Misuse and Overuse: Wham Line

People can't seem to read the description for this page. I cleaned up several lines that clearly didn't qualify, but there's probably more in the mediums that I'm not as familiar with. Most of the offenders seem to be based on the logic that the trope means "a line that's said during a Wham Episode", or a line that "caps off" a Wham Episode.

Okay, can you do a wicks check first?

I was mostly talking about the page itself, but alright. It's on 491 different pages.

The main problem is that a lot of the examples are just plain quotes. But context, however, is critical with this trope.

No, the main problem is exactly what Mr. Death said, that people are putting tons of stuff there that is actually just a quote that accompanies a Wham Moment. But a Big Bad that just shot the Love Interest in the head an then taunts the hero about it is not saying a Wham Line. The "Wham" in this case would be the action itself, while a Wham Line is about the information that it reveals. And while there is a Grey area, actions that are being revealed to an unknowing audience for example, there are a lot of false examples on the page.

I do think however, that it would be enough if we just rigorously cut down these false examples and put the explanation in bold letters on the top.

edited 21st Jun '11 7:35:29 AM by eX

My instinct is to expand it into Wham Moment. Wham Line seems Too Specific, whereas Wham Moment could conceivably be splittable from Wham Episode (though Wham Episode might need to become Episode Of Whams to remain useful), and I don't think would have the same problems Wham Line is having.

But both Wham Line and Wham Episode seem to be used too much for that to ever happen.

edited 23rd Jun '11 1:53:59 PM by MorganWick

Ok...urgh, who de-spoilered everything again...?

edited 5th Jul '11 2:58:26 AM by dRoy

Same one who did Wham Episode, I assume. Check the edit history and PM him.

Well, I asked him and did it in the most formal and polite way I could say it. I'll just have to wait and see.

I think this is a trope that is pure natter-bait. I feel an example sectionectomy is the way to go if we keep it. If we keep examples then it needs to be spoilers visible though. It's a trope that depends on spoilers being given to have an effect and explanation.

edited 5th Jul '11 4:54:38 AM by CrypticMirror

We have this warning atop of the page. i say we treat it exactly the same way we treat Death Tropes, spoilers are simply unavoidable here and if we only spoiler certain things, it will lead to a incredible inconsistent page layout.

^

Honestly, there really isn't much natter. A few questionable examples, yes, but surprisingly little conversation.

edited 5th Jul '11 6:19:38 AM by eX

There's a difference between "there will be more unmarked spoilers ahead," and "some jackass removed every single spoiler tag." I'd like to be able to look through these examples without having to dodge through shows I don't want spoiled. People can turn off spoiler tags in their profile if they don't like them that much.

if you don't want to be spoiled, don't read spoiler-tropes. simplez

There's a difference between just hiding the really big stuff with spoilers and clear texting the whole page. People who have spoilers on have them on for a reason. It also encourages people to clear text large spoilers elsewhere because it's in the clear on that page.

Shima, can you rephrase that? Maybe its just me, but I can't parse which side of the debate you're coming down on.

Either way, I'm not saying spoiler tag huge chunks of text, I'm saying that unspoilering EVERYTHING is just the opposite problem.

Why the latter is wrong is because that means spoilers that don't directly relate to the wham line gets unspoiled too? For example, a name?

I talked to the guy who was responsible for de-spoilering. To summarize, he said "No white page." He also said if I have a problem with that, take it to the admins. Yeah, I would have, except I just felt more need to stop the policy's mindless enforcer.

I simply came to conclusion that he's just Lawful Stupid.

What's going to happen is that everyone will acknowledge that only "bigger" spoilers should be hidden, but for every moment there will be some fan who claims it's a "bigger" spoiler and needs to be behind the font. If you edit a page, or check histories, you're going to see spoilers; if you don't want to see spoilers, and you can't ignore them, you shouldn't be going through examples on pages like this.

Like I said, I'd recommend you take it up with the admins rather than just ignoring policy behind their back because you don't like it and insulting everyone who won't play along.

On an unrelated note, I think we should drop the Real Life section entirely, since this is supposed to be from the perspective of the audience, and Real Life has no audience per se.

edited 5th Jul '11 4:00:55 PM by TwinBird

I did just that. I just did it more formally for the sake of personal encounter.

You haven't read my reply, did you?

I had; I hadn't noticed the pothole at first, and you said nothing about going to them formally.

I just said that I was being more civil in my message.

Bumped. Come on, this is a really spoilerific page, let's get this over with.

I don't want to do anything until I've heard from a mod. If I were to take any action now, it would still be to remove all spoiler font.

Also, does anyone think we should have context hottips, similar to those on Memetic Mutation? For it to be a Wham Line, you need at least a little context, even if it's just who the speaking characters are, but putting too much emphasis on context goes back to the original problem.

edited 7th Jul '11 10:37:01 AM by TwinBird

That might work.

Yeah, adding context could help.