Help:Categories
From MixesDB
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Sortation rules for categories are explained here.
Function / Database Structure
The structure of the database is pretty simple once you understood it. From browsing the categories you may already understand the listing structure, but for adding mixes correctly you have to think backwards.
There are 8 main categories. Date, Artist, Event, Club, Show, Radio, Misc, Style. These are listed in the sidebar.
All those main categories have sub-categories, e.g. the Artist category lists all the DJ sub-categories. These list the mix pages.
That's because the mix pages are connected to the artist sub-categories and the artist sub-categories are connected to the main Artist category.
How are they "connected"? By linking to those categories in which the categories should appear. Now how are they linked?
An example: 2000 - Armand Van Helden @ Homelands. Click the [edit] link to see the source behind it. The category links on the bottom are the same as in the category box on top of the mix page. They link to the categories in which this mix page will appear, e.g. on Armand Van Helden or Homelands. Now click on the [edit] link on Armand's page. You'll see that this is connected to the Artist main category, just like Homalnd category is connected to the Events main category. The Artist category, which lists Armand Van Helden as sub-category, is a main category and needs no category in which it should appear. That's why it has no category links in its [edit] page.
So a slogan could be: "You list what you link to." When you link to 1999 and Jeff Mills on a mix page, that one mix page will be listed in the 1999 and Jeff Mills categories. If you link the 1999 category to the Date main category, 1999 will be listed there. Now you know that 1999 and Jeff Mills already exist and you don't need to care most of the time when adding mixes, but it will be important when you create a category that doesn't exist yet. But more about that later.
Usage in Templates
For visualising the database structure let's use an imaginary mix that uses sub-categories of all main categories:
Derrick May @ WMC (Event), Crobar (Club) - aired in the radio show “Cosmium" on Evosonic Radio on July 18th, 1996. The mix has no tracklist yet, is Tech House and a podcast on the Resident Advisor website. According to the file name formatting table on Add A New Mix Page you would create a new page with the following name and order.
1996-07-18 - Derrick May @ WMC, Crobar - Cosmium, Evosonic - Resident Advisor
A standard order is useful in the page name to have a consistant database and easy to read/understand mix page names. The same order is used in the "browse categories" box of the sidebar and in that order you would also add the category links.
We will link every (category) information we can get from the mix name or from our knowledge. So we need to link 1996, Derrick May, WMC, Crobar, Cosmium, Resident Advisor. We do not link Evosonic in this case, because we know it was aired on Cosmium. And Cosmium as a radio show is a sub-category of the radio station Evosonic. As a result the mix page will be listed under Cosmium, but not under Evosonic. Later you will read that it happens that we need to list mix pages under the radio category only when no show is given or can't be ID'ed in the mix itself. But for now have a look at this:
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none = There are no category links in that category edit page, because these are already main categories (blue).
Remember: "You list what you link to." In this case, the mix page would be listed in all violet categories.
As explained above, Cosmium is a show on Evosonic Radio. Every radio show is a sub-category of its radio station, so the page of Cosmium links to [[Category:Show]] and [[Category:Evosonic]]. This way "Cosmium" is listed under the main category "Show" and as a show of Evosonic. But our Derrick May mix page would not appear directly under "Evosonic" but under the sub-category "Cosmium".
The best way to understand all this is by clicking the [edit] links so you can look at the content inside directly.
From now on we will ignore the tracklist states. See more on Help:Tracklists
Red Links? : Creating A New Category
Why do we want you to know that? Because this is the basic understanding for creating new categories that do not exist yet.
The situation: You want to enter a new mix. It's "DJ Name @ Fuse Club, Brussels, 1999-05-28". You now should first check if the mix is already databased. Do a quick research. Since the categories 1999 and Fuse list many mixes already, you're faster searching for "DJ Name". You know he's always credited as "DJ Name" and not only "Name". When you have a result, go on DJ Name's category page and look for 1999. Ok your mix is not there. You go straight ahead and add a new mix by clicking the link in the sidebar. But for our example we say "DJ Name" doesn't exist yet in the database.
Now you can "Add A new Mix" and fill the template form with the relevant infos. It could look like this:
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You entered [[Category:Fuse]], because you searched for "Fuse Club" and got the result: "1. Category:Fuse", this is the Fuse Club you mean, so you need to use "Fuse" in order to have it listed under the Fuse category instead of creating a new "Fuse Club" category.
And you entered [[Category:Techno]] because it's a Techno mix and [[Category:Tracklist: none]] because it has no tracklis yet. Easy so far.
You hit Preview and see that DJ Name is a red link: 
Everything is fine. You did a search and "DJ Name" doesn't exist yet. If it did and the name was correctly written, it would be a blue link to an existing DJ Name category. You have to create it. Ok, save the page and click the red link. You're now on the empty category page for "DJ Name". You can already see your mix page listed, because you saved the mix page. The DJ Name Category now needs to be linked to the Artist main category, so DJ Name's category will also be listed in the Artist Category. To do so, just click the green Artist button in the edit toolbar. Now save that page. Done. The same way you would create a new club or radio show etc. Just follow the red link and enter the according main category with the according button.
| Main Category | Click | Inserted Code | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 
| [[Category:Date]] | Inserting and saving will add the new Year category to the Date main category. |
| Artist | 
| [[Category:Artist]] | ...will add the new Artist category to the Artist main category. |
| Event | 
| [[Category:Event]] | ... |
| Club | 
| [[Category:Club]] | |
| Show | 
| [[Category:]] [[Category:Show]] | [[Category:]] - Insert the according radio station category name here. Remove if no radio station exists or if you're unsure. If unsure, you def need to add a note in the free lines above that the radio station is not identified yet. [[Category:Show]] - keep that as is and it will be added to the show category |
| Radio | 
| [[Category:Radio]] | |
| Misc | 
| [[Category:Misc]] | |
| Style | 
| [[Category:Style]] |
The insert will give you 2 empty lines in which you could also add some information or homepage link etc. For formatting hints see Editing & Formatting.
Linking DJ Name's new category to the main category was easy because we know DJ Name is an artist.
But what to do when you aren't sure about a main category? Like in "DJ Name @ Love Tribe, 1992". Was "Love Tribe" a club or an event? You could do a quick google search for something like "love tribe dj". That may bring results for a homepage or even other DJ sets with maybe more info in the file name. If that doesn't help, just do nothing and keep the link red and do not enter any other text, but you may use [discussion] on the Love Tribe page for entering your thoughts for other users later. Keeping the link red means the category for "Love Tribe" stays unconnected with a main category, but the system recognizes that and would list "Love Tribe" on the ID Categories page. This page is filled with many of such hard cases, but it's better to keep it undefined for now than to link it to a wrong main category. This link is placed on the sidebar as well and can be viewed by other users or visitors. If they know one of these categories, they are asked to enter the correct main category link.
The later use of the ID Categories shows that you def need to add a [[Category:''Whatever'']] link in the mix page so this (undefined) info is at least vissible and updateable for others.
Below some explainations about categories that need more or less special handling:
Show / Radio
When you create a new radio show, it always gets 2 main category links. The standard [[Category:Show]] and the [[Category:''YourNewRadioStationName'']]. Example: Essential Mix
As you read above it can happen that a mix page is listed in the radio category instead of the show. That is the case when the show is not given with the file and can not be ID'ed in the mix itself Like in "DJ @ Club (Evonsic Radio)". Then you would link to Evosonic directly. Example.
But there are also radio shows without a steady radio station like Solid Steel. So this one has only [[Category:Show]] entered in the edit page.
Style
Define the style of the mix, using catgeories from the Style category list.
If you don't know the style of the mix, use [[Category:Style]], so it can be updated later.
If you feel the need to create a new style, enter it in the mix page edit page, follow the red link and enter [[Category:Style]] in the new page.
But mind if a new Style category is really needed, if more mixes will be added in the future under this style or if you can't even describe that style by using existing ones. A typical combination is
[[Category:Minimal]]
[[Category:Tech House]]
Other important categories
Unknown Artist / Gig
| Unknown Artist | Link a mix page to this category whenever the artist or one of the artists is unknown. Note that this is a sub-category of Category:Artist |
| Unknown Gig | Link a mix page to this category whenever the Club or Event or Radio Show is unknown. Note that this is a sub-category of Category:Event |
Promo Mix
Link to Category:Promo Mix whenever it is a Promo Mix (untitled or not). Generally there is no club, radio, podcast, etc. given.
Advanced
Aka and typical Typos
If you know of different spellings, Aka's and typical typos people make when they search for an artist or any other category, there's a way to make those searchable without displaying them in the category text.
It makes sense to add aka's to the artist's category page text so these are searchable as well. But people often write Ellen Alien while it's written Allien. Searching for Ellen Alien won't bring any results. Since it also makes no sense to add this to the page text we can add a hidden comment to her category page and 'Alien' will be searchable as well: <!-- Ellen Alien -->.
Other examples: Clorophilla, Pan-Pot.
Linking to categories
Linking to categories is mostly used on artist pages, linking to a group and the members of a group.
| Input | Output |
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[[:Category:The Chosen Few]] |
Mind the : in front of "Category".
