Did strikethrough get axed when nobody was looking?

This is upsetting and I disagree with the change, for reasons iterated by many others posting here. Thank you Big T for your post in particular.

Everybody complains about how EVERYTHING is used wrong, including excess CAPS, excess !!!???!?!?!!?!, excess ellipses, xxxxx 'overused tropes', yyyyy 'bad jokes', and every other wrongly or overused thing on this wiki and forum. Somehow the wiki does well regardless of aaaall of them. This seems like it's just adding a bunch of unnecessary work, with the end product being less tools to work with because Tropers Can't Handle It.

ali

edited 24th Mar '11 10:23:20 PM by almyki

"People come to this restaurant despite the fact there is sometimes shit on the floor. Therefore we should shit on the floor more often."

Not actually good reasoning.

^However, "People don't like the shit on the floor, so we should remove all toilets from the building (because people don't want to eat in a restaurant that has shit in it)" is also not necessarily very good reasoning either.

The correct solution would be to remove the improper uses of the markup. It's not a problem with the technology, the problem lies with the editors who add new information without completely removing the incorrect information that they were contradicting. With strikethrough removed, they'll probably switch back to "Well, actually..."-type edits, because the "leave the old information there" mentality is still present in their minds.

I've lost several hours of my life removing incorrect uses of the markup. I'm delighted that it's gone, because I have better things to do with my time.

"It's not a problem because other people who are not me will take the time to fix it" isn't good reasoning either.

I frankly disagree with this decision. Not because I particularly care about strikethrough jokes and "fixing" mistakes (I rather hate that, really), or even being able to use strikethrough at all, but because it doesn't really solve anything. There's been a dozen suggestions on alternatives to be used in this thread, mostly for legitimate uses, but I'd still be surprised if they don't start springing up to replace the negative behavior, too.

Fundamentally, I guess I think that this a cop out. The removal of features shouldn't be used as a substitute for actual moderation. If people are misusing something, they should be reprimanded personally. Remove the edits, send a warning to the editor that it's bad wiki work, and if they keep doing it, they get banned. ...wait. I don't really pay attention to the wiki much, but is the closest thing to a reporting edits that new natter-fy button? I guess that's a tangent, though, so I'll ignore that here.

In essence, I think that removing striketext instead of trying to remove the users who misused it is a flawed solution.

I think that I may be starting to see the "we are becoming wikipedia" crowd's point. And that's all that I have to say about that. Any more would be uneccasary whining.

I was already wondering when the "TV Tropes is becoming Wikipedia"-crap begins.

Exuno, I have been deleting strike tag abuse and explaining why it is bad for years now. It hasn't stopped it happening. Please stop volunteering my copious spare time for your stand on principles.

The majority of bad edits are made by drive-throughs who will never return to read a PM or notice that they've been banned. Social enforcement doesn't work on people who aren't and have no intention of being a part of the society.

edited 25th Mar '11 1:48:40 AM by hatless

It's fun for playing around with on the forums, but I see no point for it in the Wiki itself.

Take the Tropers Law cruft elsewhere it is unhelpful and pointless.

Really strike through has limited utility to the wiki and there are a few examples where it is truly useful. Problem is this. Like every other nice thing there is always someone, somewhere who ruins it for everyone else, because they go overboard. I.E. this why we can't have nice things.

Looking at House Of Leaves I can see why Eddie wants it gone. Instead of dancing around what your saying you should get to the point. Witty but concise I believe is the preferred metric for the wiki.

If Eddie is willing enough to bring them back. You folks should make an argument along lines of better policing and way to discourage "clever" use of strike through.

Edit: It is totally fine on the forum. I have a feeling Eddie may have tied fora and wiki strike through together.

Edit for the edit. Meant totally fine for the forum.

edited 25th Mar '11 4:40:32 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Overall I agree with the change; one of my pet peeves is people adding another bullet to correct a fact rather than editing the first line, and the use of strikethroughs is usually an even more annoying version of that. (Not being able to properly quote sources which contain struckthrough material is a drawback, though.)

However, I am a bit worried to see that it was not communicated in any way prior to the making of this thread. Major changes to the wiki going unannounced until someone notices them has been a recurring problem. Aside from being somewhat disrespectful towards the userbase, it also ensures that policies won't be followed. It's good that Fast Eddie remembered to put it on the headlines after seeing this thread, but it's a mistake to rely on it being noticed first, since most often an unannounced formatting change will cause people to assume (not unreasonably) that it's just a glitch.

I was merely communicating my opinion. I did not mean to sound like I was whining.

Also, I was not saying I agree with them, merely that I see their point. There's a difference

But it contributed nothing to the thread, merely stating an irrelevant (in terms of this thread) fact.

My only fear is that all the useful ideas everyone has had here to emulate strikethrough (font color, spoiler text, hottips) can all be used by the people who were misusing strikethroughs to begin with.

Seriously, who's not to say that in four months we're going to start complaining about how many people are misusing hottips or spoiler text to respond not repair? Are we going to get rid of them too?

Or, as people in this thread have so cleverly stated, you can correct people when you see them misusing these things.

I doubt it. Mostly because it would not come as naturally. Striking out incorrect text before adding your own seems like a natural thing to do. Putting incorrect text as a hottip to the correct one? Not so much.

Oh dear. It appears that something is wrong on the internet.

Wanky snark aside, I rather liked the strike-through thing. Whilst I can see how the feature has apparently become more trouble than it's worth and somehow inspired major and inexplicable nerd rage in more than a few of our tropers, striking it from the wiki entirely is something of an overreaction. You can, after all, merely correct the mistaken use*

Also, (as other people have no doubt far more eloquently stated above) even deleting it isn't going to fix the real problem; the real problem is unfixable. This is the internet. We are a wiki. We will, due to our very structure and mode of operation, always have stupid people.

Deleting a markup isn't going to change that.

edited 25th Mar '11 9:27:34 AM by TheMalignancy

Well, yeah, but it's possible to make it harder for stupid people to do stupid things, which is why the markup was removed (presumeably).

Add me as another who is sad to learn that it was removed. Ah well..

Personally I am glad it's gone. It never contributed anything at all to the wiki. It was only used to be snarky. I doubt hottips will be used instead, because those require more work.

It had legitamate uses, but they seem limited compared to the misuse.

Annoyed.

Oh, well. No use crying over spilled milk.

I'm in agreement with the poster immediately above me, but also with Exuno: On the one hand, it seems a bit like tossing the baby out with the bathwater, as they say. But on the other, it's not a big deal in most cases.

edited 25th Mar '11 3:30:41 PM by FarseerLolotea

Can we have it back on the forums, though?