This template is within the scope of WikiProject Categories, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of categories on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CategoriesWikipedia:WikiProject CategoriesTemplate:WikiProject CategoriesCategories articles
This template was considered for deletionon2018 August 9. The result of the discussion was "no consensus".
This template was considered for deletionon2018 December 29. The result of the discussion was "keep".
Disagree, and disagree with the contents of the FAQ. Who decided these were frequently asked? And some of the answers are misleading or wrong. If there are suggestions for improving WP:CAT, they should be discussed on its Talk. --William Allen Simpson (talk) 04:08, 11 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Suggestion: allow links to multiple articles[edit]
The current template {{catmore}} allows links to only one article. I'd like to suggest modifying the template to allow links to multiple articles, as {{main}} does. Here is the suggested new template. This is what it would like:
Bad example. Insurance in the United States is not even in the category and from its contents should not be nor should it be a 'main' for this category as it discusses insurance in the US in general, not specifically insurance companies. Hmains (talk) 02:11, 18 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'd prefer that only one be allowed. That corresponds to the pipe space (| ) category sorting technique, and yields less confusion. The example given above would never be correct, as the List of article isn't usually considered the "main" article, and is usually sorted by the pipe star (|*) convention. Some years ago, we had a long series of problems with overuse of the {{main}} template (used to be 5, now at 10 links), and series of problems with overuse of {{see also}} templates (now at 15 links). Just because parser functions permit something, doesn't mean it's a good idea. --William Allen Simpson (talk) 13:10, 23 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
RFC: Change link from Wikipedia to Help namespace[edit]
At present this template has a link from the word "category" going to Wikipedia:Categorization. The template is in high use in content categories and therefore visible to readers. Wikipedia:Categorization is of interest to editors and of very little interest to readers. I have created a page at Help:Categories as a simple guide for readers who are not interested in the high level of detail about categorisation and editing needed for editors. I would like the link changed to go to Help:Categories. After all, we are here to serve the reader. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 23:48, 20 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Help:Category is for editors and Help:Categories is for readers. We are here to create a resource for readers. When a reader clicks on the link created by the catmore template they would expect to find out info on categories as a WP navigation tool and not a page about the nuances of editing. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 18:45, 30 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The RfC says WP:Category is for editors, not Help:Category. Are they both editor-centric in your opinion? To me, the lede in Help:Category seems like it would be helpful to readers and I would think that that page could be expanded to be more relevant to readers if needed. I think I like your idea, but I'm not a fan of the additional help page. —Ost (talk) 19:17, 30 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Support total removal of the link. If an explanation of what a category is is required, then it should be provided at a higher level than page content. RichFarmbrough, 09:24, 19 April 2011 (UTC).[reply]
I propose moving this template to {{catmain}}, which is now a redirect to this template. Once that is completed, I would have a bot update the links. Phase 2 would be to move {{catmore2}}to{{catmore}}. The rationale is that "for more information" connotes "catmore", while "the main article" connotes "catmain". The two templates are basically syntax compatible, and it is just the wording the differs, so there shouldn't be any major problems (e.g., accidental reverts or viewing old revisions). Does anyone have any opinions on this matter? Or is there an even better name to use for these two templates? Thanks! Plastikspork―Œ(talk)21:31, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'd support the renames of these templates. The text of this template is The main article for this category is Foo, so it would make more sense if this template were named Catmain. Once that's done, it would only be logical for {{catmore2}} to be moved to {{catmore}}. — ξxplicit21:40, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There are a couple reasons, (1) the space does match the recent renaming trend, e.g., {{see also}}. More importantly, there would otherwise be a name collision, since it would mean moving catmore2 over catmore, which already exists. By moving "catmore2" to "cat more" and "catmore" to "cat main", both moves can be completed at the same time. I, otherwise, have no real opinion on the space vs. no space issue. Thanks! Plastikspork―Œ(talk)04:10, 6 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The syntax template seems to be compatible with {{main}}, in that if this template were redirected to {{main}} all the transclusions would function. However, {{main}} has options not available in this template (e.g., changing the link appearance, or linking to more than one article). When I added the linking option to {{cat more}}, I tried to match the syntax used by main. If we were to add the option to link to more than one article to this template and/or to {{cat more}}, we could then merge {{catmoremulti}}. I believe there was some resistance to this before, which is why {{catmoremulti}} was created as a fork. It seems like a sensible idea to me to merge as many of these templates as possible, or as many as make sense to merge. Plastikspork―Œ(talk)06:25, 7 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I mean whether the text should be a complete sentence, as it is here, or should use a colon, as Main does. Is one or the other more common for hatnotes? --Bsherr (talk) 16:40, 7 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think so. However the principles (whterh they oppose or support each other I'm not sure) would seem to be: "conformity is good" and "natural sentences are preferable". I believe the colon usage was probably introduced to support the list, and it does indeed work better in my opinion when three or more "main" pages are referred too, I would however suggest that this is a very small percentage of cases. RichFarmbrough, 09:52, 19 April 2011 (UTC).[reply]
Can someone please change "article" to "page" in the message? The main page for the category is not necessarily an article, it could be a page in the Wikipedia namespace, a portal, a help page etc. McLerristarr | Mclay106:40, 11 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
However, one still expects it to say "article" for the majority of categories which contain only articles and sub-categories full of articles and so on. Barring some parser-functionality to check the namespace of the page indicated by parameter {{{1}}} it may be advisable to create a separate template. ―cobaltcigs19:48, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
How about a "type=" parameter, with the default being "article"? It would be possible to put in a namespace check, but that would be more complicated, especially with the possibility for multiple "main" articles/pages. Plastikspork―Œ(talk)01:15, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
A type parameter is a good idea. The default ought to be article, since this will most often be employed for content purposes rather than project purposes. --Bsherr (talk) 01:28, 6 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It seems a bit unnecessary to allow anything to replace "article". I can't think of anything other than "page" that would need to be there. Perhaps changing the parameter to "|article=no" or something. Otherwise it may lead to inconsistency, mistakes or vandalism if people can stick anything in there. McLerristarr | Mclay110:45, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Currently this template has a link to Wikipedia:Category which is an extensive page all about category guidelines and includes detail on editing. Most readers will not be interested in all that detail. I would like to recommend a change in have it linked to Help:Categories. It is a short, simple succinct page about categories. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 19:52, 11 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
During discussions for a category pages MOS (see Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Category pages) the topic of when this template should be used came up. A case where it is of no use and a source of confusion is when there are either very few or no subcategories (and the category has an associated topic of the same name). Having {cat main} in these cases is redundant, and having a bolded link and a nearby unbolded link in the category contents is confusing. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 00:32, 23 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure that this fairly represents the consensus, which is still emerging, as far as I can see. So far two editors have spoken out in favour of the view above, while three editors have spoken out in favour of the view that the template should always be used, if a main article exists for a category. Good Ol’factory(talk)01:17, 29 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Please restore bolding. This is a hatnote template, but it is being used as much more: on many category pages, {{Cat main}} supplements or constitutes the category description. -- Black Falcon(talk)17:26, 6 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I would like to see this do a page-existence test, and if a) only one article is specified and it is a redlink, or b) multiple are specified and all are redlinks, for the output to report something like the following: "No such article seems to exist. If it exists under a different name, please correct this template. If no appropriate article exists yet, you can create it!", with an article creation link, I guess going to the WP:Article Wizard, since last I looked we're not letting anons create all-new pages in mainspace any longer. — SMcCandlish ☺☏¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼ 00:52, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I just created Template:Topic cat, because I think it is helpful for readers and editors beginning to navigate the Wikipedia category tree, and I imagine it could be useful for bots trying to figure out which categories diffuse and which ones don't. I am considering adding a |main=toTemplate:Topic cat to integrate the functionality of {{cat main}}, and am looking for thoughts from the editors of this template. Thanks! Daask (talk) 02:54, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I've made that error (using square brackets) innumerable times and am used to the fix. Experience is key. I'm not sure it is a worthwhile endeavor to create custom error messages for all the different ways an editor can cause failures (though there are error tracking categories in many places). Soon, novices will be expecting such hand-holding everywhere. Mainline code is complicated enough, we don't want to complexify the error paths as well. This particular error occurs for many templates. Perhaps a common templating errors section could be added to Help:A quick guide to templates?Dpleibovitz (talk) 21:48, 9 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.