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[[quoteright:271:[[Webcomic/{{xkcd}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lumpers_and_splitters.png]]]]

->''"It is good to have hair-splitters and lumpers."''
-->-- '''[[http://books.google.com/books?id=gHYTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA105 Charles Darwin]]'''

When faced with five subtly different things, would you rather see one page with a general description of all five, or five pages precisely describing one entry each? If the first, you're a Lumper. If the second, you're a Splitter.

For example: A Splitter is someone who thinks that this page should not exist. There should be separate pages for "Lumper" and "Splitter".

A lumper also wants to get rid of this page, but by merging it with a bunch of other pages to create a new page called "Common Wiki Wars".

The way Tropers handle this deep philosophical divide is for splitters to write finely-distinct entries and for lumpers to write overview entries that list the "splits". We call those lumper pieces "indexes" or {{Super Trope}}s, and each of the splits is a SubTrope.

Website/TheOtherWiki would not appreciate this. [[TheWorldIsNotReady We must never tell them]]. The Other Wiki calls these "[[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mergism mergist]]" and "[[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Separatism separatist]]" Which, you will note, is a split.
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