On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 17:40:10 +0100, Kai Kumpf <kumpfk(a)web.de> wrote:
try considering a new feature: a dropdown menu for
inserting/deleting
categories into/from articles is definitely what the wikipedia world needs!
i am not suggesting offering *all* categories under the sun but only
universally agree on top-level categories in immutable form
I think you may have inadvertently explained the key flaw in your own
proposal: in order to be useful, the categorisation needs to be to the
same level it would be if entered manually - otherwise, you've still
got manual categorisation work to do, just like if it had no cat at
all. Maybe I'm wrong, but if the drop-down list is limited to a subset
defined as the "top level", the majority of work would be still to do.
In other words, do we gain by having lots of entries added to
categories like "maths", "history", etc?
If we had a "category tree" (itself problematic), you could have some
odd JavaScript concoction that allowed you to narrow in on the
appropriate category, which could be kind of funky, but I can't
imagine being easy. Presumably, for instance, it would need some
on-going dialogue with the database - as downloading the entire
category tree every time could be a little bandwidth-consuming, but
loading a whole page each time you "expanded" a sub-category would be
rather irritating too...
--
Rowan Collins BSc
[IMSoP]