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Categories in the Mac Guides

Eraserhead said:
Has anyone any objections with the beta category idea? I'd quite like to see what they are like...
Click to expand...

It would significantly increase the amount of work. There are currently 671 articles in at least one category. Every single one of these would have to be edited to be put in a beta category, and then again to be put in their final category.

If we don't take this approach, only some of these 671 articles will need to be edited, as not all categories will be renamed. This would require only a few hundred edits instead of over 1300. I don't know about you, but I have better things to do than making 1000 extra edits to trial a new structure. ;)
 
I wasn't thinking of putting every article into a new structure, just say the Mac articles into the "Hardware" and "Mac Hardware" categories to see which works best.

Then any arguments on the specific structure of those can be done and the final model can be copied to the other articles, with minor changes as required.
 
Even then we're still talking about hundreds of articles. I think it would be faster to design a structure as best we can, implement it, then fix any problems if there are any. That way we might have to edit some articles twice, rather than definitely having to edit all the articles in the beta categories twice.
 
HexMonkey said:
How does what I said mean we should merge articles whenever possible? :confused:

I don't think MediaWiki supports using categories as filters.

If there's a "Terminal Commands" subcategory of a "Software" category, the CLI applications are still classed as software. By putting them in a subcategory, we are not hiding them, shunning them or separating them by "walls of steel". We are merely putting articles in logical groupings to make them easier to find. They are not split off because they're not "Mac-like".

A simpler category structure does not necessarily make the guides any simpler to use.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I wasn't trying to change what you said or anything, I was just using what you said (that the list in the category would become quite long) as a reason for why we should reduce the total amount of articles by merging articles wherever possible.

And no it doesn't support filters, but we can certainly fake it.

They're split off from the main software category because of the perception that a lot of users may not want to look at the Terminal... it does reduce the amount of articles in the main software category.

Good point on the category structure not necessarily making it easier to use... errr... I'll get back to you on this, it looks like I'm going to be up quite a bit longer than I'd like anyway, I'm having MacPorts update some of my outdated packages and gcc42 has been building for the past 3 hours.

Sebastian

Edit: Also I'm not entirely against a Beta, but it has to be small scale so we have far less editing to do, not an entire category, but maybe a small subset of the articles in that category in a test category.
 
sebastianlewis said:
Sorry, I wasn't trying to change what you said or anything, I was just using what you said (that the list would become quite long) as a reason for why we should reduce the total amount of articles by merging articles wherever possible.
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I'm not sure that reducing category sizes is a good reason to merge articles. We shouldn't do anything that makes it harder to find something within an article once you're there, especially since categories are just one way to find articles - in fact, just 2% of page views in the Guides (of actual content pages, excluding things like the search page) are for viewing one of the root level categories.

sebastianlewis said:
They're split off from the main software category because of the perception that a lot of users may not want to look at the Terminal... it does reduce the amount of articles in the main software category.
Click to expand...

I wasn't the one who created the Terminal Commands category, but I'd be very surprised if that was the reason it was created. Again, these articles are in a different category because it's a logical grouping - no different to similar categories such as Games and Networking and Internet Software. As someone who uses the Terminal extensively, I find it much more useful this way.
 
sebastianlewis said:
Option 2 is better, there's no need to add "Mac" to the beginning, nor is there a need to split Desktops and Laptops because Apple has had very few distinct lineups, and not every variation needs it's own article, so all the iMacs would be covered inside a single iMac page rather than splitting them out between G3, G4, G5/Intel Core (2) Duo, and Intel Core 2 Duo (2007 and later) reducing article clutter. It would be pretty much the same idea for the Powerbook line, the iBook line, the Macbook line, the Macbook Pro line, the PowerMac line, the Mac Pro line, etc.
Click to expand...

Wait a minute. You're saying to have just a single article for ALL iMacs? OK, sure number of clicks goes down, but then you get the "Oh where did that piece of information go?" and a tired finger from scrolling ;) The PowerMac page would be huge and for people with slow/ mobile connections, the load times would be painful.

Anyway, I agree with HexMonkey, instead of wasting time trying to do Beta categories, we should just decide right now in text, then do the whole thing in one sweep.

I still think Option 1 is superior. If a "Hardware", "Software" split was done, pages like "iPhone" and "iPhone Applications" would be split up, which isn't necessary. "iPhone" needs its own category.
 
BlizzardBomb said:
I still think Option 1 is superior. If a "Hardware", "Software" split was done, pages like "iPhone" and "iPhone Applications" would be split up, which isn't necessary. "iPhone" needs its own category.
Click to expand...

I agree, but I think sebastianlewis is right that we probably don't need to split Mac Laptop and Mac Desktop. The "mac hardware guides" category also isn't needed they can just be in the base Mac Hardware category.
 
OK then so...

Mac Hardware
  • Macs
  • Displays and Accessories
Software
  • Mac Software
  • CLI/ Terminal
  • Developer
  • Gaming (Links to "Gaming" category)
  • iPhone Software
iPod/ AppleTV
iPhone/ iPod touch - Probably would work fine w/o subcategories.
Gaming
Networking and Internet
People, Organisations, Events

Special
Macrumors.com
Forum posts

Anything missed/ too excessive?
 
Some comments.
  • iPhone should be iPhone/iPod Touch IMO, they are so similar.
  • You also need to keep the MacRumors.com and Forum Posts categories as "special categories".
  • We also don't need a services category there are only 9 articles in it at present and most of them can clearly go elsewhere.
  • A developer sub-category under Mac Software is probably also useful.
  • Networking should remain Networking and Internet

EDIT: I see you've taken my whining critical commentary into account.
 
Eraserhead said:
Some comments.
  • iPhone should be iPhone/iPod Touch IMO, they are so similar.
  • You also need to keep the MacRumors.com and Forum Posts categories as "special categories".
  • We also don't need a services category there are only 9 articles in it at present and most of them can clearly go elsewhere.
  • A developer sub-category under Mac Software is probably also useful.
  • Networking should remain Networking and Internet

EDIT: I see you've taken my whining critical commentary into account.
Click to expand...

;)

I've just had another thought, there might need to be a "Gaming" subcategory in "Software" which links to the "Gaming" category (if you understand what I mean). Thoughts?
 
BlizzardBomb said:
I've just had another thought, there might need to be a "Gaming" subcategory in "Software" which links to the "Gaming" category (if you understand what I mean). Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Good idea.

EDIT: Maybe a Software category with iPhone Software, Mac Software and Gaming as subcategories would be better...
 
I've edited the original post. I've changed "Mac Software" to just "Software". Making it more of a hybrid of the previous options.
 
I'm going to make a start this afternoon then. Well as best I can without changing the front page.

EDIT: Where do Servers go?
 
OK I'm doing the Macs category, Pre G3 Macs have a separate category, as do the PowerMac G4 models as there are so many articles on them.
 
OK, so it appears any category with no super-category appears on the main page automatically. As it stands Mac Hardware, iPhone and iPod Touch and iPod and Apple TV are mostly done.

Articles that haven't been re-categorised yet are in Old Categories, though Software hasn't really been streamlined at all (just relevant stuff is in there as a subcategory) and the same applies to Networking and Internet.

Forum Posts needs moving to its new home as a "Special Category" but I can't do that. Guides has also been made a sub-category of "Old Categories", though as its a Special Category it doesn't seem to have disappeared (but I may be being impatient).
 
Well software all is mostly OK, but there is a lot of stuff still in Mac OS X (which is now in the root of Old Categories) still to be moved.

349 edits later, and I'm calling it a day.
 
Networking and Internet has been gone through, as has software, so the only "bad" pages are now in Old Categories.
 
The following can also be deleted:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Category:Apple_Hardware

and

http://guides.macrumors.com/Category:Upgrade_Guides

BlizzardBomb said:
Wow, I don't look at the guides for a few days and look what's happened. Nice work Eraserhead.
Click to expand...

Grr, you interrupted my (record aiming) stream of posts :p.

We're mostly there now, its mostly just that pesky Guides category, and the hardware category to go.

EDIT: http://guides.macrumors.com/Category:Apple_Services can also be deleted.

EDIT 2:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Category:Phones and http://guides.macrumors.com/Category:Hardware can also be deleted.

EDIT 3:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Category:Tips can also be deleted.
 
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