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Categories provide automatic indexes of articles within EQ2i. They structure EQ2i and provide navigation through all the information at the site. The information below provides general guidelines for creating and using categories. For official rules about creating categories, see the category policy . For a list of all categories at EQ2i, see Special:Categories .

General Guidelines Edit

Categories are useful ways of grouping similar information for easy reference. Categories created simply for the sake of having a category link are, however, a waste of effort. Although there are notable exceptions, if a category only contains a few pages, its probably not worth having. Likewise, if any one category starts getting more than about 30 entries, its probably time to look at creating sub-categories for it.

Formatting Basics Edit

How to include an article in a category Edit

To include an article in a category, edit the article and include the following text anywhere on the article's page:

[[Category:Category Name]]

For example, [[Category:Everquest]] adds an article to the category named "Everquest" category.

Articles, including categories, can belong to more than one category. The categories to which an article belongs are displayed in a fixed location (the bottom of the page for the default EQ2i skin), regardless of where in the wikitext they are written.

Creating subcategories Edit

Categories themselves can belong to a category. These "sub-categories" are listed on top of regular articles in the parent category page. For example you could edit [[Category:Everquest]] and add the link [[Category:MMORPGs]]. The Everquest category would then be a subcategory of the MMORPG category. It would then appear in the sub-categories list on [[Category:MMORPGs]].

Creating a new category Edit

Creating a new category works just like creating a new article. Just add an article to a category normally, click on the red link (blank page) created at the bottom of the page and add a description of the category. Then you can start adding pages to it.

When a category has no descriptive text, links to it become Edit (red) links, which makes the category somewhat hard to use. Avoid this by at least having some statement in the category page. A one-line description about what kinds of topics included in it should suffice.

Setting category sort keys Edit

Normally, articles are sorted alphabetically in a category page. If you want the article to be positioned by something else, you should use the following link form: [[Category: My category | sort key ]] , where sort key is the value to sort by.

For example to add an article called Albert Einstein to the the category "People" and have the article sorted by "Einstein, Albert" ("Einstein" is the first sort key and "Albert" the second), you would type [[Category:People|Einstein, Albert]] .

The sort keys are case sensitive, so [[Category: My category | Foobar ]] is sorted before [[Category: My category | foobar ]] .

To make pages inside namespaces (i.e. "Help:", "EverQuest 2 Wiki:") sort by the page name rather than "H" and "W", you can use [[Category:My category|{{PAGENAME}}]] . This will keep working even when the page is renamed.

Questions? Ask in the Community Forum .
This help page references the classic editor . Note that the VisualEditor may behave differently.

A category is a group of pages with a similar theme, such as characters, books, or places. You can add a category link to any page, and it will automatically be listed on a category page with other similarly linked pages.

Categories help organize the community and make it easier for readers to find related content. They also allow you to put together a mobile main page for visitors on phones or tablets. Ideally every wiki page should be in at least one category. A category page itself can be in another category. So, for example, a wiki might have a category called "Characters" with sub-categories for "Minor characters", "Dead characters", and "Main characters".

At the bottom of each page, there is a set of 'Related Pages' images to help guide visitors from one page to another; these are chosen based on category tags on each page. The more specific the category tags are, the better these suggestions will be.

How to add a page to a category

A page appears in a category when a Category link is added to that individual page. (You cannot add pages to a category from the category's listing page.)

From the page

CategorySelect suggest

Adding a category, with suggestions

At the bottom of the page where categories are listed, you are presented with the ability to add a category without hitting the edit button.

  • Click on the "Add category" button, and start typing in a category name.
  • You can use an already established category (suggestions will appear as you type) or add a new one.
  • Once you are done, hit save and the category will appear on the article.

Note: to delete or modify existing categories you must go into full edit mode.

If you would prefer not to use this ability, you can disable it by going to your personal preferences , clicking on the Editing tab, checking the box next to "Disable Category module" and then saving your preferences.

While editing

Adding category edit mode

Adding, deleting or editing a category from the editor

On the right hand side of the editor is a "Categories" module. Click to expand this and you will see a list of the categories already present.

  • To add a category, type the category name in the input area above the existing categories. As you type, you will see suggestions appear.
  • Click the pencil next to each category to edit that category's settings.
  • Click the trash can to delete the category.

While in source mode you can add the category name as a link to the bottom of the page itself (e.g. [[Category:Help]] ), or use the category module. Existing categories will not appear at the bottom of the page in source mode; you must check the category module for existing categories.

Advanced functions

Sort parameters
When clicking the edit icon next to category names, you can define a 'sortkey' for that category. This sortkey defines at what point the article appears in a category page's listings.

Category pages

How to create category pages

Adding a category to a page - e.g. a 'Characters' category - will create a listing on a page called "Category:Characters". This wouldn't, however, actually create the category page itself. You can view the category by clicking the category name at the bottom of the regular page.

If you wish to add text or other categories to the category page itself (such as an explanation of the types of pages included), then go to the category page and click the button to create it. Edit it as you would a normal wiki page, and click publish. Your text will appear at the top of the page, followed by the list of pages in that category.

How to delete category pages

To delete a category, first remove the category tag from all pages in the category as described above.

An admin can then delete any content on the category page itself by using the "Delete" option in the Edit menu dropdown, the same way a regular page is deleted .

A category page that has not been created will display "This page needs content. You can help by adding a sentence or a photo!". In this case, the category listing can be deleted simply by removing it from all pages it was on. The category will then no longer appear in the list of categories (Special:Categories) and is fully deleted.

Category presentation

Category Gallery
  • By default, all categories on Wikia have a Category Gallery at the top of the category page itself. This shows a small image and link for each of the 8 most popular pages in that category. The image shown is usually the first image on each page.
  • If a page has no suitable graphics, then the first few lines of text will appear.
  • If you have a community where this display does not work well, you can add the magic word __NOCATEGORYGALLERY__ to the top of the page to remove it. You can also request that it be disabled on all pages through Special:Contact .
Category Exhibition
  • This is an optional display method for category pages. It can be turned on by admins using Wiki Features .
  • In the exhibition image mode, every page in the category is displayed as an image with a link. Images can be displayed in alphabetical or most visited order.
  • A small toggle option on the upper right of the page allows users to choose a "list" (lines) or image (squares) view.
  • In list mode, the category gallery appears above an alphabetical listing of all pages in the category.
CatExhibitionSample

A category with Category Exhibition enabled.

Creating sub-categories

See Wikimedia's help section on sub-categories

Advanced notes

  • For easy administration of the community, it may be desirable to have some categories hidden so that they are not visible on pages by default. In order to do that, you need to add __HIDDENCAT__ on the category page.
  • You can see a list of all currently used categories for any community on the Special:Categories page.
  • Category pages cannot be renamed - this is to avoid confusion, as renaming a category page would not change the category on the pages contained within. To rename a category, the category must be changed on all the pages within it.

Where to go next

Advanced reading

Further help and feedback

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