User blog:AgentMuffin/Category cleanup

I am currently in the process of marking a bunch of useless categories for deletion.

Category creation has really gotten out of hand on this Wiki. There are joke categories, sure, which would be everyone's top priority to get rid of. However, SMG4Wiki is flooded with categories that are useless, even if they were made as a serious contribution.

Take for example the category "Animals ". It contains the pages "Bowser's Grandmother", "Donkey Kong", "Mario's Camel", "Penguin", "Steve-Dorrie Hybrid", and "Tabby cat". That's it. In addition to the lack of description (although the title "Animals" is fairly self-explanatory), what are some other problems I've noticed? Below are common category mistakes, and examples related to the "Animals" category to show what I mean. Thanks for reading. If you come across a category that you're sure doesn't need to exist, mark it for deletion, and maybe link back to this post.
 * 1) Categories are supposed to show a clear group of objects as defined in SMG4's videos or by SM64's hacking/machinima community. I know that I sound like a Wikipedian editor – something that I, in fact, am not – when I say this, but categories should be notable and relevant to the corresponding wiki. "Animals" seems like a clear definition on its own, but there are also Mario species that may not qualify as animals – such as Bowser's grandma – and hybrids between Minecraftians and animals – namely, the Steve-Dorrie Hybrid. Do these count as animals? In addition, the "regular animals" are poorly defined. Humans are animals – does that mean that all humans go in this category? What about SMG4 humans or Minecraftians? Is Dorrie, whose real-life basis is a myth, really count as an animal? A category like this would need a much clearer definition for which pages are in and out.
 * 2) Categories are supposed to be, again, notable and relevant. A page describing animals is neither relevant to the SMG4 canon, nor to the community. Nowhere in SMG4's videos is a clear distinction or description of what's an animal and what's not – why would there be? So that begs the question, why put that category on this wiki? A double-negative isn't always exactly a positive, so rather than asking yourself if a category is necessary, ask whether it's not unnecessary.
 * 3) Categories are about content. If you have very few pages in your category, ask whether it has anything to do with the wiki. There are tons of categories out there with less than 10 pages, and tons still with less than 5. "Animals" is lucky it isn't one of the latter, but we'll get to that in a bit. Anyway, there are surprisingly many categories with only 3, 1, or even 0 pages. In those cases, there is not enough content to constitute a category. Also, try to judge most categories based on articles only. Many categories have a few subcategories, making them broader descriptors for the sub—s' content. If the category is bad, that descriptor is not needed; quality is more easily judged using page content, so the articles tell whether a parent category is needed at all.
 * 4) If a category could have more content, but doesn't, it's likely not good or important enough. "Animals" looks like a selection of pages were chosen randomly during a browsing session. Assume Bowser's grandma is, in fact, qualified to be described as an animal. Why aren't the other Bowsers there? In this case, use common sense: if the category is bad, dump it; otherwise, add pages yourself, or use the new "Quality control" template (id "quality"). In most cases, though, the category will need to be deleted.

~AgentMuffin profile talk blog