What's the difference between category and section?

[Macsee]

Thanks again, Edwin. So all the articles etc., that I write and forum posts that I promote to the homepage are all going to be in the CMS and if I'm not giving any one else the authority to run their own blog within my site then I don't need to worry about the blog settings?

I think I'm getting it - your pet example helped a lot. Could I bother you for one last thing? The category and section headings seem to be easy to decide on if you're running a movie site or a pet site but would you care to throw out any suggestions - however wild - for sections/categories on a site like mine?

It's good to know there's more documentation coming.

[vivamexico55]

I've been updating my site for a couple weeks, how should I set it up so that articles are archived by month?

Like in wordpress - all the posts for a certain month should go into a category called "January 2010"? Or is there a better way?

[vivamexico55]

I've been updating my site for a couple weeks, how should I set it up so that articles are archived by month?

Like in wordpress - all the posts for a certain month should go into a category called "January 2010"? Or is there a better way?

Friendly bump

[bitterwaitress]

I struggle with this myself. I guess the easiest way to grasp the difference is - as some have seem to have done - is find a clear example in terms or context that mean something to you. My background is restaurants and food. I look at it like a recipe box,menu or a well indexed-cookbook:

Sections:

Appetizers
Entrees
Side Dishes
Desserts

Categories:

Beef (can be app, can be entree, hopefully never a dessert)
Chicken (same thing)
Spinach (appetizer as a salad, side dish)
Cheese (all sections, depending on how it's used)

I imagine you could swap these out for each other (change the categories to sections and vice-versa) but the idea is the same. At least to me, it's a way of allowing for the cross-referencing of content if so desired.

[setishock]

Thanks Ed. The bulb finally came on over my head.

[Edwin Brown]

Thanks again, Edwin. So all the articles etc., that I write and forum posts that I promote to the homepage are all going to be in the CMS and if I'm not giving any one else the authority to run their own blog within my site then I don't need to worry about the blog settings?

I think I'm getting it - your pet example helped a lot. Could I bother you for one last thing? The category and section headings seem to be easy to decide on if you're running a movie site or a pet site but would you care to throw out any suggestions - however wild - for sections/categories on a site like mine?

It's good to know there's more documentation coming.

I hadn't seen your post until today. I'll give it a shot.

One preface... The current category widget displays the data as flat, but it's actually hierarchical and connected to a section. One of these days- Don Kuramura will decide where it goes after the major bugs are all fixed- we'll put out a version that displays the hierarchy, like the current section widget does. It doesn't hurt to think about that now.

Your site seems to be about how to make money online. If I were doing that I would make more use of the section hierarcy. I would have something like

• Planning your business.
  • How big are you planning to get?
  • Where the money is
  • Services or Products
    • Physical Goods
    • Virtual Goods
  • Marketing/Sales Strategies
  • Full or Part time
• Getting started
  • Planning
  • Getting Inventory
  • Establishing a Web Presence
  • Credit cards and Merchant Accounts
• Running Your Business
  • Marketing
  • Fulfillment
  • Collections
  • Customer Service
• Common Problems
  • Cash Flow
  • Competition
  • Legal/Regulatory
• Getting Out
  • Hire a Manager
  • Be Acquired
  • Sell out

The categories for me would be all over the map, anything that makes sense. When we were putting the category structure together we thought of dozens of categories, which is why the current widget doesn't display the hierarchy. You may want thousands.

Success Stories
Common Problems
Chargebacks- they'll kill you
Why they didn't make it
Legal Services
Computer Services
Best in the Northwest
Perishable Items
Buy Wholesale from China
Outsource options
Optimizing Ebay
Selling through Amazon

The thing I would point out is that Sections should be very structured and Categories don't need to be.

[Macsee]

That's very helpful, thanks, Edwin.

[majickal]

I am glad I found this thread, I was struggling to understand this fully too. Pretty sure I understand it now. Off to change some things...