Anthony DiPierro wrote:
That brings up another, longer term, to-do for categories: they should be language independent. For instance [[Marie Curie]] is in de: and en: (they happen to have the same title, but even if they don't they are linked via interwiki links). [[Kategorie:Pole]] is linked to [[Category:Polish people]]. So there should be no need to categorize Marie Curie twice (multiply by the actual number of languages which have a Polish people category and an article on Marie Curie).
This is pretty simple theoretically. The only real problem is getting the multiple category schemes in sync. Considering your point about how the German categorization scheme differs from the English one, this might be a lot harder in practice than it is in theory.
I think that this would be very difficult across projects, if only because the terminology is different, and there is a cultural element to determining distinctions.
To some extent I have dealt with som of this on the English Wiktionary as a byproduct of being all words in all languages, but with English definitions. Category names there would also all be in English. Thus [[Category:Mammals]] could have its usual hierarchical subcategories [[Category:Dogs]], [[Category:Rabbits]], etc. It would also hve [[Category:de:Mammals]], [[Category:ja:Mammals]], etc. which could be developed in a parallel manner for those other languages. To facilitate sorting the language codes would always be lower cased, and the categories themselves would be upper cased.
Your definitions of taxonomies and attributes need work :-).
Heh :) Input welcome! I think the distinction between "taxonomy" and "attribute" is probably a sliding scale. It comes down to what is natural. Do we really think in terms of "nobel laureates"? I doubt it
Combining rigid rules with common sense is hard. I am tempted to quote your line about inevitable disaster.
Personally I don't see the difference between taxonomies and attributes, as described. But I suppose one (taxonomies?) could be described as partitioning (an article can only be in one taxonomy category) whereas attributes can be mixed. Under that definition though, all taxonomies are attributes (but not vice-versa). I'm not sure how close that definition is to reality though.
It's best not top get hung up on pedantic distinctions.
Ec