[WikiEN-l] Types of categories

Mon Jun 5 08:04:08 UTC 2006

On 6/4/06, Ilmari Karonen <nospam at vyznev.net> wrote:
> So, to summarize what I believe has been proposed:
>
> Taxonomic categories (plural):
>  * Subcategories are subsets (and always taxonomic).
>  * Members are instances.
>
> Thematic categories (singular):
>  * Subcategories are subthemes (thematic) or sets of related things
> (taxonomic).
>  * Members are related things.

Now we're getting somewhere. We still don't have a solution/policy for
attributes or meta-attributes though.

With attributes, one problem is perhaps that people force an "is a"
relation where it's not natural "X is a winner of the Y prize",
whereas the more natural relation in most cases would be "did" or "has
a", as in "Amélie did win the César Award" and "Paris has a world
heritage listed site".

Just for fun, here are the categories currently on the Amélie article
(ironically, Paris is not one of them...)

Incomplete lists  (meta-attribute)
Articles with unsourced statements  (meta-attribute)
Fantasy films (taxonomic)
Romantic comedy films (taxonomic)
Comedy-drama films (taxonomic)
French films (taxonomic)
French-language films (taxonomic)
2001 films (taxonomic)
César Award winners (attribute)
Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee (attribute)
Films shot in Super 35 (?)

Some of these "taxonomic" categories would really be better split up
into taxonomies and attributes that only apply to certain taxonomic
categories. In this case:
Films (taxonomic)
French (film) (attribute)
French-language (attribute)
etc.

> The plural/singular distinction may not be ideal, but does feel very
> natural in many cases.  It's not without problems, though: what about,
> for example, the category "Sheep"?

I can't think of many items in that taxonomic category other than
Dolly, in which case you could probably "cheat" by renaming the
taxonomic category "Famous sheep" or "Notable sheep" or something.
Breeds would be under "Breeds of sheep" and everything else sheepish
would be under the thematic category "Sheep".

Unless we wanted to start a new naming convention of "Sheep-related"
or something.

Steve