Category is wonky..did I do something wrong?

Question

I set up a category for my Uncle Clyde's workplace, S.F. Bowser. If you click the category to edit it, the information I added in the set-up process is missing and the name of the category is different. Is this a glitch? Did I cause this? This is the second time this has occured. How can I edit these categories?  The other category this occured in is Peter Eckrich & Sons, Inc. in the category Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

Any insight would be a great help for my future categorization. 

Comments

I have had problems with Category names including ,(comma) 

On the web they are often translated to url encoded character

& = %26
, = %2C

a wild guess is that those characters gives you the problem.....  

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This URL works
http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Category:S.F.%20Bowser%20%26%20Company,%20Inc.,%20Fort%20Wayne,%20Indiana&action=edit

To developers: The Edit command on the category page doesn't urlencode the & character to %26. When I change & to %26 in the URL it works

I add tag improvements bugs sysops to this question maybe it is read by some developer...

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Magnus, can the additional category I accidentally created be removed?

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As we are speaking about geeky things

Instead of 

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvanus_Bowser Bowser Wikipedia] 

you have a cross wiki syntax (see WikiTree help)

[[Wikipedia:Sylvanus_Bowser| xxxx]] creates a link to english Wikipedia with text xxxx

If you would like to link the Wikipedia article in Finnish about Fort_Waynen_vanha_kaupungintalo then you add fi for Finnish Wikipedia

[[Wikipedia:fi:Fort_Waynen_vanha_kaupungintalo]]

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thanks, Magnus!

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You may want to add this template for your Uncle as well from the http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:World_War_II

Example:

{{WW II|United States Army|October 2, 1941|34th infantry, 135th Infantry Division |1945}}

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indeed!

Answer 1

Looks OK on the profile

Comments

yes but click the category and try to edit it. IS the set-up information missing and the box empty?

Answer 2

My guess is because you are using an '&', and it's probably not accepted by the computer?

Comments

Oh, maybe that is it!

Answer 3

I think this is the problem:

You've followed a link to a page or category that doesn't exist yet. To start it, enter something in the text box below.

I am guessing you did not save the information when you entered it. Easy thing to do.

Go back in and add it and make sure you save at the bottom of the page.

Comments

Yeah, I saw that, but isn't it weird that the category and the information I added to it shows up when you click to it?  I guess that "&" is messing things up.

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Oops, looks as if the & was the problem and I have now managed to add S.F.Bowser as a category (unintentionally). Have not discovered how to delete categories yet!

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Delete a category....

I took away the content on the category BUT

A category is technical an inbound link ==> WikiTree remember what profiles has a link to a Category and it also remember what Categories has been created.....

• If a Category doesn't exist you get a red link
• If a Category exists or is empty of content you don't see a difference....

As no delete function exist for us deadly users some people add a "deleted" category to [[Category:Misnamed_Categories]]....

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Argggh. I think I screwed it all up by not reading the G2G while I was trying to fix this.

I could kick my own butt.

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Hi David

Please add the template {{Misnamed Category| correct category name}} to categories you create by accident.  See for example, Category:S.F._Bowser to which I added {{Misnamed Category|S.F. Bowser and Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana}}. 

Adding this template does two things:  

1. it tells people the correct name of the category and 
2. it removes the category from the Uncategorized Cats list 

This saves another WikiTreer from later on having to work out why it isn't connected to the category tree/where it belongs.

Thanks for using WikiTree's categories.

Answer 4

Hi Natalie

See General Rules for Category Names where the first rule has a list of special characters not to use when creating category names.  & is one of these characters. 

Comments

Yup, I saw that after the fact...even though I read that section before setting up any categories, I must have missed that important bit of info.

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I guessed that you had by now Natalie, I really added it for future reference for other people reading this thread.

I've added the template {{Misnamed Category}} to Category: S.F. Bowser & Company, Inc., Category:Peter Eckrich & Sons, Inc.; and Category: Peter Eckrich & Sons, Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Great to see you added that template to Category:Peter Eckrich.

Answer 5

In passing, I seem to remember that & is also worth avoiding in the names of free-space pages, along with double-quote.