Category talk:Hidden categories

official uses

(Title added to make this into a proper topic/section. Nick Levinson (talk) 17:49, 20 November 2013 (UTC))

So, what are these offically used for? 84.13.214.118 (talk) 20:23, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Maintenance categories, i.e. those which describe the present state of the article (articles needing cleanup, articles needing references, etc.) rather than classifying the subject of the article. See WP:CAT. Stub categories are not hidden (since no agreement was reached on whether and how they should be). --Kotniski (talk) 07:25, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Why does it say they don't appear on member pages?

I can see the hidden categories perfectly clearly, right below the regular categories. Does it have something to do with what browser is used? I'm using Opera Mini. 195.189.143.222 (talk) 06:13, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Don't know. On what page are you seeing the hidden categories?--Kotniski (talk) 10:03, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

All the ones that have hidden categories. Like, I was just looking at Humphrey Lyttelton, and it has the categories at the bottom, and below that it has the hidden category Current events as of April 2008. Right under the box that says categories, there's another one that says hidden categories. I've noticed it on other pages, but can't remember which. I'm not complaining, just confused. 195.189.143.222 (talk) 10:42, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

No, I think you're right, it must depend on the browser. In IE I'm not seeing the hidden categories (although they do appear in the HTML source for the page).--Kotniski (talk) 11:09, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Hidden category categories

Some hidden categories, such as Category:Parent categories will only ever be used on categories and never on articles. Looking at the category pages on which these hidden categories are placed, the reader can always see them--they are are just listed as 'hidden'. Well, they are not hidden because the hidden category system only works on articles, not categories. So what is the point of labeling such categories as 'hidden'? Hmains (talk) 20:49, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Hidden categories question

Cross-posting: Wikipedia_talk:Categorization#Hidden_categories_question. 98.118.117.123 (talk) 00:49, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Circular cat

This category contains itself, so it appears on the Wikipedia:Database reports/Self-categorized categories report. Can the circular reference be removed, or would that cause something to break? —EncMstr (talk) 20:20, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Hidden categories are automatically added to their member pages, they cannot be manually added or removed.2Awwsome (talk) 19:48, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

inheritance by subcats

The category says, "the subcategories of this category are hidden categories." However, an editor said, "being hidden is not inherited." Is this category's claim that "the subcategories of this category are hidden categories" a claim about automatic inheritance or simply that it just so happens that by coincidence the particular 12,000+ subcategories we see in this category are also hidden, each one separately? The category statement should be corrected or clarified, but I don't know which or how. Could someone please edit? Thanks. Nick Levinson (talk) 17:59, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Where it says "the subcategories of this category are hidden categories", that refers to first-level subcategories, not subcategories at deeper levels.

The use of the __HIDDENCAT__ magic word on a category page does two things: (i) it makes the category into a hidden category; (ii) it places the category int Category:Hidden categories. Merely adding [[Category:Hidden categories]] to a category page does not make the category hidden; and if a category is in Category:Hidden categories, any subcategories that it has are only hidden if they themselves have __HIDDENCAT__.

As an example, see Harald Eiriksson. That is in Category:Earls of Orkney Category:12th-century people Category:Orkney stubs none of which are hidden. However, Category:12th-century people is a subcategory of Category:Categories requiring diffusion, which is a hidden category; therefore the "hidden" property of Category:Categories requiring diffusion is not inherited by Category:12th-century people. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:02, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

I've clarified the top of the category page. Thanks for the explanation. Nick Levinson (talk) 21:33, 30 November 2013 (UTC) (Replaced the link to be more specific: 21:38, 30 November 2013 (UTC)) (Made the URL protocol-relative: 21:43, 30 November 2013 (UTC))

Why there are some categories that are categorized as hidden, that doesn't have a "hiddencat" in its text field?

For example this page, Category:Commons_category_with_local_link_same_as_on_Wikidata. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Blackwindy (talk • contribs) 23:45, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

@Blackwindy: This is the same question that I answered at User talk:Redrose64#Why there are some categories that are categorized as hidden, that doesn't have a "hiddencat" in its text field? --Redrose64 (talk) 07:53, 16 May 2014 (UTC)