Okay,
Here's my final solution to having content available in empty categories for those that need it:

First, put the following code at the top of your category.html. It won't show on the page so don't worry about it messing up your formatting:

<%set Link_Counter = 0%>
<%loop links_loop%>
<%set Link_Counter += 1%>
<%endloop%>

This will do an actual count of links within your empty subcategory, not the entire directory structure.

Next, in place of the <%links%> on your category.html put the following:

<%if Link_Counter eq 0%>
<p>Currently there are no articles for this category. We have randomly selected a few articles for you to review. If you would like to submit an article, please go to "<a href="/cgi-bin/add.cgi">Add An Article</a>" and login.</p>

<p><%randomlink%></p><p><%randomlink%></p><p><%randomlink%></p>

<%else%>
<%links%>
<%endif%>

Replace the random global with a top ten global or with whatever you need to be displayed.

To keep from making the same stupid mistake I made earlier, refer to the stupid mistake above

Hope it helps..

</not a clue>