[wp-hackers] A new category structure for WordPress

[Robert Deaton]

On 4/14/07, Knut-Olav Hoven <hovenko at linpro.no> wrote:
> On Sunday 15 April 2007 01:05:02 Robert Deaton wrote:
> > On 4/14/07, Knut-Olav Hoven <hovenko at linpro.no> wrote:
> > > I just wrote a ticket on trac that describes what I think is a better way
> > > to handle categories than what we have today, especially since tags more
> > > and more take over for categorizing posts.
> > >
> > > The ticket is to find here:
> > > http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4148
> > >
> > > Basically it describes using pages as a parent/category for posts and
> > > only one per post.
> >
> > A _strong_ -1
> Ok, not a very good start ;)
>
> > Quick, concise reasons:
> > - Pages aren't containers for posts
> They don't have to be. I just say they could.
>
> > - Assigning to multiple categories is essential
> Multiple tags?

Categories != Tags

>
> > - Tags are not a replacement for hierarchical category structures
> Combined tags when searching gives you allmost the same functionality.

Tags do not have relationships, explicit or implied, in any way
whatsoever. Their only relationship is that some things may share two
tags.

Categories have relationships. PHP is a subcategory of Programmming,
and it makes sense to be. WordPress is a subcat of Blogging Software.
The a post tagged "wordpress blogging+software" does not display this
relationship, nor can you browse by this relationship.

> > "especially since tags more and more take over for categorizing posts."
> > Something is wrong with that statement.
> Isn't the "hype" these days to tag everything?

The hype these days is also to parade around digg and slashdot like a
2 year old who can't type, flame everyone to hell, and make insane
amounts of stupid looking misspelled cat pictures, but that doesn't
mean we should reduce ourselves to 2 year olds.

> Microsoft is doing this in WinFS with metadata on each file, OSX does it with
> Finder, Linux does it with Beagle and Google does it with Google Desktop.

Sounds to me like you're suggesting a better search, not advocating a
reason that humans should take the time to attempt to properly tag
their posts. The beauty of all the above is that there is no human
interaction involved. If we had to tag our own files, I guarantee that
most people would never find what they were looking for.

> Browsing directories (and categories) is no longer the preferred solution for
> finding what you are really looking for.

Just because an additional searching software can tell that my files
are pictures doesn't mean I should no longer put them in a picture
directory. And we aren't dealing with advanced file indexing
algorithms and metadata searching algorithms, this is a simple
blogging/CMS software.

-- 
--Robert Deaton
http://lushlab.com