User blog:J1coupe/The Rules of Categories

Well, this blog was created in the purpose of making people understand better about categories we put on articles in this wiki and mutual agreements we had about certain categories. For new people and those who did not know about it, I think it would be better for me and others to link back to this blog rather than explaining why something should be and something else shouldn't be.

So here are some rules.

1. Epic Rap Battles of History Category
This category originally acted like a trash can, containing every article that was related to ERB in it, until we got rid of it.

Epic Rap Battles of History category is included in these type of pages:


 * The actual battle itself (including the non-official ones)
 * List of Rap Battles page
 * Main page of the wiki

2. Other Categories
There also are other categories that refers to the content/YouTube channel itself, such as Behind the Scenes, ERB2 or Channel category.

Behind the Scenes category is included in these types of pages:


 * Behind the Scene page itself (including the Dis Rap Behind the Scenes)
 * Any page that talks about something in the behind the scenes (ex. Heroin Joke)
 * ERB2 Channel page

ERB2 category is included in these types of pages:


 * Behind the Scenes page
 * Epic Dance Battles of History page
 * ERB Karaoke page
 * Anything else that ERB2 channel tries in the future

Channel category is included in these types of pages:


 * ERB Channel page
 * ERB2 Channel page
 * ERBespanol Channel page
 * Any other channels that ERB creates in the future

B. "ERBoH Participant" Category
This category is for rappers only; Cameos get their own category.

If a previous rapper appeared as a cameo, that page will have both categories (Participant and Cameo) at once.

C. Battle Category
We used to have it as Epic Rap Battles of History #, but since it caused confusion, it was changed to the name of each battle.

These categories are included in these type of pages:


 * The actual battle itself (including the non-official ones)
 * Gallery page of the battle
 * Rap Meanings page of the battle
 * Rappers that appeared in the battle
 * Cameos that appeared in the battle
 * Actors who was in the battle
 * Location that appeared in the battle

D. Seasons Category
Seasons category indicate which Season of ERB the article is from.

These categories are included in these type of pages:


 * The battle that were in the particular Season
 * Gallery pages of those battles
 * Rap Meanings pages of those battles
 * Rappers that appeared during the Season
 * Cameos that appeared during the Season
 * Actors who was in battles during the Season
 * Locations that appeared during the Season
 * Hosts of ERB news who talked about the Season
 * A page about the Season itself and it's hint page
 * Behind the Scenes page
 * List of Rap Battles page
 * Main page of the Wiki

1. Rapper Category
All the rappers that were in the battle would get their own categories, while cameos do not; however, there are few exceptions.

Even if the cameos were previous rappers (like Lincoln's case in Vader vs Hitler 3), since they appeared as a cameo, they do not get their own categories placed in the battle.

Rapper categories are included in these type of pages:


 * The battle that the rapper appeared
 * Gallery pages of those battles
 * Actor(s) who portrayed the rapper
 * Location that the rapper appeared in
 * A page of rappers themselves

2. Exceptions
There are few exception to this rule as the definition of rapper can be somewhat vague as well:


 * One-liners like Marty McFly do not get their own category.
 * Helping rappers like Robin and Dr. Watson do get their own category.
 * Team rappers like Mario Brothers and Wright Brothers get a team category (ex. Mario Brothers).

3. Season character Category
These categories refer to those who appeared in the battle of the certain Season, rappers and cameos alike.

They do not appear anywhere else but the article of the rappers and cameos only.

1. Actors Category
Actors who appeared in the battle, whether as a rapper or as a cameo or even just a voice gets their own categories.

These actor categories are included in these type of pages:


 * The battle that the actor appeared
 * Gallery pages of those battles
 * Rap Meanings pages of those battles
 * A page of actors themselves
 * The Dis Rap that the actor appeared (if there is one)

2. Exceptions
There are few exceptions to this rule for duo actors such as Rhett and Link or Key & Peele:


 * Since there is a chance one of them might appear separately, they do not get a team category (ex. Rhett and Link)
 * Instead, they have two separate categories that refers to each actor (ex. Rhett McLaughlin)

G. Nice Peter and EpicLLOYD Categories
I have made a separate part for categories regarding these two as they are more than just actors in ERB, and there are few exceptions of the category rules that are only given to them.

For Nice Peter and EpicLLOYD page, they do not have any battle categories or rapper categories as they portrayed so many rappers in so many battles, almost all of them. Out of 39 battles we currently have, Pete and Lloyd appeared on almost all battles either as a rapper, as a cameo or just as a voice. Therefore, it would crowd their category box and so it was excluded.

Also, Nice Peter and EpicLLOYD categories aren't only restricted to the rules of Actors category, but it can reach far as to Merchandises, Channels, and any other things that Peter and Lloyd managed to do that we have an article of.

H. Other Categories
There are other categories in this wiki that belongs to certain articles that I haven't mentioned. However I think it is very easy to see where they belong as their name suggests, so I don't think it would be necessary to talk about where they belong.

But, I just to mention few of those categories:


 * Rap Meanings Category
 * Location Category
 * 3rd Party Category
 * etc.

A. Obvious Categories
One type of category that people always try to add is an obvious one, which is unnecessary and therefore will be deleted.

For example, until recently we had categories such as "Male" or "Female". This not only caused silly controversies regarding Justin Bieber's sex, but was also redundant. It wasn't that hard to figure out the character's gender when you saw them. Same idea goes for other categories that were added such as "American Presidents", "Star Wars Character", "Handicapped", et cetera.

B. Profile Categories
Another categories we see often is when people add some kind of category that represent themselves on their profile.

Things like Trusted User or Administrator has been widely used so it would be completely fine, however things like "Awesome person" in one's profile not only just take up space in the category list but also useless and redundant.

C. Blog Categories
Thirdly, blog categories. User blogs are articles written by one person that can be commented on and organized into a listing like a typical blog. Blogs are created for people to talk, share something, talk about an off-topic and others that do not fit in the typical wiki article. However, this doesn't necessarily need any categories, especially since in this wiki, most of the blogs are either fanmade battles or something else that doesn't need to be collectively classified. Even if they do, like fanmade battles, we already have templates that link back to older battles so categories won't be necessary.

D. Categories inside of Categories
Lastly, this is when people put categories on the page made for a category. This just makes Möbius strip-like pattern that basically results in nothing. Making a page itself about categories have a different section right below, so please read that as well- so please, even if the page for the category is created, do not add any categories on them.

III. Category Pages
If you've went through the categories and seen them, you'll notice that some has pages created while some doesn't. That is because we created page for categories that are collective only; Which means, categories such as "Gandalf" points only towards an article that is related to Gandalf, and we can blatantly see that just by their name. While categories like Actors need a page to briefly explain what this collective of articles are all about. Therefore, only those big categories such as Actors, Cameos, Participants, et cetera, need a page.

A. What shouldn't I do?
It's quite simple, really.

Do not add categories where it shouldn't be, do not add unnecessary categories, do not create pages for categories when it doesn't really need one. If you have read what I wrote so far, you'll know which category belongs to which and what categories are unnecessary. All you have to do is follow it. If you have any questions, you can contact me here as well.

Also, this is one quick tip for those who create new pages- If you just leave the page with simple one or two sentences and bunch of categories waiting for others to fix it for you, that, to me at least, look like you're just editing and putting categories in order to gain a badge or expand your editing counts. So please, if you're going to do that, at least put some effort into it.

B. What will happen?
If you've added a category that is against these rules specified above, obviously the category will be deleted.

If it is your first time, deletion of your categories will be it. However, if this goes on consistently, you'll get a notification from us on your message wall regarding the categories which may refer back to this page, which will be our warning.

If you do not heed our warning and continue to add unnecessary categories or add categories where it shouldn't be, then we'll have to stop you, even if that means we're taking your editing privileges away by blocking you or by any other means necessary.

V. Ending Note
That's about all I have to say about categories. I think you know that I am a category freak; and since there were bunch of edits being made, I thought I should bring up the basic rules.

I hope none of you were offended by this by any chance, this was created solely to guide people from misusing categories that needs to be clean and help people navigate through the wiki.

If there's anything I missed by any chance or something should be fixed, don't hesitate to tell me.

That's it. Thanks for reading.

-- Times must change, and so must I;  J1coupe  ( talk ) 03:36, February 11, 2014 (UTC)