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Memory Alpha AboutPolicies and guidelinesCategory tree → Category suggestions

Please make sure you have read and understood Memory Alpha's category approval policy before editing this page. Category suggestions can be used to suggest a single category, multiple categories in the same "tree branch" or "parent category," or to determine which categories will contain or be contained by other categories. From there, they may either be approved and enacted by moving the discussion from this page to the new category's talk page, or, if not approved, moving the discussion from here to the category suggestion archive.

One of the reasons we discuss categories first is because we need to ensure that the category tag, when circumstances call for it, contains the correct sort keys to arrange the list in a predetermined order.

This page is broken down into sections:

  • In-universe categories: These categories are intended to be used for in-universe articles, and should be named to maintain Memory Alpha's POV.
  • Production POV categories: These categories are for use on production articles, which are written from the real world POV, and as such should be have the {{real world}} template on them.
  • Maintenance categories: These categories are used in the maintenance of Memory Alpha, and would include the audio and image files for example. These categories can have either a in-universe or real world POV.

Provisional categories

Organizations

I propose the creation of a supercategory "Organizations" -- this would basically be any group, including governments, corporations, militaries, teams, etc.

Form

  • Supercategory: Category:Organizations -- this category contains all organizations articles in a list
    • Subcategories can be added at will from the following:
      • Category:Governments
      • Category:Corporations
      • Category:Agencies -- covering both militaries, and governmental sub-agencies
      • additional categories for other groups as they become identified -- i'm not sure if we have enough articles relevant for a Category:Music groups or Category:Sports teams,
      • Category:Religions might be a possibility

The question about this suggestion is -- should all these articles still be contained in the master category, or should we leave the supercategory containing only articles about "miscellaneous groups" that don't fall into any of the subcategories -- or would it even be preferable to create additional subcategory Category:Miscellaneous groups.

Additionally, subcategories of major groups can and will be created upon suggestion and vote here -- once Category:Agencies has been approved, Category:Starfleet, Category:Tal Shiar, etcetera can be contained in it.

I don't recommend putting any articles in Category:Starfleet or any other organization at this level, however, because an additional tree structure must be discussed -- to prevent double listing articles that fall under both UFP and Starfleet.

There are a lot of organizations that may be deserving of a category heading -- this level will form a major portion of our tree structure if it is approved. Once approved, it will be easy to create multiple categories by writing one sample category makeup -- Captain Mike K. Barteltalk 21:49, 26 Mar 2005 (EST)

(I'm not sure where this came from, but it didn't belong with the paragraph prevously attached with it, so I am putting it here.) --Alan del Beccio 06:50, 29 Sep 2005 (UTC)
  • Subcategories based on military or service organizations, agencies, (Category:Organizations; Category:Agencies; etc), will use the form "NAME personnel". Former members who move on to other exploits may be double categorized. Members of sub-agencies or units that are able to be listed like that should also be categorized like that. -- for example, Spock is both in Starfleet personnel, and USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) personnel.
  • Subcategories based on species should take the form of their list article (people) -- the species name in plural (Category:Vulcans, humans, etc). Hybrids should be double categorized.
  • Subcategories based on Category:Governments or Category:Regions could take the form NAME citizens or NAME residents, i'm open for suggestions on this one if anyone has a better idea for final terminology.

Earth

Category:Earth. with list subcategory Category:Earth cities. The cities category would cover the numerous Earth cities mentioned, and the broader Earth category would cover other aspects of the planet -- Captain Mike K. Bartel 23:22, 8 Mar 2005 (GMT)

  • would additional subcategory Category:Earth regions be prefereable for all of our nation, state and continent/island articles?
  • further subcategories could be applied for Category:Earth lifeforms.
  • would this be an opening for our first Category:People species category - a Category:Humans listing?
Does anyone have any further input whether or not i should create these categories? -- Captain Mike K. Bartel 10:19, 13 Mar 2005 (GMT)
  • Perhaps just a category of cities, to encompass both earth and alien cities, much like Category:Starships encompasses all starships Starfleet, and alien. Additionally, a category of regions to cover all states, counties, provinces, nations, regions, islands, etc. and -- a category of landforms for all mountains, continents, and the such...and if possible think of a broader term to include rivers lakes and oceans. --Alan del Beccio 06:26, 20 Aug 2005 (UTC)

Earth sub-categories

Its getting full in Category:Earth -- in my eyes, sub possibilities are locations (locales, cities, states, provinces, regions, topography), arts (media, entertainment (("arts & entertainment"?))), organizations, (governments, nations), flora, fauna, etc. Anyone hav input on going forward? -- Captain Mike K. Barteltalk 08:45, 14 Sep 2005 (UTC)

  • As long as it works well as a subcategory with the corresponding categories that cover 'locations (locales, cities, states, provinces, regions, topography), arts (media, entertainment (("arts & entertainment"?))), organizations, (governments, nations), flora, fauna, etc.' -- then I'm for it. --Alan del Beccio 15:47, 14 Sep 2005 (UTC)

I think the following would be the easiest to start with:

  • Mike's right, it is getting full in there and subs are needed. The way Alan layed them out look good to me, and probably would be the easiest way to go right now. So, in effect, I support. So, like, make it so, and stuff. :P --From Andoria with Love 02:37, 22 Sep 2005 (UTC)

Astronomical objects

Category:Astronomical objects (name to be discussed)
a list category for all objects that don't already have their own category - those included as subcategories, for example: Category:Clusters, Category:Moons, Category:Nebulae, Category:Planets. -- Cid Highwind 09:14, 9 Sep 2005 (UTC)
  • Support--Alan del Beccio 21:29, 10 Sep 2005 (UTC)
    • Again, I support this...and even see that this is a category in Wikipedia as well. We still have a number of asteroids, planetoids and comets that are not categorized that could probably go here. --Alan del Beccio 12:08, 7 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Cartography

Category:Cartography (name to be discussed)
a category for everything related to stellar cartography, including the subcategories Category:Astronomical objects, Category:Regions, Category:Sectors. -- Cid Highwind 09:14, 9 Sep 2005 (UTC)
  • Support---06:39, 29 Sep 2005 (UTC) <<--That was me --Alan del Beccio 20:26, 12 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Suggested categories

Starfleet

I'd like to add a category for Starfleet subdivisions like Unit XY-75847. Perhaps Category:Starfleet, but that might have the tendency to overlap with too many other categories. Category:Military units might work too. Any other suggestions? -- Harry 15:29, 31 Jan 2005 (CET)

I definitely prefer the second suggestion - "Starfleet" would be too broad as a category title, and the second one would allow us to also list units and groups of other powers (if those exist). I don't have any suggestions regarding the exact title, but it should cover, for example, Star Fleet Battle Group Omega and the Starfleet Fleets. -- Cid Highwind 11:25, 21 Feb 2005 (GMT)
On the tree suggestion page, I started the Category:Organizations -- it contains Category:Governments and Category:Agencies -- the latter should contain Category:Starfleet if and when it is created. -- Captain Mike K. Barteltalk

Specific Military Personnel

Similar to the various personnel categories, I'd like to offer these suggestions:

It should be included for militaries with at least 10 personnel, and probably a good number of separate civilians to make weeding out different from duplication.--Tim Thomason 01:50, 14 Sep 2005 (UTC) (updated Tim Thomason 12:48, 28 Sep 2005 (UTC))

  • For the moment, I'm definately for Category:Klingon Defense Force personnel and suggest perhaps changing Category:Cardassian Orders personnel to something more like Category:Central Command personnel (a la Category:Starfleet personnel). --Alan del Beccio 04:54, 29 Sep 2005 (UTC)
I think I might have to oppose Category:Val Jean personnel since it's a bit redundant with both the Voyager and Maquis personnel categories and also Category:USS Equinox personnel since I don't really think there's people enough to warrant one. I also oppose Category:Starfleet Command personnel (a bit too vague, I think). I also oppose Category:Starfleet Academy personnel because either this only includes instructors, teachers, etc., in which case there's probably too few, or it also includes cadets, in which case EVERY OFFCER, presumably having once been a cadet, should theoretically be included, making it far too broad.--T smitts 22:56, 7 Oct 2005 (UTC)
Actually when I made this list of personnel pages, I searched through all the pages with "personnel" and only included those with over 10 members. I understand the redundancy of Category:Val Jean personnel and the vagueness of Category:Starfleet Command personnel. Starfleet Academy personnel would be based on the list here, and contains 24 named people (more than Category:Andorians and Category:Bolians, and there has always been a tendency to mention "Professor Smith taught me this well..."). Also USS Equinox personnel has 13 named people, which seems alright to me as a nice, small category in which the members aren't categorized elsewhere.--Tim Thomason 03:17, 8 Oct 2005 (UTC)

Novelists

Since Category:Writers covers script writers, Category:Authors covers "Trek universe" writers and we still yet have writers of novels and related books uncategorized, Category:Novelists seems to be the last remaining tag to give these individuals. I figured I would post this, as I noticed someone had categorized a novelist for a Trek novel in the Authors category along with a bunch of Trek universe authors. --Alan del Beccio 08:35, 16 Sep 2005 (UTC)

Support, although we might want to think again about giving those "meta" categories a common prefix, just like we're giving all "maintenance" categories the prefix "Memory Alpha". "Star Trek" was suggested when we had this discussion before. This would free up the "Novelists" category for an eventual later use to categorize in-universe characters that wrote novels. It would also avoid the rather artificial distinction between "Writers" and "Authors". -- Cid Highwind 22:02, 5 Oct 2005 (UTC)

Wars/Conflicts

Not necessarily with that name but a category for various conflicts such as the Klingon Civil War, the Borg-Species 8472 War, the Temporal Cold War, and of course, the Dominion War. --T smitts 15:20, 6 Oct 2005 (UTC)

  • Support. I was just thinking a couple of days ago that MA should have something like this, considering all the wars in Trek. It could contain major wars, various battles (like all the battles of the Dominion War) and even smaller conflicts, like Iden's Rebellion. I suggest Category:Conflicts. Good idea. -Platypus Man | Talk 20:19, 7 Oct 2005 (UTC)
  • Support. I, too, also think it's a great idea and also suggest Category:Conflicts. Don't forget the Babel Crisis and the Battle of Wolf 359! :P --From Andoria with Love 21:05, 7 Oct 2005 (UTC)
    • Actually I'd meant it more as a category for wars but I suppose one could expand it to include individual battles and call it "conflicts"
  • Mild Support For name "Cat: Conflicts", but I'd like to remind people that certain conflicts ("Battle of the Bassen rift") no matter how nicely written, are not named correctly, and their requirement is still being discussed on Talk:Military conflicts. But actually, that list would be a good starting point for this. Well, i'd like it to be discussed, but not many others are interested. - AJHalliwell 02:33, 8 Oct 2005 (UTC)

Political regions

I was thinking something like Category:Political regions for all political regions, including nations, states, provinces and districts (anything that doesn't fall under Category:Cities or Category:Regions) that can further be subcategorized into those specifically referenced on Earth. --Alan del Beccio 05:36, 8 Oct 2005 (UTC)

  • Support, although I'm not sure if "political regions" is really the best name for it. Then again, I can't think of anything better, so maybe it is the best name for it. :-P --From Andoria with Love 19:36, 8 Oct 2005 (UTC)
  • Support --FuturamaGuy 22:15, 3 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Borg

Category:Borg for those listed on the list of Borg. --Alan del Beccio 17:07, 8 Oct 2005 (UTC)

I agree with the category, but its name ("Borg") might better be used for a category for everything of "Borg origin". We normally use plural for list categories, which isn't possible here. Any other suggestions? -- Cid Highwind 18:35, 8 Oct 2005 (UTC)
  • The name agrees, in terms of naming, with the already existing singular category names such as Category:Trill, Category:Ferengi and Category:Jem'Hadar. --Alan del Beccio 19:04, 8 Oct 2005 (UTC)
  • Strong Support. The name is sound, as is the category. And it's about darn time our Borg pals got a little recognition around here, too. :-P Resistance is, like, futile, and stuff. --From Andoria with Love 19:36, 8 Oct 2005 (UTC)
  • Support, but I'd like to see maybe "Borg" for everything regarding the Borg, and then "Cat: Borg drones" for the actual borg people. - AJHalliwell 20:35, 8 Oct 2005 (UTC)


Hybrids

With all the interbreeding in Star Trek, perhaps they warrant their own category. There would be the obvious candidates: Spock, B'Elanna Torres, Deanna Troi, Tora Ziyal, Ba'el, Naomi Wildman, Tuvix, K'Ehleyr, Alexander Rozhenko, Miral Paris, Linnis Paris, Andrew Kim, Simon Tarses, Elizabeth, etc. but perhaps also examples in more primitive life such as the Tuvok orchid.--T smitts 04:29, 20 Oct 2005 (UTC)

  • Full list of humanoid hybrids here: hybrid. I mildly support this. --Alan del Beccio 05:28, 20 Oct 2005 (UTC)
  • Sure, why not? Support. --From Andoria with Love 05:08, 4 Nov 2005 (UTC)
  • Support: As long as they are still categorized under Vulcan and Human, or Cardassian and Bajoran, and such.--Tim Thomason 07:29, 4 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Technologies

I suggest a list of each device/technology accompanied by its planet/civilization of origin (unless developed simultaneously by different planets, which would include the planets developing it).--Mike Nobody 04:09, 26 Oct 2005 (UTC)

Military personnel

Category:Military personnel which would contain all non-Starfleet personnel who were in their respective governments military (like most Romulans and Klingons). Starfleet personnel and maybe the Guls categories could be sub-categories and if and when other types of personnel are made into categories (as suggested above), they can be separated and made sub-categories.--Tim Thomason 08:21, 26 Oct 2005 (UTC)

  • I think this is a better start than the long winded "Specific Military Personnel" selection listed above. --FuturamaGuy 22:17, 3 Nov 2005 (UTC)
    • Comment: I can't believe someone thought that the whole "Specific Military Personnel" was a good idea.--Tim Thomason 07:29, 4 Nov 2005 (UTC)
  • Support. Sounds good. Make it so. --From Andoria with Love 05:08, 4 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Time travel

Category:Time travel : This came to me after I saw that Future Guy was categorized as "nonhuman" because, according to FuturamaGuy, "we may not know what he was, but he has to be categorized as something, and this is the most generic 'people' category we have". He's right, so I figured a category for time travelers and their ships and any other aspect of time travel. What do ya think? --From Andoria with Love 04:55, 4 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Support: Although, I think that Category:Time Travel should contain ships and methods of Time Travel, and maybe a couple other related things to, and there should be a subcategory at Category:Time Travelers to cover all of the people known to have travelled through time (Kirk, Picard, Kyle, Sisko, Daniels, could get pretty big with the Voyager cast at least).--Tim Thomason 07:29, 4 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Hmm... I was thinking more along the lines of those who are actually in the business of time traveling, or those who intentionally traveled from a certain era to visit the era of our regular heroes. Doing a category that includes everyone who has traveled time will just get way to rediculous: you have the entire crew of both Kirk and Picard (i.e. "Tomorrow is Yesterday", Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, "Time's Arrow", Star Trek: First Contact), the entire crew of Voyager (i.e. "Year of Hell", "Future's End"), the entire Deep Space 9 crew ("Trials and Tribble-ations"), and the entire crew of the NX-01 (i.e. "", "Storm Front"). We need to find someway to do this that excludes the main characters of the shows, or else it will get way out of hand. Any suggestions? --From Andoria with Love 09:07, 6 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Comment: You're right, that would be infeasible (although the entire Enterprise-D crew didn't make the trip in "Time's Arrow," and only the Defiant made the trip in "Trials and Tribble-ations"). I was thinking something like "Leslie and Kyle were seen in 'Tomorrow is Yesterday,' therefore they traveled through time," but then someone could prove that "Hansen was on the trip for four years, therefore he was on the ship in 'Tomorrow is Yesterday.'" That would mean there could be well over 200-some names under a category, and I do see a problem with that. Perhaps we could limit it to:
  1. Senior Staff of the Starship's that traveled through time, since there the only ones who might get in "trouble."
  2. Those who actually left the ship during the various time travel misadventures and interacted with the populace and whatnot.
As long as we are clear on who's allowed in the summary of the category it shouldn't be a problem.--Tim Thomason 12:37, 6 Nov 2005 (UTC)

I'm still not sure I like the idea of including any of the regular characters from any of the series. There's gotta be some way to just include those time travelers which the regulars encountered because the time travelers themselves traveled to that time (i.e. Berlinghoff Rasmussen traveling to the 24th century, Daniels traveling to the 22nd century). Obviously, I didn't think this all the way through when I suggested the category. :P --From Andoria with Love 17:31, 7 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps then, as you originally suggested, a simple Category:Time travel would be enough, just for simply the ways of traveling through time (Orb of Time, Light speed breakaway factor) and prolific Time travelers whose business was to travel through time, either to fight wars or steal trinkets, not just on some misadventure when a guy's transporter got stuck in an ion storm. This would phase out all of the main characters and include the guys that you want to include (Future Guy, Rasmussen, Daniels, Braxton, Ducane). We can worry about the logistics of a Time travelers category some other time.--Tim Thomason 15:46, 8 Nov 2005 (UTC)

That works for me. Now all we gotta do is get some more support for it, and it'll be all set. :) --From Andoria with Love 04:51, 16 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Hmm... is this still here? Wow, I wish we could get some more discussion on this. --From Andoria with Love 20:41, 9 Dec 2005 (UTC)

I'm fine with a Category:Time travel for any article related to time travel (theories, timeships, other necessary objects, ...), excluding time travelling people. These could be categorized using a list category Category:Time travellers (which should be a subcategory of time travel). The category page should then in some way make note of the fact that all "main characters" are excluded and perhaps link to the various "lists of personnel" of the relevant ships, because those would just clutter up the list. -- Cid Highwind 21:33, 9 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Occupations

    1. Military ranks, like Colonel or Lieutenant, now a category thanks to some courageous individuals.
    2. Titles, real titles given to someones name, like Administrator, Governor or Jal.
    3. Positions, not really given to your name but an "occupation" you occupy with some authority (like Arbiter of Succession, Records officer, Science officer, Third officer, Captain's personal guard)
    1. Occupations, like you suggest which includes bartender or barkeep or maybe Chef (although that is also a title) or even astronaut.
  • I'm not really suggesting these sub-categories, I'm just saying that "occupations" doesn't really cover it either.--Tim Thomason 15:46, 8 Nov 2005 (UTC)
    • Well I'm out of here again for a few days, so I'm not sure what we can do with this, as you have a point about the divisions of this--and at the same time, I really don't think it is appropriate, as it is currently, to have bartender and comfort woman categorized as "titles"-- in fact, I would almost rather see them not categorized at all. I suggest we browse through wikipedia's category structure for ideas. A significantly toned down version of what might be found in Category:Occupations at Wikipedia might be a good start. --Alan del Beccio 00:35, 9 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Holo-programs

Slang and Nicknames

  • There seems to be enough to warrant two new categories. --Alan del Beccio 08:15, 13 Nov 2005 (UTC)
  • Support. You know, just curious, have I ever opposed a category yet? Just wondering... :P --From Andoria with Love 08:20, 13 Nov 2005 (UTC)

From Ten Forward

I've got a category suggestion, I know there's a place for such things, but I forget where it is, feel free to move this. I'd like to see Species Unknown or something with the same meaning in order to compile the characters whose species are unknown, rather then creating pages for each one. I'm refering to the list that is starting to form under By Individual at Unnamed humanoids. Jaf 23:57, 24 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Kazon

I created this last night when I was half asleep and somehow remembered to add the provisional notice without even mentioning it here. However, I doubt people will argue with its existence? The only thing that might be contentious is whether to include only Kazon people or everything related to the Kazon -- given their (relatively) brief tenure, I'd say the latter. --Vedek Dukat Talk | Duty Roster 18:41, 26 Nov 2005 (UTC)

This category should be for everything of Kazon origin -- probably a decent quantity of articles from their two year tenure as characters. A people list would be Category:Kazons i believe, if thats the proper plural, but how many Kazon did we really end up seeing -- 10-20? if its more than 15 or so named individuals this would make a decent subcategory. -- Captain Mike K. Barteltalk 12:47, 5 Dec 2005 (UTC)
  • I oppose this being about "everything of Kazon origin". Also, we have numerous categories that are not plural (ending with "s" -- as "the Kazon" is plural) for people, such as Category:Ferengi and Category:Jem'Hadar, which are not about "everything of" those respective species. --Alan del Beccio 20:26, 9 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Ceremonies

Category:TOS stunt performers, etc

Stuntmen are being categorized as "Category:TOS performers" -- is this appropriate? If others don't think so, this category could be created to rectify this. -- Captain Mike K. Barteltalk 12:37, 5 Dec 2005 (UTC)

sorting stubs

Category:Memory Alpha production stubs

There has been a suggestion that we sort the articles in Category:Memory Alpha stubs into subcategories, such as Category:Memory Alpha production stubs, etc, ..

Please register support, opposition or comments for creating that subcategory here.

  • Support -- Captain Mike K. Barteltalk
  • Oppose - see below. -- Cid Highwind 13:10, 9 Dec 2005 (UTC)
  • Comment. Is this totally necessary? It's not like Wikipedia where obscure subjects and topics need someone who understands the content or whatever, and we also don't have an unlimited number of potential articles as they do. Basically, it seems to me that like Cid said if someone wants to fix them then fix them instead of worrying about how they're organized. Ben Sisqo 00:26, 14 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Memory Alpha unsorted stubs

I have an additional suggestion (which is why i reverted a preemptive edit that would have also removed all "production stubs" from the main stub list -- perhaps we should use the individual stub templates to double categorize all the stub articles -- and create the additional subcategory Memory Alpha unsorted stubs -- this way we can sort them as they accumulate, as well as having a master list.

Cases like this are why we have the suggestion page -- that category was enacted already and people had started to categorize articles into it, even though through discussion my changes could have been added. Please discuss a category first, as it is tedious, and resource consuming to have to go back and recategorize dozens or hundreds of articles. -- Captain Mike K. Barteltalk

  • Support -- Captain Mike K. Barteltalk
  • Oppose. (What happened here? I added a comment here yesterday and am sure that it went through, but now it is missing again without any sign of it in the history? Anyway... I strongly oppose any subcategorization of stubs. First, an article should only very temporarily have "stub status". Any administrative overhead used to collect, categorize and recategorize all the different stub types might better be used to "de-stub" some of them. Second, I'm not sure if it would help anyone. Right now, we have about 800 stub articles. If someone is interested in removing those right now, why doesn't he start the work? If he's not interested, would subcategorization help in any way? Third, I fear that having a detailed subcategorization scheme for stubs would only help making them a "normal" feature of MA instead of the "necessary evil" they are. -- Cid Highwind 13:10, 9 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Transporter components

These are not directly Category:Starship components, therefore since I removed so many from this cat, it seems logical to create its own category based on the transporter system-- Category:Transporter components. --Alan del Beccio 20:19, 9 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Makes sense to me. Support. --From Andoria with Love 20:36, 9 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Federation Members

Category:Federation Members

Self-explanatory, though I really can't decide if this should apply to species, planets, or both.--T smitts 17:26, 13 Dec 2005 (UTC)

  • Support: First of all, I would change the name to Category:Federation members, to conform to our capitalization standards. Then I would use the list at Federation members (a list of Planets) and use the Founding, Council, Other known, and Probable members sections of that page (about 33 member planets, from Aaamazzara to Zaran II). I wouldn't use anything else from that page, but we might have to categorize some species (Zaldans, Medusans, Saurians, Napeans) whose planet is unknown, or we could make a bunch of "Zaldan Homeworld" etc. pages and categorize them as Federation members.--Tim Thomason 00:08, 14 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Chemical Compounds

There are quite a number of chemical compounds (including drugs), both real and fictional, mentioned in various episodes. I think a Category:Chemical Compounds might be helpful to organize these, many of which are not currently categorized at all. Renegade54 22:04, 13 Dec 2005 (UTC)

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