Categories – how many?

  • sutta43 · Member ·

    I´m writing about writing and everything that has anything to do with writing in my blog. I have several categories (short stories, book review, my diary and so on… ) But the biggest category I have is writing. That includes pretty much all; writing exercises, my thought about people (characters), ideas I have about writing, questions I´m asking myself about writing…

    Is it good or bad idea to have all this topics under one single category? Have many categories can I have without doing it to a messy blog? Do you think I should have more categories such as writing exercises, characters, writing process and so on?

    Thanks for your time,
    Maggie

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • thesacredpath · Member ·

    I think you can definitely add more categories to better organize your writing category. You can set them as children of the main writing category and then in the category widget, make sure and click the “show hierarchy” button so that it will organize the children under the parent category.

    I wouldn’t worry about the number too much and the fact that you are asking about this means that you are cognizant of the possibility of having too many and will probably pull in the reins before that happens.

  • raincoaster · Member ·

    Having a focused blog pretty much prevents the “too many categories” conundrum. I apparently have over three hundred, but that’s after six years of blogging on everything from revolution to Hello Kitty.

  • thesacredpath · Member ·

    And don’t forget the Fairies.

  • raincoaster · Member ·

    Fairies are hit monsters. I’m still getting comments on those posts.

  • sutta43 · Member ·

    thesacredpath,

    I did what you suggested – I now have started to have a hierarchy among my categories. But the category tree is open, it shows everything at once. Won´t that look messy? The more I have the more messy? Or is there a way to close it and make it possible for people to open it only when the want?

    Thanks

    Maggie

  • raincoaster · Member ·

    You should be able to set that under the Category widget options. Open up the widget in the Appearance->Widgets page and see.

  • sutta43 · Member ·

    thesacredpath and raincoaster,

    I did a drop down of it.. .is that ok? Would be happy if you could take a look and tell me how you feel about it as a visit of my blog.

    Thanks

    Maggie

  • raincoaster · Member ·

    Drop-downs are popular, and it looks fine. But it will get fewer clicks than all those categories laid out and obvious. Not a drastic difference, but perhaps some.

  • sutta43 · Member ·

    Ok, thanks for that raincoaster. I changed it back and did some moderations and now Im happy.

    Maggie

  • windwhistle · Member ·

    I’m using the category hierarchy as an index on my site. It’s big (1200+ posts), with a lot of subcategories, but that’s the price I pay for a blog that addresses anything and everything. I’m trying to phase out tags, which can’t be organized in any meaningful way. Best to make your decision/commitment early on, because the tag-to-category conversion is cumbersome and problematic.

  • raincoaster · Member ·

    Seconded. It shouldn’t be, but it is, especially if you have hierarchical categories.

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