User blog:AgentMuffin/Category Cleanup Justification

See also: User blog:AgentMuffin/Category Cleanup

The excessive categorization is a huge problem on this wikia. In this blog post, I give my experiences today with this problem, in the form of a story and explanation. People need to realize that I'm marking all of these categories for a reason. Read the post and see if you can help delete or clean up useless categories.

"I now realize that excessive categorization is a huge problem on this wikia. … To put this in perspective, there are 349 categories on the SMG4Wiki. How many of those do you think we really need?"

An upset contrib
A short while ago, I was marking some randomly created, purposeless, and contentless categories for deletion, when I followed some links and somehow happened across The Zog.'s message wall. The first post there was from an upset contrib who was notifying said Zog. that I was marking said categories for said deletion, and that he didn't want all of the categories deleted. Here's the post, titled "D'OH!! D:":

90.3.168.100 wrote: ''AgentMuffin put many categories in the category "Candidates for deletion". But even if most of those categories weren't necessary, only a few of them were useless! D:''

''I don't want to see ALL those categories disappear! D,:''

Why he didn't just post to my wall I don't know, but nevertheless I looked over the message and tried to formulate as polite and formal of a response possible.

AgentMuffin wrote: ''Hiya :/ Your concern is understandable I guess.

''Most of the categories have very little content anyway. In other words, there's nothing on them, other than links to some group of articles. Other categories have very poor content, and nothing of value. And if they are deleted, the corresponding articles should remain fully intact.''

''I myself have no jurisdiction over deletion. In the end, it's up to an admin to decide whether the categories will be deleted. I, however, don't think that the wiki needs purposeless filler.''

''If there is something that you like about a particular category, and if that thing is of some value or quality to this wiki, feel free to add it to any relevant pages! :D Another thing you could do is, if you think a category is relevant and salvageable, just edit it to make it something of worth, and pop off the delete tag with yer plunger.''

''Again, it's not up to me whether the pages are deleted; that's a problem for any admin who's deleting stuff. I'm only trying to clean up the wiki a bit, and the categories in question don't really feature anything at all. And of course I am leaving the good categories, or the ones I think could be salvaged, alone.''

(Since this is on your wall, does this seem fair, Zog.?)

tl;dr:


 * No reason to worry about tons of content lost: most categories have very little to no content; none of this content is valuable.

In short, I explained my stance and why there is nothing to worry about with such extensive deletions. I hoped that this made the OP feel better and understand why I am doing this category cleanup.
 * If categories are deleted, their categorized articles will not be deleted.
 * To be clear, admins choose whether the pages are actually deleted, not me.
 * Any marked categories are filler, so they already have a good reason to be deleted.
 * If someone finds content worth keeping on an otherwise useless category, I encourage moving that content to any relevant pages.
 * If someone finds a relevant category to the wikia, they can and should salvage it by editing and removing the deletion template.
 * I am only doing this to clean up the wikia.
 * I am, of course, leaving the good or salvageable categories alone.
 * I asked Zog. whether this seems fair.

Just remove the useless ones
A while later, still marking categories, I followed a few more links and happened upon a blog post from Neilstar007 titled "Regarding Categories ". In the post I read about Ns7's annoyance with the same problem – although because he is an admin on this wikia, he showed a different view on the issue. I was interested to see someone else reacting to the same problem I was trying to solve, despite having never seen that post before. I read it over a few times, then replied again to the contrib, who I hoped wasn't reverting my edits (due to not having an account with which to recieve the replies). I included Ns7's blog post in my reply:

''AgentMuffin wrote: I actually just came across this post by Neilstar007 which has a slightly different viewpoint on why many of the categories should be deleted:

"Ughghghhhghghghghghghghghghghgghghghghghgh...

'"Yea so I see there's this new thing going where people add a billion random categories to pages for  no reason... I think it's to get badges but I've seen contributors do it so idek. I think some dicks are doing it just to troll by putting really really long categories like 'Guys who are sometimes good but are sometimes bad but technically-- who wants icecream' or 'YOLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO'. I'm asking nicely please stop it guys :/. I don't want to block people for something as stupid as "Excessive Category Usage". That being said, I know some people like EmigaRaptor and that orange guy are trying to stop this as much as they can, which we really appreciate, but you guys are kinda taking away too many categories. I think I talked to Emiga about this and idk if he stopped or not but I'm still seeing it.. Can you please do me a favor and just remove the useless ones and not all of them? At least keep the ones that are on the navigational bar and afew other unique ones like "Dinos" or "Teletubbies" or whatever? We really thank you for all the effort you spend helping the wiki. Thanks in advance. "'

''I feel like I am trying to do exactly what this post has requested, despite not having read it until now. I'm getting rid of the billions of random categories that people add for no reason. Unlike the creators of these categories, I'm not editing in deletion tags for acheivements, edit counts, or for the lulz. It turns out that I'm not the only one trying to get rid of these excessive categories. And yes, I am keeping the good and important categories because I am trying to help this wikia, not go on a deletion rampage. :Þ''

Because now that I know that there are others aware of this problem, I just want to help solve it even more.

''Most of the categories that I am marking are apparently jokes or random ones that have no purpose here and are, in fact, relatively useless. You can definitely move content to other pages, or even edit the categories so that they are actually good. However, please ask yourself whether these categories should be here in the first place.''

~AgentMuffin profile talk blog''

tl;dr: I further elaborated my point with all of these deletion marks, as well as why the marked articles should not be on this wikia. I tried to get across that the category problem should be taken seriously, regardless of one's attachment to pages that they have never seen. This is a tremendous problem.
 * Ns7 is tired of excessive categories, which might be made for edits, acheivements, or to troll: no one but the category-creaters themselves know the actual motive.
 * Ns7 is politely asking for this to stop, as he doesn't want to give out bans for something this ridiculous.
 * Other admins are trying to delete the excessive categories. Ns7 is making clear that the good, unique, and important categories should not be deleted.
 * Ns7 thanks everyone who is putting lots of effort into fixing this issue.
 * I now realize that excessive categorization is a huge problem on the wikia.
 * My goals are essentially the same as Ns7's, coincidentally.
 * I am not being a hypocrite, and am not writing in templates for edits, acheivements, or to troll.
 * I am, of course, leaving the good, salvageable, "unique", and important categories alone.
 * I am trying to solve the problem, not spam deletion templates everywhere.
 * I am marking joke categories and random ones: this is because they have no place here.
 * Again, anyone can move salvageable content or edit salvageable pages.
 * Everyone moving or editing content in marked categories should ask themselves whether the category should even be here.

There are 349 categories
To put this in perspective, there are 349 categories on the SMG4Wiki. How many of those do you think we really need?

When admins come across the deletion tags and are contemplating whether to erase the categories, they will see a link to my previous blog post, which explains the basic issue and why some of the categories with content are not good. I included a self-made list of criteria for a bad article. (I recommend to anyone who hasn't read it to do so now.) However, I hope that any admins who don't know much about the problem will come across this post as well. I'll see if I can fit a link here into my deletion reason.