Category talk:Dioceses in Ireland

Latest comment: 13 years ago by BrownHairedGirl in topic Scope of category: description.
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Scope of category: description. edit

The description used to read, "Christian dioceses in the island of Ireland with an Episcopal polity. Includes both current dioceses as well as former entities that have since been subsumed by other entities.". User BHG has changed this to read, "Dioceses in the island of Ireland." on the grounds that the former is too verbose. I disagree because many readers might expect to find the third main Christian church in Ireland - the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. It is excluded however, because it does not have a diocesan structure per se. Only churches with an Episcopal polity have a diocesan structure. User BHG also thinks that it is obvious that the category would contain defunct / former dioceses. This is not obvious in my opinion, as many CoI dioceses have names that look like they may be current but are in fact fomer entities. Again, the original description prepares the reder for this possible surprise. I think that the original description should be restored. Laurel Lodged (talk) 15:58, 2 January 2011 (UTC)Reply

Why would a reader expect to find dioceses for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland which does not have dioceses and has never had dioceses? The disclaimer is simply stating the obvious: there is a long list of christian denominations which do not have dioceses, but no need to list any of them.
As to the former dioceses, it is standard practice in wikipedia categorisation to include current and former entities in any given category, and splits of categories into current and former are often deleted at CFD. There is no need to state the default in every case, and doing so may actually mislead readers about what the norm is.
Categories are a navigational device, not a form of substantive content. It is indeed good practice to add a short descriptor to a category, but the longer it is, the less likely it is to be read. Removing un-needed verbosity assists navigation. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 21:14, 2 January 2011 (UTC)Reply