Template talk:Hidden category

Problems

Anyone has a clue why the template isn't working? See CERN for example, both Category:Articles with unsourced statements since August 2007 and Category:Articles with unsourced statements since November 2007 appear, while Category:All articles with unsourced statements does not. That's odd. --Conti|✉ 02:54, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

For a while, the __HIDDENCAT__ code was commented out, either as a mistake or because the person who added the "<!-- ... -->" code wanted to disable it. That same editor, Vivio Testarossa, also nominated the template for deletion. It should work fine now, though. If not, try bypassing your browser's cache. szyslak 07:21, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Seems to work now. Yay. :) --Conti|✉ 13:57, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Message appearing twice on hidden categories that are subcategories of other hidden categories

See Category:Wikipedia articles needing style editing from September 2006 for an example. I think that the message about the category being hidden appears twice because the category itself is hidden, and it is a subcategory of a hidden category. Can anything be done about this?--Danaman5 (talk) 06:56, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

This should all be fixed. I suspect the only problem will occur with resurrected categories. Rich Farmbrough, 21:19 11 March 2008 (GMT).

I GirlM59 (talk) 08:20, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

2600:6C5E:2AF0:CE60:FC69:E6DB:3086:7448 (talk) 05:13, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia namespace

This should not apply to Wikipedia namespace, where all or some categories will likely be hidden, thus creating an impression of uncategorized (or not fully categorized) articles.--_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 19:34, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Usage

I've added pointers in the Template:Hiddencat/documentation to the discussions that I could find. Please clarify if you can, what the current recommended usage is, or where discussions are happening. -- Quiddity (talk) 03:01, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Category members

Recursive categories all using this template shouldn't be hidden such as the case is with Category:Musical groups with year of establishment missing → Category:Organizations with year of establishment missing → Category:Year of establishment missing. __meco (talk) 19:45, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

User preference link

I think it is broken. emijrp (talk) 09:39, 28 April 2012 (UTC)

The user preference link should link to this:

• Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering

That is the user preference link given here too:

• Category:Hidden categories --Timeshifter (talk) 00:51, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

 Done Seems to work fine. Skier Dude (talk) 02:03, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! --Timeshifter (talk) 03:38, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 18 August 2014

Please replace with

__HIDDENCAT__{{Cmbox |type=notice |textstyle=text-align:center; |text=This category is [[:Category:Hidden categories|not shown]] on its member pages unless the appropriate [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering|user preference]] is set.}}<noinclude>{{Documentation}}</noinclude>

for the sake of compactness and to remove the surplus comma. Sardanaphalus (talk) 11:05, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Not done: "for the sake of compactness" is not a good reason to strip out all the spaces and newlines. The comma is not surplus either: it is valid English grammar. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:32, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

• In this instance, "for the sake of compactness" isn't a bad reason to place the template code on one line.
  What's invalid about "This category is not shown on its member pages unless the appropriate user preference is set."?
  Sardanaphalus (talk) 18:13, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

intend to remove comma

I intend to remove the comma in

This category is not shown on its member pages, unless the appropriate user preference is set.

so that it reads

This category is not shown on its member pages unless the appropriate user preference is set.

I think it's a pretty obvious grammar improvement but since it's a fully protected template and there's no rush, I'll mention it a couple days before I do it. Jason Quinn (talk) 17:49, 21 June 2015 (UTC)

 Done Jason Quinn (talk) 20:29, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 26 June 2020

Please change the link from Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering to Special:Preferences#mw-input-wpshowhiddencats, as the later links directly to the preference. --Pokechu22 (talk) 18:39, 26 June 2020 (UTC)

 Done * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 01:53, 27 June 2020 (UTC)

Moving (Appearance → Show hidden categories)

It currently shows as:

This category is not shown on its member pages unless the appropriate user preference (Appearance → Show hidden categories) is set.

I would like to change the way it reads, as the (Appearance → Show hidden categories) disturbs the reading flow mid sentence, and isn't necessary for most people. Instead I suggest placing (Appearance → Show hidden categories) at the end in smaller font:

This category is not shown on its member pages unless the appropriate user preference is set. (Appearance → Show hidden categories)

… Kind regards, ✍️ Rodejong ⁝ 💬talk ⁝  09:40, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

I've put Rodejong's version in the sandbox: Special:Diff/1289164681/1332359986.

I don't mind wrapping in <small>...</small> and parentheses. Another alternative would be using a colon: "the appropriate user preference is set: Appearance → Show hidden categories."

It might be helpful to use a different bit of the text in the link: "the appropriate user preference is set: Appearance → Show hidden categories." – Special:Diff/1289164681/1332364823. —⁠andrybak (talk) 12:57, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

I like that even better. Thank you for thinking along. … Kind regards, ✍️ Rodejong ⁝ 💬talk ⁝  15:34, 11 January 2026 (UTC)