On 01/04/07, Virgil Ierubino <virgil.ierubino(a)gmail.com> wrote: Not true. Maybe the mechanism is not perfect, but a red category link alerts the user that "something is wrong". The something may be misspelling, alias problems (Hotdogs vs Hot-dogs vs Hot-Dogs vs Hotdog vs...), or simply that the category doesn't exist yet and needs to be created (not by giving it text, but crucially by giving it a parent category). The problem is not so much for that user but for subsequent ones, who come and want to find items on Hotdogs, and have no way of knowing that they must check many variants to find all the available material. The category system is for sure not perfect, but the red link is definitely better than making them all blue. Wikis that rely on category structures for navigation and sorting of items (eg... Commons) also rely on this red link 'alert'. Something more flexible might be if there was a $wgAllCategoriesBlue or something that could be configured for each wiki, but a wholesale change would not be appropriate. cheers, Brianna user:pfctdayelise

Further to this thread (making category links red only if they have just 1 member), and in response to the responses (that changing the colours was met with disapproval), might I suggest that the colours remain the same, but red category links simply don't take you to an editing page? This would solve the main problem I think. The point is that categories can still be used even if they are red, so I want to be able to view a category (from a link) without it taking me to an edit box. I just want to see the members. Everything else about the category remains the same - it is classed as a wanted page, etc., the link simply just doesn't automatically go into editing. I think this solution gets the best of both worlds.