Could use a clean-up, both on the descriptions and the examples: Useful Notes.Alchemy

The examples are a mess, the description is a little cluttered and didn't even bother explaining those "more comprehensible stuff" that it lists. It could also use more detailed explanations for the differences between Western and Eastern alchemy and their methodologies, or the more notable alchemists and their contributions.

Basically, the description lacks detail, and the examples are a mess.

This isn't Wikipedia (and for once, I don't just mean that There Is No Such Thing As Notability). I suspect that further details (and possibly some of the existing details) would fit better on a Useful Notes page, and the current description should be more focused on Alchemy as it appears in popular culture and media.

It is on the Useful Notes index. Maybe we could move its namespace while we're at it.

Yes. Yes we should.

At the very least, the examples should be properly catagorized.

Alright, the examples have been organized into folders. There were some I was unfamiliar with, so if anyone would like to check my work, that would be appreciated.

That looks good, I think.

Also, there's no explanation on what those "more comprehensible stuff" are. I would add things but I'm not really well-versed in the subject.

And, should I move it to the Useful Notes namespace?

Looking over the description, I don't think there's an actual statement anywhere about what alchemy actually is. It just jumps straight into a commentary on how people think of alchemists today, and never really goes back to what, exactly, the alchemists practiced.

A sentence at the beginning like "Alchemy was a sort of proto-science, mostly studied and practiced by pre-Enlightenment thinkers who, lacking a formal education in physics and modern lab equipment, were stuck somewhere in the divide between semi-mystical classic Greek ideas of how elements worked and modern chemistry" would do a lot to improve the description.

Oh wow, I was just about to bump this.

I'm planning to start a YKTTW for Alchemy Is Magical, then probably move this to Useful Notes. But it still needs a cleanup for the description.

YKTTW for Alchemy Is Magic here. I also moved the thing to useful notes, but it still seriously needs a cleanup for the description.

I'll move the examples in. Useful Notes don't have trope examples.

I agree that the current {{Useful Notes:Alchemy}} page does not seem to start well and I also suggest to put a more explanatory page in. Also, the Pot Hole to You Fail Economics Forever should probably go. Gold will become worthless if mass-produced and spent. So any alchemist is still in time to buy a lot of stuff before inflation kicks in. Finally, it might be pointed out that fictional alchemy almost always is like chemistry rather than like nuclear stuff as it should really be without any explanation.

edited 19th Nov '11 2:18:16 PM by SeptimusHeap