Categories
Categories are used to organize articles in the Witchipedia into useful groups and to clarify reduce ambiguity. Also, different categories can have different templates. This allows us to arrange all articles within a category in a unique way that is most relevant to that category and, in some cases, the person who manages it.
Not all pages are in categories, but categories are used heavily as part of the site's organization. If a word can be used to mean more than one thing, for instance Venus could be a Goddess or a Planet. Heliotrope could be a mineral or an herb. It is very helpful to have them in a category to differentiate what you're talking about. An additional, uncategorized page can also be created with a link to both categorized pages in order to help the reader find exactly what he is looking for more efficiently (see the links for the examples above)
Articles are placed in categories by the system based on their names. The category is identified in the page name by the category's name followed by a colon and then the page's name. The page's name is what directs the browser to the page you are looking for. It looks like www.witchipedia.com/pagename. In this example the page is NOT categorized. However, www.witchipedia.com/cat:pagename IS categorized. It is in the "cat" category (which doesn't actually exist). Using this method, I can create several pages with the same "name" over as many categories as I want. So Mercury, the planet, the god and the metal can all have their own page. And, for the convenience of our readers, the uncategorized Mercury page can act as a hub. Click the Mercury link and examine the links on that page and their URLs to get a clearer idea of what I'm talking about.
So, when you create a new article or when creating links in articles, think about the categories when you are typing your names.
You can see a list of all of our categories at http://www.witchipedia.com/categories Note that the _default category is the category that anything gets dropped into if it is not otherwise categorized. Elsewhere this content may be referred to as "uncategorized".
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE If you are creating a new article by typing the name of the article into a text box specific to that category (such as the ones in the directory, classified, spell and howto areas) they are already set up to place whatever article is submitted through them into the specified category. However, if you create a new article through the generic text box in the left hand navigation bar, you can place your article in any category you want, or no category at all.
You can find a list of existing categories by clicking: categories. You can find Wikidot's information about categories at http://www.wikidot.com/doc:site-structure#toc4
Tags
Tags can be added to the bottom of an article at any time. You do not need to enter the editor in order to add a tag and in fact cannot do so from the editor. So the article must be saved and closed first. You will find a link at the very bottom in red called "Tags". If you click on the link you will find a small text box that will accept a space-separated list of tags.
Some Important Tags:
Glossary- any article tagged with "glossary" will appear on our glossary. Use this for any article that defines something general.
Tool - any article tagged with "tool" will appear on our tools list. For any tools used in magic.
Some additional conventions
For Minerals- Do not tag them crystals, stones, minerals, etc. This is covered by the "mineral" category that they should all be in (see more information below). DO tag it with its magical uses and correspondences, color and if it is a metal you can add the tag "metal".
For Herbs- Do not tag them herbs, plants, etc. This is covered by their category. DO tag them with their magical uses and correspondences. If it is a tree, tag it with the word "tree". If it is a fungus, tag it with the word "fungus". If it is poisonous, tag it with the word "poison". If it is edible, tag it with the word "edible". If it is common food, you can tag it with the word "food".
For Planets- Do not tag them "planet", etc. This will be covered by their category. Do tag them with their magical correspondences.
For Gods- Do not tag them "God" or "deity", etc. This is covered by their category. Do tag them with their Archetype "Mother", "Earthmother", "Warrior" etc. if they fit into one (don't stretch too hard) and any additional spheres of influence AND their nationalities, I.e. Egypt, Greece, Etruscan, Celtic, Gaulish - Be both general and specific if possible.
For People- If they are dead, tag them "deceased" if they died a really really long time ago, tag them "historic". Also tag them with what they are known for, "author", "historian", "warrior", "hero", "leader". etc. and their nationality. If this person is actually a mythical character who may or may not have existed, tag them with "myth".
Parent Pages
A parent page is the page above the current page in a "nested" structure. Creating a parent to your page will create a list of "breadcrumb" links at the top of the page. If you look at the top of this page, you will see that the this page's parent is the writers-guidelines page, which in turn is the child of the Welcome page, which is called "start". If there were more pages above that page, you would see a longer list of links going all the way back to the first one. This not only helps with navigation, but it adds the page to the site map and allows me to list articles in different ways.
For all herbs - this includes trees, fungi, all plants, etc. The parent page is herbs, you would write it in the "parent" text box at the bottom of the page as main:herbs. (and the category is "herb:")
For all minerals - Including crystals, stones, metals, whatever, the parent page is minerals-and-crystals, you would write this as main:minerals-and-crystals - (And the category is "mineral:")
For all gods- The parent page is Pagan Gods and Goddesses and you would write this main:pagan gods and goddesses - (And the category is "god")
If you are unsure what the parent should be, check to see what the parent is for similar articles. If there are no similar articles of you are still unsure, simply make the parent "home:home" and let me know and I'll fix it later.
For More Information
Please visit wikidot's helpfile at http://www.wikidot.com/doc:site-structure
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