A troper hits upon a concept they think is
universal, which has nevertheless
evaded the wiki's attention until now. So they start a thread on
YKTTW
, with a title and... not much else. "It pretty much explains itself," they say.
Occasionally that title is something like "
Love at First Sight", which can be easily
Wiki Magicked into a good article (assuming the concept doesn't already exist under a
thoroughly confusing name.)
Most of the time, unfortunately, the title is overly vague or completely opaque to everyone but the original poster — anything but Self Explanatory. Sure, we know what theremins are, but how exactly are they a trope? And what the heck are "
Southies?" We're not
idiots, but we're not
mind readers either. If it really is self-explanatory, then you could say it is, but explain it anyway, because
some of us Viewers Are Morons.
The
moral of the story:
Explaining yourself never hurts, and it's the best way to prevent your thread from dying prematurely of confusion.
A corollary of this is that no example is obvious, even if it's from
Neon Genesis Evangelion. No,
especially if it's from
Neon Genesis Evangelion. You should also not make a
Zero Context Example, "
One word: X", or "X. That is all." Even if, for instance, you put your
Axis Powers Hetalia References into Anime & Manga section, most readers, seeing "Russia. Just Russia." will be thinking of a country.
Another corollary is to not assume the exact nature of a trope based on its title alone (especially one that's not
SPOON certified). Read the description before you make any comments or examples.
If you're looking for the trope about
semantically self-explanatory media titles, see
Exactly What It Says on the Tin. See also
Fan Myopia, a big cause of this.