Isn't this joke getting old?: Describe Topic Here

If you create a new trope, the default text of the edit box is "Describe <tropename> here."

There are quite a number of trope pages of which the actual text starts with "Describe <tropename> here", and follow it up with some joke like "Well, I'm not going to, because <some reason>". For example, "Describe Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action here. ...Do I have to? Oh, all right.", which is indeed on that page.

Isn't that joke getting old and a bit too meta anyway? Should we do something about this?

Changed the tag so it points at a real page.

This is actually one of the meta jokes on the wiki that doesn't bother me on some level. Although I do think a case could be made that some of them are pretty much Word Cruft.

There aren't that many of these, anyway. And some of them actually make perfect sense in context. The Bioshock page, for example, starts with "Would you kindly describe Bioshock here?" People who don't know the spoiler don't think there's anything odd about it, and people who do think its clever. Most of them are in that vein.

I find those are good middle grounds of making at least some of the topic self demonstrating, without making the whole description confusing.

Actually, if you create a new trope, the text on it is "Click the edit button to start this new page."

^ And the edit box itself is completely empty.

I see no reason to try to purge these from the wiki. The ones that attracted negative attention were removed long ago, the rest are still there because most of the people who see them either actively like them or aren't really bothered by them. Let them alone.

edited 19th Jun '11 2:18:33 PM by Madrugada