Line of dialog title [What year is it?]: Ptitle2f4agitl

It is not a pet peeve. I gave good reasons why we should avoid dialog as title. And it is not about a stock phrase. It is about the many different lines that might be said in order for a character to find out "when" they are.

edited 28th Jun '11 12:07:46 PM by FastEddie

What should we name the Stock Phrases tropes if the fact that it sounds like a line of dialogue means we shouldn't use the phrase itself?

Looks like I ninja'd you. This isn't just a stock phrase. It is about the characters needing to establish where they are in time.

That's a trope. A line of dialog is just how the trope manifests.

edited 28th Jun '11 12:10:13 PM by FastEddie

There are variations of this.

• What time period is this?
• What century is this?
• What day is this?

Etc but its always the same way "What Year Is It?" is just the most straightforward one.

As currently written, the article is about the stock phrase "What year is it?". The article mentions Newspaper Dating as an alternative way to figure out what year it is, not as a subtrope.

Well it shouldn't be. Finding examples instances of a line is just cliche-hunting, not trope finding. Name the trope, don't parrot the line.

I suppose one or two of the Stock Phrases could be saved, but the majority of them are just cliche hunting.

Eddie, you're describing the trope as broader than it is again. You're right that we should have a general trope for "finding out when in time you are", but this trope is about asking a local directly, and the odd way that such a strange question is generally answered seriously. That is something distinct enough and that happens often enough that it is a solid subtrope of what you're thinking of. What Year Is This? is the most common way this is asked, and it makes an absolutely perfect name for this trope.

The supertrope should definitely be put through YKTTW and launched though.

What I am saying is that collections of specific lines are not what the wiki is for.

Collecting lines is just cliche hunting. Furthermore, it is harmful in that we miss documenting a trope because we are missing why the line was used, which is the true trope.

edited 28th Jun '11 4:01:50 PM by FastEddie

Are we reading the same article? I'd say it describes why the line is used just fine, if not in excessive detail.

So name it for why the line is used. Tropes. We are about tropes. Not lines.

See, I might agree with you there, except, when is the eponymous question ever used without the trope occurring? If this were a real problem, I'd expect to see actual bad examples showing up.

Use it as a noun in a sentence, please.

A separate thread has been made for the issue of stock phrases in general.

Cool. This thread can't be resolved until that discussion is resolved, so let's park it, shall we?