Forum:MAJOR Revisions to the Categorization Policy Proposal

This proposal may come as a shock to many people, but I feel it’s necessary. My proposal is that we remove everything from the Categorization Policy other than the parts that say how to categorize an article, examples of categories and the fact that an article must be categorized. Basically what I’m saying is that we should no longer be deleting articles for being uncategorized and banning people for doing that. Although many users hate it when we do this, I’m going to use Wookieepedia as an example.

On Wookieepedia, if an article is created without a category then a Recent Changes lurker will add the category to it. There is no reason why we should not be doing that here. This is something simple that all of us can help with to create a more community oriented Wiki. It will also help new users feel that we’re not being too strict on them. Honestly, adding a category is something simple that we can all do. I will note, though, that if users leave articles uncategorized frequently then they will be given a notice. Please make note that a notice is different than a warning.

Why am I proposing this? Aside from the plethora of reasons you can find in the rant on my user page, it’s basically that there is no community spirit or community effort on SWF. Lending your voice in policy matters and helping articles reach Good article status is nice and all, but none of that matters when the vast majority of the website is completely lacking in quality. If the members of this website want it to continue in the years ahead, they need to start coming together more and actually help improve it. Having tunnel vision and only focusing on your own articles, however good or bad they may be, just doesn’t cut it in my opinion. This is not a jab at anyone in particular, because not every single person needs to be involved, but the majority of people do, in my opinion, and this site will continue to be at the receiving end of bad jokes for a long time to come if it’s not done.

I also want to point out something I know that many people will say, and that’s that the Categorization Policy gives us a reason to delete junk articles. Please keep in mind that the Categorization Policy is not here to pass judgment on articles like that, so that should not be used as an opposition in my opinion. “Junk” is a point of view and while most of us share that, that’s not what we should be doing in a community unless we’re fixing spelling and grammar.

Besides, let’s also remember that we are not in the same position that we were in Summer 2007. There are not over one thousand articles without categories. It’s not hard to be on the look out for articles created without a category, and it takes all of twenty seconds to edit one in once you see it. If we were getting hundreds of articles per day it would be one thing, but we’re not so this is nothing the active members can’t handle. This is something that we can all help with as a community effort and it will really help to keep us all involved.

All matters of the Voting Policy apply here: you need 250 main space edits to vote and you need to have been a member for at least one month. This vote will end on August 26th unless a clear decision has been made before then. If you have any questions, please ask in the discussion area. - Brandon Rhea (talk) (contribs) 23:41, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Current standings

 * Support (1)
 * Neutral (0)
 * Oppose (0)

Support

 * 1) As the one who proposed this, then obviously I support it. - Brandon Rhea (talk) (contribs) 23:41, 12 August 2008 (UTC)