on 4/12/07 3:46 AM, Neil Harris at usenet@tonal.clara.co.uk wrote:
Marc Riddell wrote:
on 4/11/07 9:22 AM, charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com at charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com wrote:
It was pretty clearly navigation. Pre-categories, you had to rely on searching the site, or lists compiled by back-breaking labour, to find articles in an area. I spent many hours on listing.
Thanks for this, Charles. My whole point in bringing the Category issue to the List again is to focus on how very complex - no, complicated is the better word - it has become over time. When I started editing in WP just last year, it was a pleasure to use the Category system; now I've all but given up on it. I would like to see a drive to truly simplify it again so it can be much more practical (and easier) to use.
I shall persevere! :-)
Marc
"Simplifying" the category system would throw away a lot of its value: the current fine distinctions are very useful for many purposes.
If by "fine distinctions" you mean subcategories, I agree - I certainly do not want the system to lose its value.
It seems to me that the sort of information display you would like should be possible to infer from the current hierarchy using fairly simple algorithms. If so, it's not the category system that needs to be simplified, it's its presentation in the user interface.
Whatever it takes, what I would like to see boils down to this:
If John Doe died from Lung Cancer, I would like to have his name appear in the Subcategory List of "Lung cancer deaths". I would also like to see his name appear in the Main Category List of "Cancer deaths". That, really, is what my fuss is all about.
Marc