I think categories display alphabetically, so you could change the order by adding numbers before the category names.

1. North
2. West , etc.

You could keep a category link from displaying by editing the _categories.php file in your skins folder. An easier way might be to put those posts in a second blog and display. You can find the code you need in the multiblogs.php file that came with b2evolution. If you do it this way, then you don't have to worry about keeping these posts from showing up in the main area, or getting just this category to show in the sidebar. And you won't have this category link show up in the sidebar, either.

http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=2806&amp; <-- turning off category listing for a certain blog number

http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=3262 <-- Changing the order of category list

http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?p=15782 <-- hiding categories (I tried this, but was unable to get it to work ... maybe if you PM isaac, he can help?)

Recommendation:

For category listing, it seems you have two options ... neither of which are ideal. One - Play with cat_ID numbers (either thru the back office or via phpMyAdmin) and display categories by cat_ID number. Two - Play with alphabetical cat names (or numbers, like personman suggests) and leave the display alphabetical.

For hiding categories ... based on what you say, I'd suggest creating a new blog for those "hidden" categories, hide the blog from listing its categories and use multiblog to display hidden blog entries only, on your page, where you want them.

Hope this helps.

-stk :D