This is a brief introduction to the taxonomy, or classification systems on this site.

There are two types of people in the world– those who eagerly develop categories to organize the world of knowledge; and as for the others, they’ll just end up being lumped into one those categories. (and then there’s Duke Ellington, who described himself, and his music as being “beyond category”) Indeed, most of the complaints about classification comes from people who fear the futility of it. But it is done in every endeavor of knowledge, so I’ve used them here. The benefit here is that the users of the site can slice the writing according to particular filters, and then see which is the most useful for them. It allows the publishers of the site to figure out which slices are useful and read, and which aren’t.

On the right are two such vocabularies. At top is Subjects, which breaks down articles into areas that you might see in a library or book store. These should be fairly standard; I may end up syndicating articles on individual subjects to other websites. Under that is Themes, which takes a more conceptual approach. I can illustrate how certain themes are common across different subjects. (Read more about themes).

Also, each page lays out stories in groups by type. This mirrors how magazines group departments to better guide the reader. (Read more about story types)