User:DexDor/Fixing high-level miscategorizations

Sometimes pages in Wikipedia are (usually inadvertently) placed in an incompatible combination of namespace and high level category/ies. For example, pages in the User namespace should not be categorized below Category:Articles (see WP:USERNOCAT). The main ways an incompatible combination can occur are:

• The page is in the wrong namespace - e.g. an article in the Wikipedia (administration) namespace.
• The page is incorrectly categorized - e.g. a user page in a category for articles.
• There is a problem with the category structure - e.g. a category for Wikipedia administration pages is placed below a category for articles.

This page provides some guidance for detecting and fixing such anomalies.

A table showing which combinations of namespace and category are valid can be found at: User:DexDor/Namespaces and categories.

Top-level category structure

The diagram below shows the top levels of the category structure. The two-letter codes are those used in the table below.

Contents

Wikipedia administration

Articles (CA)

Help (CH)

Portals (CP)

Wikipedia books (CB)

Wikipedia drafts

Other (see below)

Wikipedia templates (CT)

Wikipedia redirecting

Wikipedia essays (CE)

Wikipedia disambiguation

WikiProjects (CW)

Wikipedians (CU)

Wikipedia files (CF)

Inactive project pages (CI)

Wikipedia redirects (CR)

Disambiguation pages (CD)

Other categories directly below Category:Contents (as of July 2016) are Category:Wikipedia categories‎, Category:Featured content, Category:Glossaries, Category:Image galleries, Category:Indexes of topics, Category:Lists‎, Category:Outlines, Category:Timelines‎.

  Categories for pages that readers are expected to deliberately navigate to (via categories)

  Categories for pages that only editors are expected to navigate to

Checking the category structure

tbd

Fixing pages

The table below shows examples of things found when checking pages at namespace-category intersections - and how to fix them.

Codes such as "0DinCA" (this example meaning a mainspace disambiguation page in Category:Articles) are linked to a table in User:DexDor/FM that provides links to category intersection queries - most of which check several namespaces (i.e. correspond to several rows of this table).

Cause	Why it's a problem	Fix
Disambiguation page is in an article category (0DinCA)
A disambiguation page contains incorrect category tag.	1. Clutters up parent category 2. Blurs distinction between an article and a dab page	Remove the incorrect category tag(s) (e.g.).
Page in User namespace is in article category (2inCA)
A user subpage sandbox has been placed (prematurely) in an articles category. Note: This is generally the cause of the majority of pages found at 2inCA.	1. Clutters up the article category/ies	1. Comment out the category tag(s) (per WP:USERNOCAT). Note: Concentrate on pages that have not been edited for a while.
A userpage (e.g. a fake article) has been placed in a articles category (e.g. in Category:Musicians).	1. Clutters up the article category	1. Comment out the category tag(s) (per WP:USERNOCAT) (e.g.). 2. Consider whether the page should be blanked (e.g.) or deleted (e.g. by CSD#U5 or CSD#G11).
A userspace template has been placed in a templates category that has been placed in an articles category.	1. Makes it harder to detect (other) violations of USERNOCAT	1. Correct the categorization (e.g. - User:Carbrera/Template: Gwen Stefani singles is in Category:Rappers templates).
A userpage has had a template substituted (not transcluded) onto it and that template has been placed in a templates category that has been placed in an articles category.	1. Makes it harder to detect (other) violations of USERNOCAT	1. Correct the categorization (e.g.).
A user page has been placed in a Wikipedians category that has been placed in an articles category.	1. Clutters up articles category 2. Makes it harder to detect (other) violations of USERNOCAT	1. Correct the categorization (e.g.).
A userspace book has been placed in a Wikipedia books category that has been placed in an articles category. See note ("Do not categorize books from the User: namespace (user books) ...") at Category:Wikipedia books and Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2010_April_27#Wikipedia_books.	1. Makes it harder to detect (other) violations of USERNOCAT	1. ???.
Page in Wikipedia namespace is in article category (4inCA)
An article is in the wrong namespace (having either been created in the wrong namespace or moved to the wrong namespace).	1. Causes confusion	1. Check if there's already an article in the correct namespace - if so see row below. 2. Consider deleting the page (e.g. MFD). 3. If not then move the article (e.g.). Optionally delete the redirect that has been left in Wikipedia namespace (e.g. using CSD G6 or RFD (example)).
An article is duplicated in the wrong namespace.	1. Duplicate article 2. Causes confusion	Delete the page in the wrong namespace (e.g. MFD/CSD) or turn it into a (cross-namespace) redirect (e.g. ??) (and then RFD/CSD the redirect?).
A Wikipedia admin page is incorrectly categorized as an article.	1. Clutters up parent category 2. Blurs the distinction between encyclopedia content and encyclopedia administration	Remove incorrect category tag (e.g.). If necessary, add a more appropriate category tag (e.g.).
A bot-generated list of pages refers to a category, but not using ":".	1. Clutters up parent category 2. Confuses users of list	1. Insert ":" (e.g.). 2. Optionally, see if the bot is still making this error (i.e. has made this error recently) and if so contact the bot operator (e.g. ??).
A Wikipedia admin page (e.g. a discussion page such as AFD) refers to a category, but without the extra ":".	1. Clutters up parent category 2. Confuses text/discussion	Insert ":" (e.g.). Optionally put the category tag inside markup (e.g. "<small>[[:Category:Foobar]]</small>") as a bit of an indication that this is not how the text appeared earlier (e.g.).
A template is transcluded into a Wikipedia admin page and the template puts the page in an article category. Typically this occurs where a wikiproject has a list of templates relevant to the wikiproject that shows what the template looks like.	1. Clutters up parent category	Either: 1. Comment out the category tags (e.g.). or 1. Note what articles are in the category. 2. Decide whether it's appropriate for the template to categorize the page (generally it's not appropriate for a template to place a page in an article category). 3. Identify which template is causing the categorization. 4. Edit the template to remove the category tag (e.g.) or to only categorize pages in mainspace (e.g.). 5. Check whether or not articles (that were) in the category need the category tag to be added (e.g.).
A category for Wikipedia administration that contains pages in the Wikipedia namespace (e.g. a Wikiproject category) has been placed in an articles category.	1. Clutters up parent category 2. Prevents other checks 3. May hide that the category is not categorized correctly	Remove the incorrect category tag (e.g.). Optionally replace by a more appropriate category tag (e.g. ??).
Template page is in an article category (10inCA or PetScan)
A template page contains incorrect category tag.	1. Clutters up parent category 2. May hide fact that template is not appropriately categorized under Category:Wikipedia templates	Remove the incorrect category tag (e.g.).
A templates category is in an articles category.	1. Clutters up parent category 2. Prevents other checks	Remove the incorrect category tag (e.g.).
Talk page is in article category (1inCA, 3inCA, 5inCA, ... or PetScan)
A comment on the talk page refers to a category, but without the extra ":".	1. Clutters up category 2. Confuses discussion	Insert ":" (e.g.).
A page in a talk namespace transcludes a page that's in an article category.	1. Clutters up category	See if the talk page can be deleted, blanked, turned into a redirect etc (e.g.).
An article has been copy-pasted into a page in a talk namespace.	1. Clutters up category	Remove the article from the talk page (e.g.).
A talk page uses (e.g. when showing example of what's in the article) a template that's intended for use on articles.	1. Clutters up category	Nowiki the template tag (e.g.).
An article has been created in a talk namespace subpage.	1. Readers will not find the article using normal search or inlinks	Comment out the category tag(s) (e.g.).
An article has been created in a talk namespace page (not a subpage).	1. Readers will not find the article using normal search or inlinks 2. It will cause complications if talk page messages are added to the page	See if there's already an article for this topic. If in User talk namespace check that it was created by the corresponding user. Move page to article namespace (example), to Draft namespace or to a user subpage (and comment out category tags in the latter 2 cases). Then change the redirect left at the talk page into a note (e.g.) or CSD it.
A category for Wikipedia administration that contains talk pages (e.g. a Wikiproject category) has been placed in an article category.	1. Clutters up category 2. Prevents other checks	Remove the incorrect category tag (e.g.).
Talk page of category page is in article category (15inCA)
(As per 1inCA etc)	(As per 1inCA etc)	Remove/fix the incorrect category tag (e.g.).
A template has been designed for use on article talk pages and contains a link to the article, but when that template is used on a category talk page what is intended to be a link instead categorizes the page (because it doesn't insert the extra colon). (e.g.). Example code: The article [[{{SUBJECTPAGENAME}}]] ...	1. Clutters up articles category 2. Causes confusion	Either (1) check that the template documentation says it's not for use on category talk pages and remove the template from such pages or (2) change the template so that it works ok on category talk pages (e.g.). Example code: The {{#ifeq:{{SUBJECTSPACE}}|Category|category [[:{{SUBJECTPAGENAME}}]]|article [[{{SUBJECTPAGENAME}}]]}} ...
Category page is in a category for redirects and a category for articles (14RinCA - but see also queries defined below)
It's a category for redirects (in Category:All redirect categories[2]) that's (also) in an articles category.	Adds clutter to articles category	****(how fix).
It's a soft redirected category (in Category:Wikipedia soft redirected categories[3]) that's in an articles category.	****(why bad).	Look at history of page and talk page to see if there's an explanation. See if the corresponding Article namespace page is a redirect and whether that is categorized as an article. [4]. It is usually unnecessary for the redirect page (in category namespace) and the redirect target category to be in the same articles parent category (e.g.).
Page in User namespace is in Category:Wikipedia books (2inCB)
A user book has been placed in Category:Wikipedia books or a subcategory of that and the book is suitable for "publishing".	1. Clutters up the book category 2. Affects ability to check 2inCA	1. Move book to Book namespace (e.g.).
A user book has been placed in Category:Wikipedia books or a subcategory of that and the book is not suitable for "publishing" (e.g. it duplicates an existing community book, is unfinished etc).	1. Clutters up the book category 2. Affects ability to check 2inCA	1. Comment out the category tag(s) (e.g.). 2. Consider whether the page should be deleted.
Talk page is in a category for disambiguation pages (1inCD etc)
Talk page incorrectly has {{Disambiguation}}.	(Category:All disambiguation pages contains over 200,000 pages so having a few talk pages in that category isn't really a problem)	Remove incorrect tag (e.g.) and possibly replace by {{WikiProject Disambiguation}} (e.g.). Note: The template could be changed to either have no effect if on a talk page or to provide some form of warning.
(Old copy of) dab page has been moved (to avoid losing page history?) to talk subpage. E.g. Talk:Bradshaw, West Virginia/Old history.	(ditto)	Change template (see above)?, remove/nowiki tag, Could the page be deleted?.
Talk page quotes dab page text.	(ditto)	Change template (see above)?, remove/nowiki tag (e.g.).
User page is in a category for disambiguation pages (2inCD)
This can incorrectly get lots of sandboxes etc in it - change {{sandbox}} to {{user sandbox}}. Also pages like this.	(Category:All disambiguation pages contains over 200,000 pages so having a few user pages in that category isn't really a problem)	??
A user has (inexplicably) put {{disambig}} on their user page.	(ditto)	Remove tag (e.g.).
There is a draft disambiguation page (with {{disambig}}) in User namespace (e.g.).	(ditto)	Change the page to not have the disambig tag (e.g.).
Talk page is in a category for essays (1inCE etc)
A comment on a talk page has transcluded an essay (instead of linking to the essay).	1. May confuse editors (including the "owner" of the talk page), probably not what editor who placed the notice intended. 2. Adds clutter to category.	Change transclusion to link (e.g.).
A comment on a talk page transcludes an essay template (instead of quoting from the template).	1. Adds clutter to category.	Change transclusion to quote (e.g.).
A user essay is on a talk subpage (instead of being on a user subpage).	1. Is inconsistent with other essays etc which may cause confusion. 2. Means there isn't a talk page to discuss the essay.	??? (e.g. User talk:Toddst1/Join Wikipedia!).
Article (etc) is in a files category (0inCF, PetScan) Note: (As of 2016) it's not always clear whether a particular category is intended just for images or not.
A category that's intended for articles etc (and possibly also images) is (inadvertently) a subcategory of Category:Wikipedia files. An article (or other page in the Article namespace) is in the category.	1. Causes confused category structure 2. May mean that article is not categorized under Category:Articles	Identify (e.g. using CatCycle) how the articles category is under Category:Wikipedia files and correct the categorization (e.g.). Possibly, use Template:Wikipedia category and/or a category rename to make clear what are categories specifically for Wikipedia images.
An article (or other page in the Article namespace) is (inadvertently) in a category that's intended for images (a subcategory of Category:Wikipedia files).	1. Causes confusion (e.g. if reader navigates from the article to the category) 2. May mean that article is not categorized under Category:Articles	Correct the categorization (e.g.)
Draft talk page is in Category:Help (119inCH)
A draft article in User namespace has been moved to Draft namespace and the user talk page was (inadvertently) moved with it. The talk page is in a category in Category:Help.	1. Causes confusion	Move page back from Draft talk to User talk and with the correct named (e.g.).
Mainspace page is in a portal category (0inCP, PetScan non-redirects)
An article contains an incorrect category tag.	1. Causes category clutter on article 2. Article may not be categorized appropriately 3. Clutters the portal category	Remove/correct the incorrect category tag(s) (e.g.e.g.).
Page in User namespace is in a portal category (2inCP)
A very poor draft of a portal page is in user namespace.	1. Clutters the portal category	Remove the portal category tags (e.g.).
A user template (which refers to a portal) is categorized as part of a portal. Similar user templates are used with WikiProjects, but portals and WikiProjects are not the same thing.	1. Clutters the portal category	Remove the portal category tags (e.g.).
Dab page is in category for redirects (0DinCR)
A redirect page has been incorrectly converted into a dab page.	1. Causes a messy looking dab page	Correct the page (e.g.).
Article (etc) is in a template category (0inCT) Note: As of 2016, Wikipedia:Database reports/Template categories containing articles is not being updated.
A template is used on an article (or even on a category page), but the template is missing noinclude markup.	1. Clutters up templates category 2. Adds to category clutter on article	Add noinclude markup (e.g.).
An article is placed directly in a template category.	1. Clutters up templates category 2. Hides that article isn't in any article categories	Remove incorrect category tag (e.g.).
A category for articles is incorrectly placed under a category for templates.	1. Clutters up category structure 2. Prevents other checks	Correct the categorization (e.g.).
User talk page is in templates category (3inCT)
A user talk subpage is a draft template that is categorized.	1. Clutters up category (although not a big problem)	Check whether the page has been edited recently and if not comment out the category tags (e.g.).
Category page is a hard redirect ([5] - catscan currently only allows searching for hard redirects that are categorized) - Wikipedia:Database reports/Page count by namespace shows how many such pages there are. Note: There is Category:Test for category redirects.
TBD.	See WP:R#CATEGORY.	Look at history of page and talk page to see if there's an explanation...[6]
Article is in category for user pages of Wikipedians (0inCU)
An article about someone notable as a Wikipedian has been placed in (a subcategory of) Category:Wikipedians (instead of in Category:Wikipedia people).	1. Article won't be found by anyone looking in Category:Wikipedia people 2. Risks blurring the distinction between user pages and encyclopedic articles	Correct the category tag (e.g.).
An article about someone not notable as a Wikipedian has been placed in (a subcategory of) Category:Wikipedians (e.g. instead of in an appropriate category).	1. Article won't be found by anyone looking in the appropriate category	Correct the category tag (e.g.).
Talk page is in a Wikipedians category (1inCU, 5inCU etc - PetScan) Note: It may be valid for pages in the User talk namespace to be in a Wikipedians category (i.e. 3inCU) - e.g. via Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery.
An editor has attempted to refer to another editor, but has used incorrect markup. [[User:Foo]] and {{User|Foo}} are correct ways to refer to another editor, but {{User:Foo}} is not; it causes the user page to be transcluded into the talk page.	1. Causes confusion on talk page	Correct the markup (e.g.). Note: If the user page that's transcluded is not categorized then the incorrect transclusion will not be spotted using category intersection - perhaps a bot or an editfilter could spot this.
An editor has referred to a category incorrectly.	1. Can confuse the discussion, adds to category clutter	Fix the reference to the category (e.g.).
An editor has transcluded a userbox onto a talk page as an example.	1. Clutters category, prevents other checks	Change (e.g. nowiki) the reference to the template (e.g.).
An editor has inadvertently transcluded a userbox onto a talk page.	1. Clutters category, could cause confusion	Change (e.g. nowiki) the reference to the template (e.g.).
User page (non-template) is categorized as template or user template is in Category:Wikipedians (2TinCU) Look at user pages indentified by PetScan to find one that is not in a large number of categories. Then use CatCycle (e.g.) on each of those categories to find how it is in Category:Wikipedia templates.
A user page is (correctly) categorized as a Wikipedian and incorrectly categorized as a template.	1. Clutters up the templates category	1. Remove incorrect category tag (e.g.).
A user page is (correctly) categorized as a Wikipedian, but the Wikipedian category is incorrectly categorized under templates.	1. Clutters up the templates category 2. May not be correctly categorized	1. Remove incorrect category tag (e.g.). Sometimes the Wikipedian category is incorrectly categorized under templates because the category page shows an example of a template and there is a problem with the template that should be fixed (e.g.).
Wikipedia namespace page is in Wikipedians category (4EinCU)
A community essay (in Wikipedia namespace) is in Category:User essays which is in Category:Wikipedians.	????	Remove/change category tag (e.g.).
Article (not talk page) is in a WikiProject category (PetScan) (0inCW)
An article contains an incorrect category tag.	1. Adds to category clutter on article	Remove the incorrect category tag (e.g.).
Portal page is in a WikiProject category (PetScan) (100PinCW)
A portal page contains incorrect category tag.	1. May blur distinction between portals and wikiprojects. 2. May hide fact that portal is not appropriately categorized under Category:Portals	Remove the incorrect category tag (e.g.).
A portal page transcludes a wikiproject page (in the Wikipedia namespace).	1. May blur distinction between portals and wikiprojects. 2. May hide fact that portal is not appropriately categorized under Category:Portals	Use noinclude tag on the wikiproject page (e.g.).

Other:

• An article is transcluded into a page in a different namespace (e.g. a user page).
• The content of a template has been copied into a talk page (e.g. fixed by [7]).
• A template is transcluded into a talk page (e.g. fixed by [8]).

Sometimes several things combine to cause a page to be incorrectly categorized - for example Template:Downton Abbey family tree was transcluded onto a talk page, the template was missing noinclude tags and the templates category was in an articles category.

Procedure for making fixes

Note: Not all of these steps always need to be followed.

Step #	Instructions	Notes
1.1.	Turn on "Show hidden categories" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering.
1.2.	Check you know how to follow a link in a way that will cause a new window/tab to open. For most browsers this can be done either by holding down the Shift key whilst clicking on the link or by doing a mouse right click on the link and selecting "Open Window in New Tab".
2.1.	Decide what namespace-category combination you are going to check by picking one of the light pink cells in the matrix at User:DexDor/Cmtp (this shows basically the same matrix as User:DexDor/NSCat, but with more detail in each cell). Cmtp also indicates cells that (as far as it knows) have not been checked for a while - such cells are marked "OLD".
2.2.	Note the row and column headings for that cell - e.g. "0M" and "CB".
2.3.	Open a category intersection tool. One way to do this is to click on a link in a pink cell in Cmtp. Another option is to use a link in User:DexDor/FM. The category intersection tool is not always available. If using the CatScan tool check that you have "Category list" turned on (this is unnecessary if using a link from Cmtp) (unfortunately, that option is not available with PetScan).
2.4.	(If necessary) Set/adjust the parameters for the category intersection. Note: (as of 2015) those category intersection queries in Cmtp that involve Category:Articles are generally only to depth 6 (the category intersection tool may not be able to cope with a deeper analysis) so it may be a good idea to replace "Articles" by a topic (e.g. a particular country) to cover a different part of the category structure below Category:Articles.
2.5.	Run the category intersection query (e.g. by clicking on "Do it!"). It may take several minutes to complete (and it may not complete at all - especially if a deep analysis has been requested).
3.1.	You may find a category listed that looks as if it does not belong under a category specified in the query (e.g. Category:Hypothetical planet types showed up in a query for pages categorized under Category:Transport) and Category:Wikipedian FIFA World Cup fans turned up in a query for pages under Category:Wikipedia templates. If so this can be investigated (manually or using a tool such as CatCycle) and appropriate changes made to the categorization (e.g.).
4.1.	Click on a link to one of the pages listed in the output. Check whether you have been redirected to a different page and if so click on the link to go (back) to the redirect page. It is also sometimes the case that one page (e.g. a Wikipedia administration page) transcludes another page (e.g. an article) and editing the section containing the transclusion actually edits the article (a MediaWiki "feature"?).
4.2.	Look at a page listed in the output. If the conclusion is that the page is valid at this namespace-category intersection (and this may particularly be the case where Cmtp has the namespace-category combination marked as "None") then consider changing Cmtp (please contact DexDor for details).
4.3.	If the conclusion is that the page is in the wrong namespace then move it (and any associated talk page) to the correct namespace.
4.4.	If the conclusion is that the page is in a category that it should not be in then (possibly after trying a null edit in case the problem was being caused by a template that has recently been corrected) edit the page and search for the relevant category tag (i.e. search for "[[Category" - and if that fails search for "[[W:Category"). If found then fix it (e.g. by inserting the missing colon character). If this involves editing a comment in a discussion (on a talk page, XfD discussion etc) then either put <small> markup around the category tag (to give a bit of an indication that the comment has been edited) or add a comment such as "The above ccomment has been edited to correct a reference to a category. ~~~~". It's a good idea to check that you are editing the page you think you are editing (i.e. you have not been redirected to a different namespace) before clicking on the "Save" button.
4.5.	If the category tag that causes the page to be categorized can not be found in the page itself then work out how the page is being categorized. Usually this is because the page is transcluding another page (e.g. a template). There are several techniques that can be used -
4.5a.	If it's a template page that's being miscategorized then check whether its being caused by a category on the template's documentation page (e.g.).
4.5b.	(Particularly if the page is not a template, but appears in a templates category) look at the category and look at templates in that category so see if they are missing "<noinclude>" markup.
4.5c.	Pick a word that appears in the category name and hence is likely to appear in the template name and search the wikicode of the page for this word.
4.5d.	Search the wikicode of the page for where pages that are transcluded into the page (i.e. search for "{{"). Note: Pages that are transcluded in may or may not be in the Template namespace. Note: pages that are transcluded may be in a section that has been collapsed to are not readily visible in the rendered page.
4.5e.	Use Special:ExpandTemplates to expand the page.
4.5f.	Edit sections of the page and use "Show preview" to find which section(s) is causing the categorization. Cut out chunks of the wikicode and use "Show preview" (not "Save page"!) to see whether the code that causes the categorization is in the wikicode that remains.
4.6.	If the conclusion is that the page should not be using the template then remove it from the page, comment it out, convert it into a link etc. Again, if editing a discussion it may be appropriate (as well as the edit summary) to indicate in the discussion that the change has been made.
4.7.	If the conclusion is that the template should not be categorizing the page then edit the template (or ask someone else to - example). See Wikipedia:Category suppression for more information.
4.8.	If a template has been edited to fix a categorization problem then do a null edit on the page that was in the wrong category to get it to notice that the template has changed.
5.0.	Look at your recent contributions to check that they are in the namespace you thought you were editing in case you didn't notice that (e.g. because of a redirect) you ended up in a different namespace. If so, revert the incorrect change and fix the page that is the anomaly.
5.1.	After some/all of the pages have been changed then redo the category intersection query, but be aware that there is sometimes a lage between a page being removed from a category and this change appearing in the database that the category intersection tool uses as input data.
5.2.	If the category intersection query ran quickly then consider incrementing the depth of the analysis and redoing the analysis.
5.3.	(If appropriate) update User:DexDor/Cmtp - either directly or put a note on the talk page such as "4DinCE d7=0".

Tips

Tips for fixing such pages:

• If the page found is a talk page and has no corresponding non-talk page and has no inlinks (apart from any maintenance pages) and is not transcluded[9] (how tell?) and is not needed for licencing (??? see this) then propose the page for deletion by WP:CSD#G8.

• Be aware that when you use a category intersection query to find pages in one namespace that you may end up at a page in a different namespace - for example the page shown by the query may be a redirect or the page shown by the query may transclude another page (in this case clicking on an "Edit" link on one page can actually start editing a different page).