[Wikipedia-l] Re: WikiIndex (idea)

[Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 02:51:08 -0800, Ronald Chmara <ron at opus1.com> wrote:
> 
> On Mar 10, 2005, at 1:56 AM, Magnus Manske wrote:
> > So, do we need another kind of *indexing*, or just a new way of
> > cross-reading existing categories?
> > Magnus
> > Kardos András schrieb:
> >> Yes, a *primitive* form of an index.
> >> Alfio Puglisi <puglisi at ...> writes:
> >>> Aren't categories a primitive form of index?
> >>> Alfio
> 
> I think I understand some of the original intent behind this idea, so
> let me expand upon what I thought the idea was.
> 
> Let's take an existing article, which already has some categories:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank
> 
> It has a fairly small set of current indexed categories:
> Categories: 1929 births | 1945 deaths | Diarists | Dutch writers |
> Murdered writers | Holocaust | Dutch World War II people | People with
> asteroids named after them
> 
> It does *not* have the following possibly relevant, hypothetical(?),
> categories attached:
> People born on June 12 | Famous Jewish People | Famous Young Authors |
> People who hid during the holocaust |  Authors whose work has been
> disputed | Authors whose work was redacted by their family | People who
> died in Bergen-Belsen | Authors whose work had been converted to
> theater | Authors whose work became opera | Authors who were born in
> Frankfurt am Main | Authors born in Germany | Famous Reform Jews |
> Famous Montessori Students | Famous Aachen residents | Events of July
> 8th | Events of October 28th | Authors who told biographical account
> using pseudonyms | People published in Het Parool | Plays by Goodrich
> and Hackett | Pulitzer Prize winning Dramas | .... (the list goes on
> and on)

Aside from "Authors born in Germany" which "Authors who were born in
Frankfurt am Main" would be a subcategory of these are all valid, the
problem is  that they lead to alot of clutter currently, it has been
proposed that a "hidden cateogory" feature be added, for example for
featured articles (their categories are currently on the talk pages, a
lame hack) and this index feature looks similar to that.

> 
> As you see, the currently existing categories can scratch the surface,
> but can also miss many connections (as currently implemented).
> 
> As I understand the idea, it is about either:
> a) Much more human indexing categories being applied
> b) Automated systems so that the "what links here" kinds of information
> are added in some way to existing indexes, or categories, or utilized
> in an obvious way to display existing connections....
> 
> -Bop
> 
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