Category talk:Scientific societies

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[edit] Category confusion

Is there any reason that all the Category:disciplineName organizations categories go here instead of under Category:Scientific organizations? Seems like in half the scientific disciplines the organization category goes under Category:Scientific organizations and half under Category:Scientific societies.

If no one objects, I'm going to change the category for the discipline organizations categories to Category:Scientific organizations. --Jackhorkheimer 23:24, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree it's a bit confusing and may not work as a practical matter. However, there's a technical difference b/w the various "societies" and other types of organizations; societies are a subcat of organizations. Other orgs would include labs, research institutes, advocacy/lobbying organizations, scientific regulatory bodies, scientific standard-setting bodies, and so on. The scientific societies would be the groups of scientists for purposes of furthering scientific discourse, by hosting meetings, sponsoring a journal, and otherwise facilitating scientific society. ... I guess, I would say, it might be worth it to clean up the categories, and then watch them for a while and see if they maintain themselves in a reasonable way. If not, then that suggests that people don't really use that technical distinction and maybe we shouldn't bother keeping it. I don't feel strongly either way, though. What do you think? --lquilter 22:09, 11 January 2007 (UTC)