Category talk:Countries in Africa

RFM discussion: October–November 2017
Right now, some of our place-name related categories have "of" in them, like Category:Provinces of the Netherlands, Category:Countries of Europe, while others have "in", like Category:Cities in the Netherlands, Category:Municipalities in Belgium. It is a little inconsistent which preposition we use, so I propose to standardise it in the following way: This would entail the following renames, among others: —Rua (mew) 13:26, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Use of if the entity represents an administrative entity that would lose its status if the polity that it belongs to were ever to cease to exist. In other words, abstract things that only exist due to the choices of the overarching government, "inalienable" parts.
 * Use in if the entity represents something independent of the polity it is located in, and would continue to exist even if the surrounding polity were to vanish or if it were moved to another polity. This would include natural features and physical entities like cities, but also abstract entities that are not subdivisions, or abstract entities that belong, or could potentially belong, to multiple things.
 * Category:Countries of Europe &rarr; Category:Countries in Europe. Countries aren't subdivisions of continents, but just happen to be in certain continents. Some countries are in multiple continents.
 * Category:Regions of Europe &rarr; Category:Regions in Europe. As above, regions just happen to be in a continent, they are not intrinsic parts of a continent, and can be in multiple continents.
 * Category:Municipalities in Belgium &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Belgium. These are subdivisions that are defined by the central government, and thus intrinsically belong to the country of Belgium.
 * Support. I oppose the existence of categories with language code like "en:" in the first place, but what is proposed here seems to be an improvement over the status quo. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 17:39, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

I've started renaming by bot. This will take some time. Progress (I will update the post as I go): —Rua (mew) 22:25, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Category:Countries of Africa &rarr; Category:Countries in Africa
 * Category:Countries of Asia &rarr; Category:Countries in Asia
 * Category:Countries of Central America &rarr; Category:Countries in Central America
 * Category:Countries of Europe &rarr; Category:Countries in Europe
 * Category:Countries of North America &rarr; Category:Countries in North America
 * Category:Countries of Oceania &rarr; Category:Countries in Oceania
 * Category:Countries of South America &rarr; Category:Countries in South America
 * Category:Regions of the world &rarr; Category:Regions in the world
 * Category:Regions of Africa &rarr; Category:Regions in Africa
 * Category:Regions of Asia &rarr; Category:Regions in Asia
 * Category:Regions of the Americas &rarr; Category:Regions in the Americas
 * Category:Regions of Europe &rarr; Category:Regions in Europe
 * Category:Municipalities in Belgium &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Belgium
 * Category:Municipalities in Brazil &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Brazil (also subcategories by state)
 * Category:Municipalities in Croatia &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Croatia
 * Category:Municipalities in Denmark &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Denmark
 * Category:Municipalities in Finland &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Finland
 * Category:Municipalities in France &rarr; Category:Municipalities of France
 * Category:Municipalities in Greece &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Mexico
 * Category:Municipalities in Norway &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Norway
 * Category:Municipalities in Portugal &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Portugal
 * Category:Municipalities in Spain &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Spain
 * Category:Municipalities in Sweden &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Sweden
 * Category:Municipalities in Ukraine &rarr; Category:Municipalities of Ukraine
 * Category:Special wards in Tokyo &rarr; Category:Special wards of Tokyo, Japan


 * I'm a bit sceptical that future editors will be able to remember to follow this kind of rule. Equinox ◑ 00:06, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
 * It will be better that there is a rule, at least. Before, there wasn't any at all. —Rua (mew) 00:09, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Standardising on "in" I agree with heartily, if the wording is altered in all categories users will get accustomed to it. DonnanZ (talk) 12:24, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Do you mean only using "in" and never using "of" at all? That would be a much bigger change. A lot more categories use "of" than "in". —Rua (mew) 12:44, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Really? I will have to take more notice. But I agree with what you're doing with categories relating to places. Category:Counties of ... is another one. DonnanZ (talk) 12:58, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
 * "Counties of" won't be renamed, because they are administrative subdivisions, like provinces, states etc. Following the rule, they use "of". —Rua (mew) 13:22, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
 * There's some hair-splitting going on here, cities and boroughs can also be administrative subdivisions with fixed boundaries within counties, districts or whatever, which more or less answers your query below. I live in a town within a large London Borough. DonnanZ (talk) 19:15, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

I think that's pretty much all of them now. I'm not sure what to do about Category:Boroughs in Pennsylvania, Category:Boroughs in New York City and Category:Boroughs in the United States of America. I don't know how the political division of the US works. Can someone who does elaborate on what these are? —Rua (mew) 16:22, 9 November 2017 (UTC)