Template talk:Text cat

multiple languages

stumbled across Category:Courage (text): Courage exists in various languages, e.g. en, de, fr. How to reflect this with {{Text cat}} which allows only 2 languages (the images in this cat currently are a mixture of en and de)? Furthermore Zivilcourage, as in Category:Zivilcourage (text) is not derived from English Category:Courage (text). Think of words like in Category:In (text), which is ubiquitous. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Herzi Pinki (talk • contribs)

IMO Category:Courage (English text), Category:Courage (German text), Category:Courage (French text) may be eventually created as subcategories. I did that with Category:Sin (text) (with very very different meanings in Spanish and English). Strakhov (talk) 19:00, 15 May 2022 (UTC)

@Strakhov: For text itself, I'm not sure separate cats by language are strictly necessary, but it seems they are being used as 'sin as part of Spanish text', which is fine. The only problem I see is that using this template on the (language text) categories causes an overcat violation. That is a technical issue we can work out if such sub-categorization is pursued in many text categories. Josh (talk) 18:47, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

 Comment @Herzi Pinki: The template actually allows for up to 5 languages currently (the documentation has lagged behind code updates) and can be expanded to more if needed. Additional language categories can of course also be manually added to the categories. Thanks, Josh (talk) 18:47, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

 Comment @Herzi Pinki: The categorization of Category:Zivilcourage (text) under Category:Courage (text) merely is due to the former containing the text of the latter. It does not indicate a language-based relationship between the two. Josh (talk) 18:47, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

@Joshbaumgartner: Thus Category:Sin (text) should be also in Category:In (text) and Category:Si (text) (italian si = yes)?, and Category:Courage (text) in Category:Our (text), Category:Age (text) and Category:Rag (text)? --Herzi Pinki (talk) 08:16, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

@Herzi Pinki: Yes, those would all be correct. Josh (talk) 14:28, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

@Joshbaumgartner: I know Commons categories are not exactly "transitive" but this categorisation scheme leads to "Language1 text" appearing as (sub)content of Category:Language2 text, as Herzi Pinki highlights above. For now it's OK for me (I agree with the language split not being "strictly necessary" at this moment), but IMHO at some point (medium-long term) it would be better to start splitting text-categories by language. Honestly, I remain skeptical of hanging "Category:Sin (text)" from "Category:In (text)" once languages are introduced in the "category tree". One or the other: Commons takes a pure "character string approach", getting rid of the languages in text-categorisation, or Commons starts categorising text-categories by language, avoiding to mix content of different languages. Trying to do both things at the same time IMHO ...it's inaproppiate. Strakhov (talk) 18:23, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Thanks @Strakhov: for sharing my opinion. Clear rules are necessary to avoid different understanding by different users leading to unmaintainable chaos. --Herzi Pinki (talk) 08:56, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

@Strakhov: Strictly speaking, I agree with you. Text is not necessarily a word, and thus (text) categories as a direct sub of "'language' words" is indeed imprecise. However, so long as the (word) category does not exist, it is a practical connection that makes sense. You are correct that Commons categories are not transitive...they are not classes per se. (text) categories should not be categorized strictly as (word) categories, but so long as an analog (word) category does not exist, the (text) category can carry the word-related categorization, I don't see a problem with that. Josh (talk) 18:51, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Category:Boo (text)

it should not be added to Category:Boo. rather, Category:BOO letter combinations might be more appropriate. RZuo (talk) 08:07, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

similarly, Category:Deutschland (text) is now added to a redirect Category:Deutschland. RZuo (talk) 08:14, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

Template is problematic

@Joshbaumgartner and Verdy p: This template is problematic where it adds a word and then pushes that word into a category irrespective of whether that is the correct category for the word. Especially the case when the category is a disambiguation category. We need to have better ability to control proper categorisation, or to say NOCAT if that is appropriate. Example is Category:Amen (text) though I have seen the same problematic behaviour in other places. Thanks.  — billinghurst sDrewth 00:46, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

@Billinghurst Set parameter 2 to "nocat" and no 'push' category will be added. On Category:Amen (text), see this version I made (source) to see how it works. I have since undone the change as parameter 2 in this case is being used to add a different category (maybe not an appropriate one, but that is a seperate discussion). I believe the documentation does cover this option for parameter 2, though if you have a better way to make it clear, feel free. Josh (talk) 20:33, 13 May 2024 (UTC)

@Joshbaumgartner: Yes, it was there in the code, though I added the documentation as it was buried in the code. I found we have had a few templates that have had a few issues with the categorisation being an issue. I have updated docs, or added the "nocat" option to those to at least try and keep that continuity. It is just a bit of an issue to work through some of the coding in place, especially with positional parameters.  — billinghurst sDrewth 22:41, 13 May 2024 (UTC)

Topic to add (or fix)

To find categories that subcategories of redirected categories, try PetScan on Category:Non-empty category redirects:

• https://petscan.wmflabs.org/?psid=28478678 (currently 112)

Enhancing999 (talk) 22:26, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

Default letter count

As it uses text-length to assign categories for the number of letters, it could attempt to skip spaces and other non-letters. Enhancing999 (talk) 21:54, 16 June 2024 (UTC)