New York Categories Not Visible In Category Tool

+4 votes
156 views
Why are categories for New York locations not visible in the category tool on person profiles?

I've tried numerous text and don't even get "New York," which  is a category. "Manhattan" brings up nothing. I've tried reducing the number of results from the autocomplete, wondering if there is a limitation on the results, such as "State" or "City" doesn't help either.

I would think that results would be weighted or exact matches would be first, so a search on "New York" would show the category "New York" first, then results that start with "New York."

I don't mind having to go dig through the categories, that is how I did it before the tool was available, but its odd that I don't have this issue in other states.

I'm assuming this is a bug?
in WikiTree Tech by Allison Mackler G2G6 Mach 6 (63.0k points)
retagged by Ellen Smith
I've added it to the list of bugs.
Thanks, Jamie.

3 Answers

+1 vote

Category:New York is for the State of New York, and as a Top Level category, should not be used on profiles. This is why it will not show in the category selection tool. This same principle applies to all US States, as well as other top level categories.

Manhattan on the other hand appears to be working fine for me:

by Steven Harris G2G6 Pilot (733k points)
Only cemeteries and towns in other states are coming up for me!

I also expect to see counties of New York, cities in New York, etc.
+1 vote
Aargh!  The Categorization tool seems to be almost completely useless for looking for "New York." It throws up several results that include the text strings "new" and "york" in the category name (first hit is "East-Yard Cemetery, Yorktown, New York"), but it doesn't understand the kind of logic humans would use in looking for categories. If you search "New York, New York," the results list does include Category: New York, New York, but it's fairly far down the list (first hit is "911 New York, New York").
by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
Results are listed in alphanumeric order, which is possibly the cause of some confusion.

Alphanumeric order is not the whole story.

When "New York" is entered, the software pulls up 20 category names that (1) include both "new" and "york" and (2) include one of these strings more than once. The alphabetical list of names goes from East-Yard Cemetery to Yorkville, New York, but it does not include New York, New York (which could logically have been alphabetized between Newstead, New York and Saint Josephs Cemetery, Yorkville, New York, two category names that do appear on the list).

+4 votes
I usually just start at Category:New York, which neatly organizes locations and topics about New York.  The New York History Project spent a lot of time getting that Category cleaned up.  There is also a Navigating New York Space that helps even more.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Navigating_New_York_in_Wikitree
by Living Moore G2G6 Mach 1 (10.5k points)
This is terrific. Thanks for sharing.
This is a great page, thank you!

This doesn't address the issue of the category tool not working though.

Related questions

+8 votes
0 answers
+2 votes
1 answer
+3 votes
1 answer
+4 votes
2 answers
+8 votes
2 answers
+7 votes
2 answers
+12 votes
3 answers
+4 votes
1 answer

WikiTree  ~  About  ~  Help Help  ~  Search Person Search  ~  Surname:

disclaimer - terms - copyright

...