Organizing information
From WhyNotWiki
[edit] Problems
[edit] Policy: Inherit from "Category:Software problems" or from both "Category:Software" and "Category:Problems"?
(This is an example of the more general problem: Inherit from "Category:A B" or from both "Category:A" and "Category:B"? But it is easier to discuss practical implications when we have a concrete example.)
[edit] Option 1: Inherit from a single rather specific category, "Category:Software problems"
This is the option I'm leaning towards currently.
It would keep the more general categories less cluttered, free from specialized articles that can be better categorized by a more specific category (like "Category:Software problems"). This leaves the more general categories to include only the more general articles; you could always drill down to the more specific subcategories if you wanted a more specific articles contained in those subcategories.
You could still browse to "Category:Software problems" (and from there to the articles in that category) by going to either "Category:Software" and "Category:Problems" and seeing it listed under the subcategories section.
[edit] Option 2: Inherit from 2 more general categories; don't have the more specific category
Con: It creates more categories than are necessary.
I say "don't have the more specific category" because there would be no point in having a category if you're never going to use it (because the policy would be to use it to more general categories instead).
[edit] Wouldn't it be identical to put an article in "Category A" and "Category B" as to put it in "Category A B"?
I think the answer is "no", unfortunately. If it belonged to three categories — "Category:A", "Category:B", and "Category:C" — then it would be impossible to imply that "Category:A" and "Category:B" go to together somehow. We need some way to explicitly specify that relationship: that way is to create a new category that inherits from both "Category:A" and "Category:B"!
