Category talk:3rd Avenue North

Experiment in sorting

This is an experiment in redoing the various BhamWiki street categories. Currently, businesses and buildings are being sorted in categories by their address. Unfortunately, the MediaWiki software does not allow any way to display the text being used to sort. So, for example, an entry given as "[[Category:3rd Avenue North|1817]]" will display under the "1" header, along with other addresses such as 102, 1066, 1411, 1919, etc. This gives the appearance of completely random ordering to the average, untrained reader (e.g. Category:4th Avenue North).

This category has been changed so that the category sorts alphabetically, while the 3rd Avenue North entry has a list of locations by address, where each number is visible to the user. In addition, text has been added to the street's category and entry referring the user to the other list. I believe this gives the user both options in the best manner possible. One possible further enhancement would be to separate existing locations and former locations (e.g. the Rye-Ola bottling plant).

The downside is that the street entry must be updated manually, but there is currently no good way (IMHO) to automatically maintain a list of locations by address anyway. Please let me know what you think. If this format is found acceptable, perhaps it should be listed as a BhamWiki policy? I'm willing to assist the effort of converting existing entries sorted by address. --Lkseitz 07:33, 28 August 2006 (PDT)

• In general, I don't see any benefit to an alphabetically ordered category. If you know what you're looking for, you just use the search box, and the alphabet doesn't add any useful information. It's sort of like creating a "List of tall buildings by the first letter of the building's current name" -- It would be deleted because its not encyclopedic. So I would prefer that the category page give you some type of useful information, which seems to go against the grain. The best argument against my preference is, as you note, the limitations of the software. So as long as we don't lose any information (re-sort categories only when a list exists and update the list), I would support your proposal. --Dystopos 08:20, 28 August 2006 (PDT)