Stefan Sittler wrote:
I have been wondering about this, actually. (I'm newish to WP). Could somebody show me how exactly categories are helpful? A link would be fine. It's hard for me to see the usefulness. A link or three would be fine, maybe an old pertinent discussion. Thanks.
I've used them to basically find things in the same category. For example, [[Category:Islands of Greece]], and its sub-categories for different island chains.
I see them as fulfilling a lot of the functions that would otherwise have to be fulfilled with lists, but in a more maintainable way, since they're maintained incrementally on the article side, not centrally on the list side (the "list" is then automatically generated). They don't completely replace lists, but they automate a lot of the more tedious sorts of lists that would otherwise have to be constructed and maintained.
-Mark