Help:Categorization

Here is a guide on how to categorize pages on the Coppermind, and the full hierarchy of categories.

Categorization Basics

Categories are listed at the bottom of a page. Every article, template, and file should be categorized. It is important to categorize everything correctly, as categories are one of two ways that an article can be found (the other way, of course, is through wiki-links). Articles should be able to be found from the main series categories (as listed on the main page), or through the main content categories on the sidebar on the left. To categorize something, go to the page you want to categories and insert:

[[Category: Whatever]]

Many infoboxes and navigation boxes will often categorize content appropriately. (For on those templates, see Help: Templates, and also Help:Article structure.)

The Coppermind's categories are like tags, not folders. In a folder system (like your computer's file system), a file is a member of exactly one folder. Wiki articles are not like that. Articles can be in a lot of categories. The more categories, the better. Maybe the list of all Viewpoint Characters will be useful to someone at some point. Who knows. The more the merrier.

Make sure you reserve categories for articles, and avoid them on talk pages.

Required Categories

Every content page will, with very few exceptions, be a member of at least three required categories:

• A series identifier, such as Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, etc., so that the article can be found from its series/book categories
• A high-level content category, like Character, Places, Magic, Lifeforms
• A quality tag, such as Stubs or Complete articles. These are administrative tags which are useful for editors to keep track of how good things are on the wiki

This is of course a minimum of categories. These required categories are automatically inserted through various templates.

Series Identifier

Series tags are generated from the navigation boxes--the large boxes at the bottom of articles. For a complete list, see Category:Navbars; here is a list of the main ones:

• Stormlight Archive, use {{Stormlight}}
• Mistborn, use {{Mistborn}}. In addition, for Mistborn articles, you can add a parameter for {{Mistborn}}, such as {{Mistborn|era 1}} for the correct Mistborn era.
• Elantris, use {{Elantris}}
• Warbreaker, use {{Warbreaker}}
• The Reckoners, use {{Reckoners}}
• The Rithmatist, use {{Rithmatist}}
• The Emperor's Soul, use {{The Emperor's Soul}}
• Shadows for Silence, use {{Shadows for Silence}}
• Sixth of the Dusk, use {{Sixth of the Dusk}}
• Alcatraz, use {{Alcatraz}}
• Legion, use {{Legion}}
• Skyward, use {{Skyward}}. In addition, Defending Elysium, uses this with a de parameter, like this: {{Skyward|de}}
• Firstborn, use {{Firstborn}}
• Perfect State, use {{Perfect State}}

Sometimes Cosmere articles have no associated series yet, so use {{Cosmere}} in place of the relevant series article.

High Level Content Categories

There are eight high level content categories, which classify different articles on the Coppermind. They are:

• Books
• Characters
• Culture
• Events and Eras
• Lifeforms
• Locations
• Magic
• Objects and Materials
• Out of Universe

Articles should never be in multiple ones of these. These categories are generated from infoboxes (the box on the upper right of an article). There are some specific exceptions to the usage of these categories, which you can read about below.

Quality Tags

Quality tags are massively useful for editors. Quality generally indicates the amount of information on a page, and are judged on how "complete" they are. These are generated with a template that goes right above the main series navigation box.

The three main are:

• Stubs, use {{stub}}
• Partially complete articles, use {{partial}}
• Complete articles, use {{complete}}

Stubs are articles that have barely any information. Partially completed articles have a wide range, but generally have some or most of the information on a subject.

When an article is complete, and editor will change the tag from {{stub}} or {{partial}} to {{complete}}. At this stage, a Keeper will review it and and change {{complete}} to {{complete|~~~~}}, which adds that Keeper's signature to the page and moves the article from the list of articles in review to Category:Complete articles.

There is a further quality tag, {{exemplary}}. Exemplary articles must be complete and reviewed, well organized and written, and are the very best articles on the Coppermind. This tag is also used by the Keepers.

Rarely, articles will lack a quality tag, or will have a {{meta}} quality tag. These include Coppermind articles (which are not "Content" articles), verbatim sources like epigraphs, and some summary articles.

Full Hierarchy of Categories

Below holds the intensely specific information on the structure and hierarchy of Coppermind categories. This structure can also be browsed at Special:CategoryTree. This is intended as a reference, but should not be needed for almost any editor, since templates like infoboxes will automatically categorize articles. But, if one is interested, here it is!

The Root Category

In the beginning of the universe, there was the Big Bang, and in the beginning of the Coppermind, there is the Root category. This is a hidden category that should never apply to any articles directly. It is only a container for other categories. (A category of this type--that contains other categories, but rarely articles--is called a holding category.) Root's only articles are related to the Coppermind's welcome page.

In the Root category, there are the three main sections of the wiki:

• Content, a holding category containing what one normally think of as "articles"
• Administration, which contains all categories and pages for maintaining the wiki
• Images, for images

Content

Content is a holding category that, through its subsets, contains every topic related to Brandon's works, both in-universe and out-of-universe. Almost all pages in the Coppermind are in this section of the wiki. As a holding category, Content should not be applied to any specific article.

Content holds eight special, mutually exclusive subcategories, the high level content categories (HLCCs). Articles should always be in one of these HLCCs and cannot be tagged with more than one of them. The high level content categories are:

• Books
• Characters
• Culture
• Events and Eras
• Lifeforms
• Locations
• Magic
• Objects and Materials
• Out of Universe

These categories are designed to be mutually exclusive, big bins of pages. Even if there is a more specific subset that applies to the article, keep the HLCC tag. For example, Kelsier is a Scadrian but the Characters category remains.

The HLCCs have a vast array of subcategories, and it can be difficult which exactly should apply. The Character category has the Groups category, and that category has even more subcategories! What is one to do?

For this, there is a simple rule of thumb: with exception of the HLCC tag, do not be redundant! Select the most relevant content category. The category Amaram's army is in Armies, which is a subset of Groups, but for members of Amaram's army, it is silly to include the Armies and Groups tags, since that isn't even relevant! Another example would be how Kelsier is labeled as an Allomancer, but not a Magic user, since Allomancer is automatically a Magic user.

Culture and Magic can be applied to members of other HLCCs, if applicable. See below for their specific usage.

Moving on from the HLCCs, Content also holds the universe categories, which contain all articles from a given universe. The current universe categories are Category: Cosmere and Category:Cytoverse

Now we go in-depth to all of the Content categories, as well as their subsets.

Books

The Books category contains articles that are books or works of Brandon Sanderson. It can also contain pages about related works based off of Brandon's writing, such as pages on the Mistborn Adventure Game and its supplements.

Principal subcategories are:

• Media, for works that are non-text media based off of Brandon's works
• Series, which contains pages on specific series

In the Books category (or in Series), there are the series tags, which must be on all pages in the Content section. These series tags are generated by the navigation boxes on the bottom of pages. The series tags are:

• Stormlight Archive
• Mistborn, with Mistborn Era 1, Mistborn Era 2, etc.
• Elantris
• Warbreaker
• White Sand
• Alcatraz
• The Reckoners
• The Rithmatist
• Dragonsteel
• Infinity Blade
• Legion

And, for shorter works, there are:

• The Emperor's Soul
• Shadows for Silence
• Sixth of the Dusk
• Defending Elysium
• Firstborn
• Perfect State

Characters

Characters is the single largest category on the Coppermind, which contains every character. Characters are anything that are named and are members of Lifeforms.

All subcategories of Characters contain individual character pages. It contains subcategories for characters by book. For Cosmere works, these use demonyms (when known) like Scadrians, Nalthians, or Rosharans; otherwise, they are titled as Reckoners characters or Legion characters.

Other subcategories include:

• Dead characters
• Unnamed characters
• Viewpoint characters
• Professions, a holding category for subsets of characters by profession, like Category: Scholars

Additional subcategories are holding categories that classify characters:

• Ethnicities and Nationalities, for categories of characters by their origin or identity
• Groups, for categories of characters by specific organization
• Magic users, for categories of characters by variety of magic that they wield

Ethnicities and Nationalities

This category is a holding category that contains categories of characters by their ethnicity or nationality (and soon, species) such as skaa or Alethi. Subcategories here should be members of their particular planet, such as a Scadrian race being marked as Scadrian, or a race of people in Alcatraz be marked with Alcatraz characters.

Individual cultures can be found in Category: Culture.

Magic users

This holding category--which is also a member of the Magic HLCC--contains sets of characters who utilize magic, such as Allomancers, Surgebinders, Oculators, and Epics. Do not apply Magic users directly to an article, instead use the relevant subcategory. As in: Kelsier is an Allomancer, and that is implicitly a magic user, so the magic user category is redundant and should not be used.

Groups

This holding category contains various subcategories for specific members of such groups, such as Category: Armies, Businesses, or Noble Houses.

For pages on specific groups or organizations of people, see Category: Culture.

Culture

The Culture category contains pages on specific cultures (which do not have something in Locations), or other cultural elements. Characters should never be in Culture.

If necessary, Culture can be applied to members of other HLCCs, but only if especially culturally significant.

• Currencies
• Clothing, also a member of Objects and Materials
• Drugs, for medicines and poisons. This category is also in Lifeforms
• Food, sometimes in Lifeforms when relevant and edible. If in Lifeforms, does not need to be in Culture. Can contain restaurants
• Games
• Language
• Myths and Legends
• Religion
• Symbols

Elements in the subcategories of Culture can, if more relevant, be labeled with a different HLCC entirely, which is unique to this HLCC.

Events and Eras

Events and Eras is the category for particular events, like battles, or periods of time.

There are currently no subcategories for this HLCC.

Lifeforms

Lifeforms contains articles on particular species of life, where "life" is defined very broadly. This will contain traditional biological life, magical life (such as spren), or artificial life (like Machineborn). For particular elements of a given lifeform, see Category: Characters. Things derived from Lifeforms, like medicine, drugs, or poisons, will be found here.

Subcategories are:

• Sapient beings, for lifeforms that are sapient, as humans are
• Diseases
• Food (see Culture)
• Drugs
• Specific sets of a particular species (to be changed)

Locations

Locations holds articles on specific places or geographical features.

Subcategories include:

• Celestial bodies
• Caves
• Mountains
• Islands
• Nations
• Regions
• Settlements
• Structures
• Water bodies

It also contains subcategories for locations in particular regions or planets.

Magic

Magic contains all magical things. In the Cosmere, this refers to Investiture.

Principal subcategories are:

• Magic systems
• Magic users (see Characters)

It contains subcategories of a particular type of magic, like the Allomancy category, and contains subcats of Magic users, like Allomancers.

Objects and Materials

Objects and Materials contains specific objects or materials. Elements of this category are nouns that are not people or places, and are in the vaguer realm of "things". Keep this to physical things. It also contains vehicles.

Subcategories are:

• Clothing, also a member of Culture
• Literature, for specific works of literature or art, also a member of Culture
• Railcraft
• Watercraft
• Weapons

Other future categories will be vehicles, aircraft, and spacecraft.

Out of Universe

This category contains articles people, terms, companies, or other important--but out of universe--things related to Brandon's works. This category is unique among HLCCs in that pages in this category will rarely have a series identifier. Only include a series identifier if the article's subject is extremely intimately related to only the series, like a cover artist who only worked on one series.

Principal subcategories:

• People
• Fandom

Fandom is reserved for websites, and should be used sparingly. Do not mark User pages in either People or Fandom.

Sources

Pages in this category are direct sources for Brandon's books, or are indices for terms.

Principal subcategories are:

• Epigraphs
• Indices
• Summaries

It also contains subcategories for other sources, like Navani's notebook.

Administration

Administration contains subcategories with pages that have no content and are purely related to the mechanics of the Coppermind and subcategories used for tracking article progress. Its subcategories are:

• Article statuses: Holds the subcategories for each stage of article completion as well as the pages that track article status by series
• Category:Articles in need of attention: Articles in this category are important articles in need of serious help; also holds subcategories that track less serious and more specific problems with articles
• Articles with spoilers: Tracks all articles with spoilers, usually by way of {{spoilers}} or {{multispoilers}}
• Articles with thories: Tracks all articles with theories, usually by way of {{theory}}
• Deleted material: Contains articles about a subject that was part of the development of a story, but later deleted before the final release
• Disambiguation pages: Tracks all disambigs, usually by way of {{disambig}} and holds subcategories that track different kinds of article names
• Help: Contains all help pages; redirects to Help:Contents, which should also list all help pages
• Category:Objectives: Tracks all current Coppermind objectives
• Redirects: Holds subcategories for the different kinds of redirects
• Subpages: Holds subcategories for common types of subpages and contains miscellaneous subpages that don't fit in a subcategory
• Templates: Holds subcategories for common types of templates and contains miscellaneous templates that don't fit in a subcategory
• Uncanonical titles: Tracks all articles with uncanonical titles, usually by way of {{uncanonical}}
• Unpublished: Tracks all articles about unpublished works, usually by way of {{unpublished}}
• User awards: Contains all awards that can be given to users

Under construction.

Help

The Help category is for documentation on the wiki. There are currently no subcategories for the Help section.

Images

Under construction.