on 4/12/07 3:46 AM, Neil Harris at usenet(a)tonal.clara.co.uk wrote:
Marc Riddell wrote:
on 4/11/07 9:22 AM,
charles.r.matthews(a)ntlworld.com at
charles.r.matthews(a)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