Categories
This template is within the scope of WikiProject Categories, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of categories on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CategoriesWikipedia:WikiProject CategoriesTemplate:WikiProject CategoriesCategories articles

This template was considered for deletion on 2009 December 18‎. The result of the discussion was "Keep".

The template text presently reads "a limited number of". In many cases I would exchange that with "no". Perhaps a parameter switch would make this possible within this template. I was actually contemplating creating Template:Parent category2 for this purpose alone, however, that will hopefully prove unnecessary. __meco 06:57, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can somebody please fix this template? There is an option for setting it to "mild" so that "only" is changed "mainly" but it doesn't work. Also, "only subcategories and possibly a limited number of directly related pages" does not make sense. If it contains only subcategories, it can't also contain something else. Perhaps the "and possibly..." bit should be moved into the "mild" option? Or perhaps the mild option should be default and an "only" option should replace it which makes the text read "Due to the scope of this category, it should contain only subcategories."? McLerristarr | Mclay1 11:21, 8 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, this makes very little sense. I've made the change, as well as removing the word "possibly" altogether. – RobinHood70 ^talk 23:04, 8 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The majority of categories with this template transcluded have one or two articles in them, usually an eponymous article. I think the mild option should be default, with the "only" option being the specified option. McLerristarr | Mclay1 07:33, 9 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's probably not a bad idea, although it means that all the non-mild pages would theoretically need to be re-examined to see whether they should follow the new default or be marked as strong. Oh and thanks for the grammar correction - that's a rule I'd never come across before (or perhaps had forgotten). – RobinHood70 ^talk 07:52, 9 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The template seems to be used for two types of categories: topic categories with a lot of related articles ("mild") and "Something by something" categories ("strong"). However, the words "Due to the scope of" do not seem to fit well with the strong categories. They should not contain articles because they're categories for other categories rather than because of their size. Maybe the wording could be altered or perhaps we just need a new template. McLerristarr | Mclay1 08:31, 9 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Category diffuse is basically the same as the default message of this template. Eventually, I'm going to go through every page in Category:Container categories and replace this template with ((Category diffuse)) or ((Wikipedia category)) where appropriate. After that is complete, I will make the strong parameter the default message. McLerristarr | Mclay1 14:20, 25 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've created Category:Weak container categories to contain container categories needing conversion. McLerristarr | Mclay1 16:48, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've also created Category:Strong container categories. I have removed the "weak" default message and will do the same for ((Wikipedia category)). Once the clean-up is complete, the new categories can be deleted. McLerristarr | Mclay1 17:23, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

But why can ((Wikipedia category)) not be with the weak message? --DixonD (talk) 09:23, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Because ((Category diffuse)) is not necessary on most pages. It's fairly obvious that pages should be in appropriate subcategories rather than the parent category. ((Category diffuse)) can be applied to categories that are likely to get large amounts of miscategorisation but that's not that many. ((Category diffuse)) could be merged into ((Wikipedia category)) but I think the "category diffuse" message would be more obvious as a separate message box. McLerristarr | Mclay1 15:33, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Also, the main reason I disliked the weak message was that it gave two different definitions to "container category". It's easier to keep Category:Container categories for categories with only subcategories and Category:Categories requiring diffusion for others. McLerristarr | Mclay1 15:35, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For example, categories about countries - are they container categories or not? For instance, Category:Angola marked as container category but it is clear that it should contain main article Angola. Weak message would be more appropriate while ((Category diffuse)) shouldn't be used in this case. --DixonD (talk) 12:02, 2 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't need a message box. We don't need to label every category with something. Just labelling those that should only contain subcategories and those that often get miscategorised seems sufficient. McLerristarr | Mclay1 15:22, 4 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Why shouldn't ((Category diffuse)) be used in that case? It seems appropriate to me. McLerristarr | Mclay1 15:24, 4 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In my understanding ((Category diffuse)) is used as temporary message box to show that many pages are not properly categorized in some category. And after that is done, ((Category diffuse)) should be removed and ((Container category)) with weak message could be put instead. That is how I understand using of those templates:) --DixonD (talk) 15:54, 4 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, ((Very large)) is the temporary message box, which may be replaced by ((Category diffuse)) if necessary. McLerristarr | Mclay1 03:12, 5 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Given the message in this template and that editors are a very small subset of the total WP readership I feel that this template should be less obtrusive. I would like to see it in a similar style to the interwiki boxes such as ((commonscat)) (although I would like to see an even lower visibility than that!). I have asked the same of ((Category diffuse)) at Template talk:Category diffuse. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 05:29, 30 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This template says "should contain only subcategories". I need the template that says it should contain "mostly sub-categories with a few exceptions" or something to that effect like I believe it used to. Where is that template? Jason Quinn (talk) 05:27, 24 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Belatedly – it's ((Category diffuse)). – Fayenatic London 16:16, 9 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Is there any way we could introduce a tracking category that would highlight container categories which contain articles (e.g. Category:Non-empty container categories? This would help with clean up activities and clearly delineate the purpose of this template (should have no articles) vs. ((Catdiffuse)) (all articles should be moved to subcategories where possible).

I get the feeling that this distinction has not been made clear so the container one is used more widely than required. A quick look at Category:Container categories shows this to be obvious – Category:Airports in Africa is not a true container as logically it should always include the article List of the busiest airports in Africa. In comparison, Category:Airports in Alaska by borough is a true container, just like its parent Category:Buildings and structures in Alaska by borough, because no suitable article could feasibly be present in them.

Also, does anyone think we require a third template between the container and diffuse? In other words, ones that should contain no articles with the exception of eponymous articles and similar lists? SFB 10:40, 12 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

FYI see Template_talk:Category_diffuse#Combining_diffusing_and_non-diffusing_boxes.3F. Ottawahitech (talk) 13:51, 8 January 2017 (UTC)please ping me[reply]