Commons:Categories for discussion/2022/11/Category:Toboggan slides
Is Category:Toboggan slides redundant with Category:Snow slides? If so, which is a better term? -- Themightyquill (talk) 10:15, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
- Splitting versus lumping? It's a time old question when creating categories.
Category:Sledding tracks has the following text, which offers some guidance on how that editor saw this situation.
English: Constructed tracks and slides for downhill winter sledding/tobogganing. For natural slopes used for sledding/tobogganing, see Category:Sledging hills.
- It also adds the question of regarding #Category:Toboggan slides #Category:Snow slides #Category:Sledding tracks #Category:Sledging hills. I'd say that Sledging hills is the overall category. Then sub-categories of Sledding tracks, Snow slides and Toboggan slides. It would appear that Sledding tracks and Toboggan slides may be the same, i.e., developed tracks. Toboggan slides in the U.S. are chutes built to fix the width of a toboggan. A Sledding track, assuming it's a constructed track (see above), could be a cleared hill (often in designed sledding areas) or it could be more specific in that it's contoured to create chutes or it's actually framed by wood or masonry to create chutes. I don't know the attempt, but would think that it may be layered, 1) Sledding hills with 2a) Sledding tracks and 2b) Snow slides. Then placing 3) Toboggan slides under Sledding tracks. Too layered, I'd just have three sub-categories. Chris Light (talk) 20:55, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
- I would not eliminate Toboggan slides in favor of the more generic sledding tracks. Mostly because in my 40+ years of sledding, I went to sledding hills or toboggan runs (slides). Snow slides and Sledding tracks were no terms used in the numerous communities in the US where I've lived. I'll accept that they are terms used in other parts of the US or the world. Therefore: I would suggest either redirects to which ever terms are generally preferred or just using all references in some form of linkage. The splitting may be redundant, but this is not an area of academic study to have fixed definitions. How are the users going to search? We can (I won't) check Wikipedia to see what articles are titled for this topic. Chris Light (talk) 20:55, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
- I'm not sure what the best move would be, but I'll just add that one can easily see from the Canadian images, a lot of toboggan slides use ice rather than snow for the sliding surfaces. A true *snow* slide would not be as durable. Maybe it's my Canadian roots, but the term I know and recommend is toboggan run, not slide, as in https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/toboggan-run#:~:text=toboggan%20run%20in%20British%20English,slide%20down%20on%20a%20toboggan Shawn à Montréal (talk) 14:37, 29 December 2024 (UTC)