This essay is currently inactive or at one time had community consensus, but is no longer relevant. It is retained for historical reference. It is an essay on categories, lists, and series boxes. It has only been updated occasionally to remove criticisms that were resolved by newer functions added to Wikipedia categorization. It was last substantively updated 2007. |
This is an essay on categories, lists, and series boxes. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
In 2007, when Wikipedia was still in its developmental stages and growing rapidly, categories were decentralized to facilitate easier indexing of pages during page creation. This system was also designed to distribute the workload of category maintenance among page maintainers.
However, the category system has since created more problems than it has solved.