more thoughts on categories

[Michael Shiloh]

Minh Ha Duong wrote:
> Le samedi 30 août 2008, Michael Shiloh a écrit :
>> Ideally, when the category page is reduced sufficiently that it is
>> actually usable, then it should replace the index. I think that's the
>> goal we should have in mind as we work on the categories.
>>
>> Then we have an automatically generated index, which in my opinion is
>> much more valuable, and we wiki maintainers just have to monitor pages
>> and make sure they are in appropriate categories.
>>
>> Comments?
> 
>   Well, I stated my point of view already: categories and lists of pages are 
> not exclusive. But we should use the right tool for the task.
> 
>   An automatic comprehensive table of contents is good. A manual table of 
> content is not practical to do and to use.
> 
>   Manually maintained indexes of well formatted, organized and selected pages 
> can also offer value to readers.
> 
> Minh

Hi Minh,

Thanks again for your excellent comments. I agree completely with your 
observation about "Manually maintained indexes of well formatted, 
organized and selected pages".

Your excellent phrasing has given me an idea for a guideline, which I 
suggest we restate as a rule (actually two rules) in the wiki rules page:

1. Manually maintained indexes of well formatted, organized and selected 
pages are welcomed and encouraged

2. Poorly maintained indexes, poorly formatted, poorly organized or of 
poorly selected pages are discouraged and will be deleted to avoid 
cluttering up the wiki

These rules allow us to get rid of the "technical documents" page, but 
allows future indexes and sets guidelines for higher standards.

Thoughts? Modifications?

M