Consider looking for related projects for help or ask at the Teahouse. If you are not currently a project participant and wish to help you may still participate in the project. This status should be changed if collaborative activity resumes.
Many userboxes and other templatesautomagically add the pages on which they appear to various categories. This feature is not always desirable, and the process of disabling or suppressing automatic categorization is referred to as category suppression. This WikiProject is a collaboration area and open group of editors dedicated to improving templates and how they handle automatic categorization and category suppression. I hope you will join with us and have fun, too!
”
— Willscrlt WikiProject Category Suppression Kick-off November 2009
About WikiProject Automatic Categorization and Suppression
Welcome to WikiProject Automatic Categorization and Suppression. Several Wikipedians have formed this collaboration resource and group dedicated to developing and improving how templates automatically categorize pages when they are supposed to, and suppress automatic categorization when they are not. This page and its subpages contain their suggestions and various resources; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians interested in the topic. If you would like to help, please join the project, inquire on the talk page and see the to-do list below.
Document best practices for automatic categorization and suppression and provide examples of the various methods.
Educate templaters and encourage them to use standard automatic categorization and suppression methods rather than reinventing the wheel.
Review existing templates, most commonly used to least, and see if they would benefit from automatic categorization and suppression, and implement it whenever it makes sense.
Look for new ways to improve and/or simplify automatic categorization and category suppression.
Most userboxes in the User:UBX space have been converted to use the |nocat=true feature.
1-February-2010: Userbox category suppression
Most userboxes in the template space have been converted to use the |nocat=true feature.
12-November-2009: How-To moved into Project space
Per David Göthberg's suggestion, this document has been moved into Project space and changed from an {{Essay}} to a {{Wikipedia how to}}. Willscrlt and David will continue to maintain this document and note changes as they occur. However, this document is open to everyone to refine, clarify, and improve. We welcome the help!
10-November-2009: Tracking categories were deleted
All of the category-suppression method tracking and maintenance categories were deleted (apparently without notifying or receiving any input from the people who originally created them or helped create category suppression). So, please ignore the struck-through portions below that request that your templates use the categories for maintenance and tracking purposes.
17-May-2009: Complete rewrite and many new examples
On 17-May-2009, Willscrlt, one of the original developers of category suppression and the first to document how to accomplish it, revised the Wikipedia:Category_suppression document. The goals of the re-write included: providing clear examples of each of the common methods used for category suppression; where different techniques accomplish the same thing (like |nocat=true and |categories=no), specify the more logical one to become the standard technique for new templates; and provide unbiased overviews, pros, and cons for each of the various methods so that template developers can pick whichever method is most appropriate for their needs. It is hoped that this document will eventually become an official Wikipedia technical guideline. Please add your comments and any feedback to the talk page.
Thank You!
Thank you for adding your name to the list of people helping to improve Wikipedia's templates and categorization. No matter how little or much you help, every edit that improves Wikipedia is appreciated and helps lighten the workload of the other editors. More importantly, it improves the quality and breadth of the English Wikipedia and its sister projects.
There are no special rules, regulations, or commitments required to join this WikiProject as a Participant, other than the policies and guidelines that apply to all Wikipedians. This is because a WikiProject is not a club or membership organization. It is a group of people interested in a particular topic that agree to work together within the Wikipedia framework to improve articles. The WikiProject helps to focus the activities of the group to improve efficiency. You are not required to work a certain amount of time, but obviously the more time you can offer, the faster the Project will meet its goals.
Feel free to add any special interests after your name. After adding your name, please introduce yourself on the Participants talk page.
