neilk wrote:

Revising this... the real problem is that the Commons categorization bot sees that a file has a category, and assumes it doesn't need to be tagged as "needs categories".

So, the real fix is:

• Mention to the user that categories are in English, canonically.

• If there are no categories added, then add {{subst:unc}} to the wikitext. The parser will expand that to an {{Uncategorized| ... }} template.

• (complicated) if we still want to allow the user to create categories (perhaps they will be helpful to recategorization) then they shouldn't count, and {{subst:unc}} should still be added. But it's definitely simpler to bar them from creating a new category, however counterproductive... a widget that could express a tree structure would be better.

These fixes are very Commons-specific, so they should be in configuration. i.e. uncategorized-template or something.

neilk wrote:

More notes:

• We should not block an upload due to lack of cats. if it has no cats, just add the uncat template.

• The category system is canonically english, but there exist non-Engish cats especially when the subject is of local interest only. Wording might be tricky here. Perhaps an "extra help" icon.

• Experienced users will want to add cats. But just showing red links is impenetrable to the new user. It may be helpful to have the user confirm with a dialog that they really want to add a new category.

• Again, the real fix would be to have a widget which could navigate the tree and add cats under other cats. That may be the long term fix.

neilk wrote:

Or, we block adding of new cats until you add at least one existing cat. And explain why, with a dialog.

neilk wrote:

largely fixed in r93071