[development] Renaming "taxonomy" terminology? (was Re: Early Drupal 6 review from Chris Messina)

[Earnie Boyd]

Quoting Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com>:

> On Nov 14, 2007 3:26 PM, Anton <anton.list at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 15/11/2007, Derek Wright <drupal at dwwright.net> wrote:
>> >
>> > [snipped good stuff]
>> >
>> > Finally, I agree with the last few comments in this thread that the
>> > biggest usability problem was the (IMHO foolish) decision to say
>> > "taxonomy is too scary, let's inconsistently refer to it as
>> > 'categories' in some places in the UI".
>>
>>
> The key here is "inconsistently" and "some places", not the decision to
> rename in and of itself.
>
> If this was to be consistent, there would not have been an issue.
>
> "Taxonomy" is fine if you audience are computer scientists, or botanists.

This statement is no longer true.  Within the Application section of 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy we find:

<quote>
Originally the term taxonomy referred to the science of classifying 
living organisms (now known as alpha taxonomy); however, the term is 
now applied in a wider, more general sense and now may refer to a 
classification of things, as well as to the principles underlying such 
a classification.
</quote>

So taxonomy fits the "classification of things".  I've found the word 
taxonomy used within the categorization of product items.

> Vocabulary is an overloaded term, and hence confusing.

I agree that vocabulary is confusing and needs to be changed.  There 
have been many suggestions but perhaps taxonomy class would be best.

> If all were renamed
> to unique, clear terms with proper help text all over the UI, there are no
> issues at all.
>

No argument.

Earnie -- http://for-my-kids.com/
-- http://give-me-an-offer.com/