool, I just copyedited it away. Thank you! BaduFerreira (talk) 13:47, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

@BaduFerreira For future reference: When a category is being mentioned, rather than assigned to a page, it needs a ":" before the word "Category". That's what was missing and has now been fixed. PamD 13:56, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Oh okay, I was looking for a way to preserve the linked category without removing it outright but I misinterpreted Michael's comment as to just remove it entirely. Thank you for the heads-up! BaduFerreira (talk) 14:01, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Request for comment SmallCat

There is a discussion that may be of your interest about a Request for comment on replacement to SmallCat guideline. Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 05:47, 24 November 2023 (UTC)

@Marcocapelle, Nederlandse Leeuw, RevelationDirect, and Jc37: Courtesy ping to editors working on the Wikipedia:Merge for now essay and author of a previous RfC that deprecated SmallCat and which I analyzed to make the proposal. Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 05:54, 24 November 2023 (UTC)

Idea for category or list

A category or list of "Bills left unsigned by US President that became law" would be useful for research.

I am thinking it might be more appropriate as a list but I could use some guidance.

I could not find an existing similar category or list. Mike Richardson (talk) 05:49, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2023 December 4 § Category:Fair use images

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2023 December 4 § Category:Fair use images. -- Marchjuly (talk) 05:15, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

Alternatives to PetScan?

There seems to be issues with PetScan. Are there alternatives to it? Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 05:07, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Glad to know I wasn’t the only one having issues with it. I thought I must have been using it incorrectly! Best, ‍—‍a smart kitten_[meow] 09:29, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Cirrus search, despite its limitations, has more features than many editors realise. AWB can also produce lists, even if the user has no intention of editing those pages with AWB. For editors familiar with SQL, there are Quarry and {{Database report}}, though both take far longer to code than PetScan. Of course, we have WhatLinksHere. Certes (talk) 10:28, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

I'm constantly getting the good old ®exp_filter bug (i.e. if PetScan fails, check all the tabs and fields for "®exp_filter") that's still not fixed. 85.76.13.79 (talk) 12:19, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

That bug occurs when one copies the "Link to a pre-filled form...", pastes it into a wikitext or HTML page then views that in a browser (details). Certes (talk) 13:51, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Yes, but it also sometimes happens in other scenarios, too, e.g.:

• 1) I opened https://petscan.wmflabs.org/ (so not a pre-filled url)
• 2) Only filled the fields:

• a) Categories
• b) Depth
• c) Has none of these templates

• 3) Clicked "Do it"
• 4) Search failed and I found the "®exp_filter" in the "Links to" field

85.76.13.79 (talk) 14:03, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

That is surprising. I've not seen that behaviour before, and it doesn't fit the explanation I gave in the details link above. Perhaps there are multiple related bugs. Certes (talk) 14:27, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Since it's happening to me all the time now, I managed to make a quick video to prove that it happens: https://streamable.com/eltfm4 (link expires in 2 days). 85.76.13.79 (talk) 14:31, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

I'd suggest reposting these details over at Wikipedia talk:PetScan, and then pinging or user talk messaging its maintainer, User:Magnus Manske. He edited a month ago and is still an admin, so may still be around. –Novem Linguae (talk) 03:46, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

Possible template to expand underfilled categories.

{{Import from list}}. Sometimes, a list article has more bluelinked entries than a corresponding category. The idea is that this template would be placed on the category page. Thoughts? Mach61 (talk) 02:22, 23 December 2023 (UTC)

Circular categories

Category:Fictional doves and pigeons is inside Category:Fictional Columbidae, which is inside Category:Fictional doves and pigeons. Given that "doves and pigeons" is the exact same thing as Columbidae, what should we do? Kk.urban (talk) 03:01, 5 January 2024 (UTC)

You can submit them for merger at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion. Place Clichy (talk) 03:22, 5 January 2024 (UTC)

There are several other loops where A is a subcategory of B and B is a subcategory of A. I've listed them in User:Certes/Reports/Circular categories. In many cases, A and B are identical: for example, Category:1939 in gymnastics is a subcategory of itself. Can I assume that these are mistakes and remove them from themselves (except for esoteric metadata such as Category:Hidden categories which, being a hidden category, is correctly a member of itself)? Certes (talk) 23:36, 6 January 2024 (UTC)

Cats that are subcats of themselves are reported at Wikipedia:Database reports/Self-categorized categories, something that has only recently been updated after a fifteen-month hiatus. At one period, it was run weekly. The way to deal with these is indeed to remove the category from itself, but that's not the only action - you must also ensure that it has at least one appropriate parent category (example). There are a few categories which are intentionally members of themselves - two of these are by design: Category:Hidden categories and Category:Noindexed pages; there is also Category:Template Large category TOC via CatAutoTOC on category with 2,001–5,000 pages, as a side-effect of using {{CatAutoTOC}}.

Apart from those three, there are two main reasons that a category might be inside itself - one is that the person creating the cat page didn't understand the categorisation system (as with Category:Synchronized sound films), the other is because of a category merge (example). Regarding the latter, I have pointed this problem out before, see Wikipedia talk:Categories for discussion/Working/Archive 2#Incorrect cat changes and Wikipedia talk:Categories for discussion/Archive 17#Bad edits by Cydebot. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 15:28, 7 January 2024 (UTC)