Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Ok... here are the categories...

arn

arn

macrumors god
Original poster
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
16,416
5,882
* Apple Computer
** Apple Events
** Apple CEOs
* Apple Software
** Mac OS X
* Apple Hardware
** Mac Desktops
** Mac Laptops
** Mac Servers
** iPods
* Companies
* Hardware
** Graphics Cards
* iPods
* Software

Simple, short. few main categories (we can of course have as many subcats as needed), and I think everything will fall under these. I think these make sense for Mac owners to navigate down the categories.

Any major objections, questions?

I do think a Topic-based approach would be good too, but we need at least on cohesive set of categories first.

So TOP LEVEL categories are as follows:

* Apple Computer
* Apple Software
* Apple Hardware
* Companies
* Hardware
* Software

arn
 
aspro said:
Companies refers to companies that make products for macintosh? Like Aspyr or Microsoft?
Click to expand...

Ya, wasn't a huge fan of the word "Companies" but ya... any company large enough to have a page or grouping of pages.

Seems like Adobe, IBM, Motorola and Microsoft have pages/interest. Better suggestion for name? Or how to deal with random companies?

The approach here was to take it from a Mac-user's perspective drilling down into logical categories. Again, we can do a problem/topic based approach too... but that doesn't preclude this method.

arn
 
Perhaps something like Third Party Providers, Related Organisations or something, because then you could put open source (and other non-company) groups like Mozillla could come under that heading aswell.

edit: clarified a little
 
arn said:
Seems like Adobe, IBM, Motorola and Microsoft have pages/interest. Better suggestion for name? Or how to deal with random companies?
Click to expand...

Corperations?

Or how about
Main: 3rd Party Providers
Sub:
3rd Party Software Providers
3rd Party Hardware Providers
 
Ok.... hopefully I didn't step on anyones toes.... but the categories were a mess.

I organized them as above and eliminated as many redundancies as possible in the current form.

Most of the time an article should NOT be listed under a category AND a subcategory of that category. It just doesn't make sense most of the time. There's a reason it was subcategorized. At least that's my impression on it.

Browse around, tell me what you think.

arn
 
My impression when going through was that people have made too many subcategories.

For example... Do we need Apple CEO's yet? We only have two CEO's. They could go under Apple, Inc. (I left it for now, since we should put more CEOs in place).

Or, we only have WWDC listed under Apple Events. That could also go under Apple, Inc until the time comes when we have enough.

I think we should stay broad until there are enough items to push us to enter it into a subcategory.

arn
 
everyone happy with the categories?

If you want, we can talk about a Topic based heirarchy that can exist as well alongside this more traditional category system.

arn
 
I just removed [[Category:Apple Hardware]] tag from the IBook article.

In my mind, it makes little sense to add IBook under both Mac Laptops and Apple Hardware, when Mac Laptops is already a subcategory of Apple Hardware.

Otherwise, there is no point in making subcategories if everything is also going to be in the parent category.

My impression is that subcategories should be made when enough common items exist in a category. And then they should be moved (not copied) to the subcategory directory.

arn
 
My tuppence worth...

The guides are coming along rather nicely I think! :)


Have to say I'm not a fan of the "Companies" category though. I agree with earlier posts about using something like "Third Parties", or "Related Companies".

i.e. on the left you'd have all the Apple categories (these look fine)

then on the right you'd have:

Third Parties
Third Party Hardware
Third Party Software

... just to emphasise the fact that the current 'Hardware' and 'Software' categories should be used for non-Apple stuff.
 
Sorry, another comment...

I know some people object to the word 'laptop'... perhaps we should rename the sub-category as Mac Notebooks or Mac Portables rather than Mac Laptops?


Just checked apple.com and they use the word 'Portables'.
 
dietcokevanilla said:
Have to say I'm not a fan of the "Companies" category though. I agree with earlier posts about using something like "Third Parties", or "Related Companies".

i.e. on the left you'd have all the Apple categories (these look fine)

then on the right you'd have:

Third Parties
Third Party Hardware
Third Party Software
Yeah, not a huge fan of companies but also not a huge fan of "Third Party xyz" either.

arn
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
dietcokevanilla said:
Sorry, another comment...

I know some people object to the word 'laptop'... perhaps we should rename the sub-category as Mac Notebooks or Mac Portables rather than Mac Laptops?


Just checked apple.com and they use the word 'Portables'.
Click to expand...

I'm fine with Portables. also leaves it open for other portables in the future I suppose.

arn
 
arn said:
I'm fine with Portables. also leaves it open for other portables in the future I suppose.

arn
Click to expand...
Will people start putting iPods into the Portables category then? Or an I not giving people as much credit as they deserve?
 
grapes911 said:
Will people start putting iPods into the Portables category then? Or an I not giving people as much credit as they deserve?
Click to expand...

heh.... not sure. Also I don't think the Newton should go into Portables either. :)

arn
 
grapes911 said:
Will people start putting iPods into the Portables category then? Or an I not giving people as much credit as they deserve?
Click to expand...

Well not if it's labelled 'Mac Portables' to go alongside 'Mac Desktops' and 'Mac Servers'.

On the Apple site (hardware page) they list iPod, iSight and Airport Express/Extreme under the category of 'Digital Life'.

It might be an idea to follow suit with the Mac Guides categories... though personally I'd be looking for iPod under a more main (i.e. separate) 'iPod' category. Could bundle the iSight/Airports together under 'Digital Life' though. Or just call these 'Mac Peripherals'.
 
dietcokevanilla said:
It might be an idea to follow suit with the Mac Guides categories... though personally I'd be looking for iPod under a more main (i.e. separate) 'iPod' category. Could bundle the iSight/Airports together under 'Digital Life' though. Or just call these 'Mac Peripherals'.
Click to expand...

I think "Digital Life" could fall under our secondary but parallel category system.. that's more topical.

We have another set of categories entirely where things are categorized in a more topical manner:

Digital Life
- Audio
- Video
- Photos
- Internet
- Business

Traditional Categories
- Apple, Inc.
- Apple Hardware
- Apple Software
etc...

The digital life would be more total solution type categories.

arn
 
Do we have a top level category for actual guides? "Repairing permissions", "Clearing Cache files"?

Let me propose a heirarchy (or should this be done on the wiki project page?)

Guides
* Networking Guides
** [[Networking with a Windows lan]]
** [[Sharing files and folders on the LAN]]
** [[Setting up an ad-hoc wireless LAN]]
* System Maintenance Guides
* Installation/Removal Guides
* ...


(I'm suffixing the Guide subcategories with "Guide" to prevent "Networking" from interferring with Networking hardware or software)

(I'm also following Arn's suggestion of avoiding article names of "How to network with windows", as that would lump everything under "H" in the index).
 
mainstreetmark said:
Do we have a top level category for actual guides? "Repairing permissions", "Clearing Cache files"?
Click to expand...

I think those would end up in the Topical Category listings. Maybe I'm not being clear but here's how I see it being in the end

* Traditional Categories
** Apple, Inc.
** Apple Hardware
*** Apple Desktops
*** Apple Portables
*** IPods
** Apple Services
** Apple Software
** Companies
** Hardware
** Software
* Topical Categories
** Audio and Music
** Internet and Networking
*** [[Networking with a Windows lan]]
*** [[Sharing files and folders on the LAN]]
** Video
*** IPod (5G)
*** iMovie
** Photos
*** iPhoto
*** Adobe Photoshop

Hmm... maybe they do need Guides or some other delimination

arn
 
Are you suggesting "Traditional Categories" and "Topical Categories" be actual categories, or just a kind of hierarchy that we'll follow? I don't think "Traditional Categories" is a very useful category name to have in the wiki.

Secondly, the (topical) "Internet & Networking" category (for example), will that contain both guides to networking, as well as software, like Safari, and hardware, like a 56k modem? And if not, then Safari would be in (traditional) Software->Internet & Networking Software->Safari, the modem would go in Hardware->Internet & Networking Hardware->Apple 56k Modem, and the guide would go in [Guides?]->Internet & Networking Guides->Networking with Windows?

I'm trying to nail down specific hierarchal paths, still. I don't know that mixing hardware, software, and guides all in a subcategory is all that useful. I would imagine a user who is looking for networking help wouldn't necessarily want to wade through internet software and hardware (and likewise, a person after new internet software may not want to see all the dozens and dozens of guides)
 
mainstreetmark said:
Are you suggesting "Traditional Categories" and "Topical Categories" be actual categories, or just a kind of hierarchy that we'll follow? I don't think "Traditional Categories" is a very useful category name to have in the wiki.

Secondly, the (topical) "Internet & Networking" category (for example), will that contain both guides to networking, as well as software, like Safari, and hardware, like a 56k modem? And if not, then Safari would be in (traditional) Software->Internet & Networking Software->Safari, the modem would go in Hardware->Internet & Networking Hardware->Apple 56k Modem, and the guide would go in [Guides?]->Internet & Networking Guides->Networking with Windows?

I'm trying to nail down specific hierarchal paths, still. I don't know that mixing hardware, software, and guides all in a subcategory is all that useful. I would imagine a user who is looking for networking help wouldn't necessarily want to wade through internet software and hardware (and likewise, a person after new internet software may not want to see all the dozens and dozens of guides)
Click to expand...

I don't think those would necessary be the names, but they could be. I do think they would be actual categories in that they could hold the rest of the categories. I think it would mostly be transparent to the end user. The front page might have a list of the traditional categories on the left column and the topic or guide categories on the right side. and people could drill down whatever interests them.

As for the mixing... well, they are presently being mixed in the regular categories up right now. but it doesn't have to be. I suppose guides could be seperated into this other category tree.

arn
 
Where do you think I should put 'PowerCD', Apple's CD player/CD-ROM drive and 'Apple QuickTake', Apple's digital camera. I'd love to make pages for these items but, I need to know which category to put them in, and also I need to know how to make a new item (new items that is). Like add a new PowerCD page the Apple Hardware category ect...

Thanks! :D
-Limey

Guides are look'in great! ;)
 
LimeiBook86 said:
Where do you think I should put 'PowerCD', Apple's CD player/CD-ROM drive and 'Apple QuickTake', Apple's digital camera. I'd love to make pages for these items but, I need to know which category to put them in, and also I need to know how to make a new item (new items that is). Like add a new PowerCD page the Apple Hardware category ect...

Thanks! :D
-Limey

Guides are look'in great! ;)
Click to expand...

Just place [[Category:Cat_Name]]

Those would go under [[Category:Apple Hardware]]

arn
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back