Wikipedia:Proposed category reorganizations

This proposal is a new procedure for reorganizing, renaming, and deleting categories. The process attempts to address the following concerns:

1. Discussions at Wikipedia:Categories for deletion (WP:CFD) focus on a single category, when the discussion often needs to address a larger number of interrelated categories.
2. Many people are just interested in seeing the changes proposed in the fields in which they make contributions.
3. Many important discussions about the creation, namimg, and populating of categories do not happen until after they are created. It would be more efficient to discuss these changes before they happen.
4. People who know about a field are probably the best people suited for coming up with a meaningful category structure for the field. Often these people are not visiting WP:CFD
5. As Wikipedia gets larger, there are more and more categories, and more and more categories nominated for deletion and renaming. With larger and larger numbers of people participating, it is more difficult to have productive discussions that reach a true consensus. There is a fear that unless decission making can be broken into smaller sub-groups, consensus will be totally replaced by supermajority voting.
6. Categories nominated for deletion must remain tagged for a week even when it is clear that there is virtually no support for deleting the category.

To deal with these concerns, the decision making process for reorganizing categories would be as follows:

Reforming WP:CFD

CFD will be renamed Wikipedia:Speedy Category Changes. It will only handle speedy category renames and speedy category deletions. The policies for speedy changes will not change.

New page: Wikipedia:Proposed category reorganizations

This page, Wikipedia:Proposed category reorganizations will become a clearing house to propose category changes. There will be 3 steps to the process.

Steps to reorganize a category

1. The first section of the page will be for initial postings. This will be an easy first step that will not require tagging the category. The only thing necessary will be posting a signed statement. The posters list the categories involved, the problems that need to be addressed and any proposal they may have in mind for fixing the problems. A solution to the problem is not necessary for posting. A main function of the page is to encourage suggestions from people and answer their questions about categorization. Many, perhaps most of the proposal might not go past this first step. After posting others will respond with suggestions for the actions that can be taken. Possible actions are:
   • Moving the request to Wikipedia:Speedy Category Changes.
   • Discussing which WikiProject(s) should be involved in the discussion and moving the request to a WikiProject.
   • Dropping the request after hearing about previous discussions or decisions about the categories and explanations of categorization policy.
2. If the post has merit, discussions about the problem, brainstorming solutions and reaching consensus on what to do will happen on a subpage of Wikipedia:Proposed category reorganizations. The name of the page would describe in broad terms that the reorganization is about. An example might be Wikipedia:Proposed category reorganizations/People by language categories or Wikipedia:Proposed category reorganizations/Re-populating actor categories. Links to these pages will be created in many locations to notify interested parties. Notifications will include:
   • Descriptions and links on Wikiproject pages.
   • Templates (yet to be created) attached to ALL the affected categories.
   • Notes:
     • There will not be any links to the proposals at a single centralized location. To find out about a current discussion you would have to visit an affected category, or visit the relevant Wikiproject. The point of this is to decentralize the discussions and attract the editors and readers already actively involved in the topic area.
     • It is possible to skip the first step and go straight to the second step if you are familiar with the categories, the process and the wikiprojects.
3. Once consensus is reached, the decisions are posted at the bottom of Wikipedia:Proposed category reorganizations. If any categories need to be renamed or deleted they would be listed , just as they are now after discussion is closed at WP:CFD.

Two stage reorganization process by participants in WikiProjects

The process of reorganizing categories would be a two step process:

1. Analyze and define the existing problems with the categories, examine how other topics have dealt with these problems, review categorization guidelines, and brainstorm possible solutions. This stage should take at least 3 days, but it can an often may last longer. A notification should be placed on Wikipedia talk:Categorization if help is needed in creating a solution in line with the guidelines at Wikipedia:Categorization. In some cases the discussion might be moved there if it looks like guidelines for categorization need to be amended or altered.
2. Once a potential solution seems to be gaining support, a call for consensus can be made by anyone. Once called, discussion will determine if there is consensus. Discussion continues for a week or aborted whenever it seems clear that there is little support, or there is an alternative solution which has more support, in which case the one week clock will be reset. After a week, closing a discussion can be done by anyone, but consensus will be determined by ARGUMENT and not by numerical voting. It is encouraged that the following be taken into consideration when closing a discussion:
   • Strong arguments, for or against, are more important than single word votes of "support" or "oppose".
   • People should be part the WikiProject(s) involved to have their view taken seriously. Of course, anyone can take part, but the history of the participant can be used to discount or magnify their influence. For example, if half the people are in favor and half against, it might be possible for a proposal to succeed or fail if all or most of those on one side were long time participators in the WikiProject and all or most of those on the other side had no history with the project.

Discussion

Please discuss on talk page.