Was this handled correctly?: Self Explanatory

It redirects to Not Self Explanatory. I know the point was that it was being misused as a pothole in X Just X examples, but I don't think this was the right way to fix it. (Nobody's going to see that it redirects to Not Self Explanatory if they don't click it, after all.)

Checking a handful of the 67 wicks, I see a few distinct uses:

• The same misuse that prompted the redirection ([Angels And Demons] Eye Scream: In the novel, the safe to get the antimatter requiring retina scans. You can guess what happened next.)
  • Occasionally, proceeding to explain the thing anyway ([Animated Music Video] This one is very nearly Self Explanatory: a surprising number of musicians have managed to see past the Animation Age Ghetto, and released music videos composed mostly or entirely of animation.)
• Synonymous with Exactly What It Says on the Tin ([Exactly What It Says on the Tin] Buffy The Vampire Slayer is about a girl named Buffy who, well...if you don't know, call somebody.)
• Informing people that things are Not Self Explanatory ([Culture Chop Suey] Since the distinction between the cultures is the point, and no example is Self Explanatory, when citing an example, please mention what real world cultures that the fictional one is based on.)
• And, on very rare occasions, something that actually is self explanatory, at least in that context ([Eleventy Zillion] Zillion-Dollar Bill - Self Explanatory.)

So, uh... I don't actually know what to do with this.

Well, to go in order:

Point one is the reason why Self Explanatory redirects to Not Self Explanatory. Eye retina scans exist and work all the time without invoking the Eye Scream trope. It's not self-explanatory at all. It also doesn't explain what exactly was happening in the scene (Was someone clumsy? Did someone mess with the scanner? Was someone incapable of using an eye scanner correctly?).

Point two requires cleanup and change to Exactly What It Says on the Tin - and considering that is one of the Tropes Of Legend and has a perfectly clear name (appropriately enough), there's no excuse for making that error.

Point three is proper usage.

Point four is the same as point two - those require an appropriate fix to Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

The proper reaction would be to either clarify type one situations or remove them, cleanup type two and four to be Exactly What It Says on the Tin, and let type three continue as they were.

Redirecting "Self Explanatory" to "Not Self Explanatory" is like redirecting "Our Father" to Satan instead of God. There may be a reason for it, but the end result is completely counter-intuitive.

Counter-intuitive being a proven misuse magnet in some cases.

edited 17th Aug '11 11:11:42 AM by Stratadrake

Perma-redlink Self Explanatory but have it still redirecting to Not Self Explanatory, the same way we did with, say, No. Just... No (redirects to "No. Just… No" Reaction)?