Am I correct that a topic can only be assigned to a single category? At times it could be helpful to be able to assign a single topic to multiple categories. For example in a gardening forum a discussion could be relevant to both a plant type category (eg. conifers) and a location type (coastal gardens). Ideally the discussion topic should be present and refresh in both categories.
Are there any workarounds that address this situation? I have considered tagging the topic with the ‘other’ category but this could get confusing and doesn’t provide the same search functionality (as i understand it)
Any prospects of this feature in the nearish future?
yea, the problem i have is that my categories are more like a matrix than a tree. the categorisation approach requires me to select only one of the relevant dimensions to identify.
if i used tagging, in the example i gave does that mean i would create tags corresponding to each of my categories and then post topic to one category eg. conifers and tag to the other ‘dimension’ eg coastal gardens?
would somebody interested in coastal gardens need to follow both the coastal gardens category and the coastal gardens tag in order to see all relevant topics? if someone searched coastal gardens would they see all topics that are in the category and tagged to that?
@codinghorror yes, i have read the various discussions on the site about the relative merits of categories vs tagging and agree with the direction that you have been pushing. SO currently has about 1200 tags which means practically search is the only way to navigate. the discourse approach of categorisation plus tags is much more efficient. also, i agree that too many sub categories can hinder rather than aid navigation.
but my question relates to allowing a topic to not be restricted to a single category for situations where, as in the example, the topic could logically reside in more than one category. tagging is a workaround but doesn’t fully substitute as tags require search, which is what the categories help avoid (and categories are a more subtle way of presenting users with relevant topics compared to having to actively search a tag). i believe a one topic to multiple categories capability would improve the UX without compromising the logic that led you to adopt categories in the first place.
This is a completely impractical change that would cut deep into the internal structures in Discourse. The entire code base is designed around the concept that a topic has at most one category, changing this premise is very very unlikely to happen.
Mr. Saffron I am not doubting your statements regarding restricting a topic to a single category. However I am yet another user (KitMaker Network) that sees advantages to having the ability to list a given topic in more than one category.
I can give examples but I doubt that would be necessary.
However why would it not be as simple as creating an “alias” (yes, I was born of the Mac World) in one’s first post and then pasting that link into one’s first post on the same topic but in another category?
After initial creation, the alias would no longer appear as an alias but simply would immediately link the reader to the original editable first post?
I do this already to some degree as I will start a post in one category, get the topic going and then start an entirely new topic having a similar title/descriptor in another category but then this second topic will only contain the link over to the first topic.
Cannot this function be made simplistic and somewhat automated without upsetting the entirety of the Discourse program at it’s core? Sounds to me (not being a qualified programmer) to entail only the creation/addition of a new sub-routine to the core program itself.
Like adding new pinstripes to your car, without changing out the entire engine and driveline.
Technically you could probably use (abuse) the existing permalink system to do something like this… have not tested, but it may work. (admin → customize → permalink)