Why can't I delete default categories?

[immotus]

Even with global protection turned off I cannot delete EMPTY default categories. Is this intended? I also can't delete copies I have made of default categories. I wouldn't consider this to be desirable behavior.

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by immotus

Even with global protection turned off I cannot delete EMPTY default categories. Is this intended? I also can't delete copies I have made of default categories. I wouldn't consider this to be desirable behavior.

If you've turned off protection, and you can't even delete copies, you should submit a bug report. Mind you, this is a three-day weekend, so you might not get a response until Tuesday or Wednesday, but that aside, I've always found the staff to be very responsive and helpful with bug reports.

[EightBitz]

Also, you might want to reconsider copying and deleting. Each person is different, but I'm one of those people who doesn't like messing with default database structures unless I have no other way to do what I want.

I'm working on a Mouse Guard realm where I wanted a Community topic with sections as listed in the book. At first, I figured I'd turn off protection and edit the category. But then, I thought better. I created a Community, added custom sections and reordered a couple of existing sections to reflect the structure I wanted. I'm keeping that as a blank template, and whenever I want a new town, I duplicate that topic.

[EightBitz]

Just to be clear, the advantage of NOT messing with the default database structure is that if the publisher of your game system ever releases official content, you'll have the option of purchasing it and incorporating it into your existing realm. You won't have to worry about incompatible database structures.

On the other hand, if you ever want to sell content to other Realm Works users, you won't have to worry about your content being incompatible with their database structures.

This is why the default categories are protected, and this is why LWD recommends not changing them.

[Parody]

Have you made any Topics/Articles that use the copy of a category? You can't delete a category that has existing Topics/Articles. You should be able to delete the Category after deleting or reassigning anything that uses it.

For my Paranoia adventures realm, I've been hiding most of the global categories of both types and creating versions that better fit my needs. (Most of them started as duplicates of existing categories.)

[Acenoid]

Those categories will anyways be added whenever you import content later on that uses those categories. Just uncheck the box "show category" and then it will no longer show up.

[immotus]

No, it was not referenced by any other topic or article. It was just an empty copy of an empty category. And, I don't really want it hidden I want it gone ... if you just keep sweeping dirt under the rug there is still dirt under the rug and EVENTUALLY it will come back bite you.

[Destrin]

You can't ever delete the built in categories - I also find this incredibly annoying as the default categories don't really work for me. The best you can do is rename them and hide them - it's messy but currently it's the only option