1

I think based upon how big WikiHow.com has become now, with so many articles, & so many categories & subcategories, that it is now time to allow articles to be placed into up 4 categories, rather than simply 2 now.   

Articles can be about so many issues, that simply 2 is not enough anymore, I don’t think. 

 What does everyone else say?

2

+1. I’m pretty sure we’d like to circumvent problems rather than create them.

3

I still like the idea of assigning labels to articles. Labeling systems are inherently more flexible and adaptive. 

I am not sure what problems might arise during design and implementation of using labels and have no clear conceptualization about the resource drain to be expected for logistics and engineering, but I would like to see some discussion combined with serious, preliminary thinking from the haus. 

Also, it is heartening to know that @Flickety and @Maluniu are interested in exploring labeling of articles since they heavily contributed to establishing and maintaining the current category system.

4

Agreed. If articles can relate to more than merely two categories, then it would help readers to type in the desired category and find the related article. Those that need not have more than two categories, they can be left there, without making it seem incomplete, per the format, if the format gets changed based on Carolyn’s idea.

Also, some articles are already in wrong categories and so we see while patrolling, category bots (or whoever that person is) changing it to a more appropriate one. For example - The categories Football and Soccer are different but connected. So many of their respective articles are mixed up and categorized wrongly at the moment. If we can make four categories, then such mismatch or remote connection will instead be correct.

5

Two categories per article is not a rule, but rather, a suggested guideline. When an article fits into more than two categories, it seems appropriate to place additional category tags on the article.

6

@Alabaster   Can you help by sharing an article which gives more clarification into placing category tags if it is there?:slight_smile:

7

This is the article on categorizing, but it needs work -  https://www.wikihow.com/Categorize-a-wikiHow-Article .

There is also an article on using the Categorizer App  (found on the Community Dashboard) -  https://www.wikihow.com/Use-the-wikiHow-Categorizer-App .

Note: The guided editor and the categorizer app only allow two categories to be placed on each article, but additional categories can be added in advanced editing mode.

8

@Alabaster As soon as I get done (for now) with this newest article I started (and has been inuse since last week Monday), I’ll get to this - pronto. I know of several things that could be added and some clarifications needed. There are sections that aren’t complete and some sections have inaccurate information that leads people to nowheresville - and this was after the MW update in 2014 that I still haven’t gotten around to. If you need to make some changes, go for it! I’ll take it for a drive as soon as I’m done to correct it’s mistakes that make this a bit incorrect.

9

I was having trouble finding a page which I could edit with the Guided Editor, but did a bit of fixing - https://www.wikihow.com/index.php?title=Categorize-a-wikiHow-Article&diff=20046150&oldid=20004411 .

10

@Alabaster Thanks so much.:slight_smile:

11

Bump.

12

I disagree because I think that people who are on the internet clearly look for specific things so it might be better if we could keep it to two because its more specific. A negotiation might be to not have to select specific categories but to just type 2-3 keywords that relates to the topic.

@ Carolyn Barratt

@ Alabaster

@ Vishwavijay

@ Byankno1

@