Horribly distasteful trope name: Colon Cancer

Really? We have a trope share its name with that of a form of cancer? I get that we document tropes relating to Black Comedy and all, but for us to have such a disturbing pun in a trope's name itself is going too far. Especially when the trope has nothing to do with black comedy, and the "cancer" pun adds nothing.

I'm not sure what to suggest for an alternate name; Subtitle Within A Subtitle, perhaps? Perhaps that might not be the most precisely descriptive, but we really ought to brainstorm for more tasteful alternatives. It's disturbing that we allowed a trope to get this kind of name in the first place.

"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart

Your complaint strikes me as oversensitive, but I do question where the trope may be confused for actual examples of colon cancer. Is there any evidence of such?

Well, Colon Cancer sounds worse than the trope is. As it stands, just two colons are enough to qualify, so renaming it to Multi Colon Title would work.

Yeah, unwritten rule number one: follow all the unwritten procedures. - Camacan

Its usage count and outside referral figures are admirable enough, in my mind, that a request that a wick check be done first would not seem unreasonable.

edited 1st Jan '12 6:37:18 PM by SeanMurrayI

It does appear to be a healthy trope. We aren't in the habit of renaming healthy tropes unless they're misuse. Do a wik check.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Yeah, a wick check should be done first, although, I, personally, like the name.

Stats:

Colon Cancer found in: 201 articles, excluding discussions.

Since January 1, 2011 this article has brought 634 people to the wiki from non-search engine links.

Alt account of Angeldog 2437.

Meh, "horribly distasteful" is an opinion. I like "Colon Cancer" because of the mental imagery that it creates. Then again something like Colon Separated Title (for rename or redirect, don't care much ATM) could help.

Fanfic Recs orwellianretcon'd: cutlocked for committee or for Google?

This boils down to "I don't like the name." There's no evidence that it's misused, or underused, or otherwise failing any of the reasons to rename.

I've clocked the thread; if no reason beyond "I don't like it" is offered in the next three days, I'll lock this.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Anybody have a problem with adding Multi Colon Title as a redirect?

Redirects Are Free. That's a good one.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Or Title: Subtitle: Sub-Subtitle.

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

It does seem a bit of an unindicative name though. Maybe a rename to Colon Tumor?

He who fights bronies should see to itthat he himself does not become a brony. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, Pinkie Pie gazes Also

That could work for a redirect, at least.

something

There is still no proof that there is any reason to rename this beyond Matt not liking it. Don't jump the gun.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Yeah, I don't really see a rename as necessary, although Colon Tumor does sound like a good redirect, at least.

something

Use of the word "Tumor" in other trope titles, however, is typically intended to refer to something different.

edited 2nd Jan '12 8:20:13 AM by SeanMurrayI

Colon Cancer has been one of my favorite tropes and titles since I came to this website a few years ago. I've also told a number of non-tvtropes people about it and they all liked the name and the concept. I see absolutely no reason to change the name.

edited 2nd Jan '12 8:30:12 AM by Martello

"Did anybody invent this stuff on purpose?" - Phillip Marlowe on tequila, Finger Man by Raymond Chandler.

Technically, yes. But that doesn't mean all opinions on it should be treated equally. We need to draw the line somewhere, and needlessly distasteful stuff like this title seems to cross the line. It's bad enough that we even have a title like this, let alone that people are tentatively saying to keep it, especially when you consider how unnecessary it is; Multi Colon Title is much more descriptive, and nowhere near as disrespectful to actual cancer victims.

edited 2nd Jan '12 12:50:27 PM by HiddenFacedMatt

"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart

If you acknowledge that your original argument is just based on opinion (which was intended as a criticism of your initial statements), making a further effort to justify that same kind of argument isn't going to help your cause.

All you have to do to get the rest of the Repair Shop community on board with you is to do a wick check and show misuse. If you can show a high enough number of its wicks or page examples aren't referring to what the intended trope is supposed to be (I believe the current criteria calls for over 20% misuse out of a minimum 50 wicks, but I could be wrong on that), then we'll move forward with renaming the page. If you keep trying to explain your personal views of what is or isn't distasteful, this is just going to get locked in another two days (or sooner).

edited 2nd Jan '12 3:11:17 PM by SeanMurrayI

I really don't see how it's any worse than something like, for example, Mind Rape

edited 2nd Jan '12 1:22:06 PM by dontcallmewave

He who fights bronies should see to itthat he himself does not become a brony. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, Pinkie Pie gazes Also

People can and will be offended by anything. Let's not let that affect perfectly clear and witty trope names that show no sign of misuse.

"Did anybody invent this stuff on purpose?" - Phillip Marlowe on tequila, Finger Man by Raymond Chandler.

The problem is that in this case, there's no reason to treat your opinion of the matter as more important than anyone else's. I get that you're offended by it, but it doesn't appear that anyone else is. There may very well be a line that we don't cross when making trope names, but you don't get to decide where the line is, and most tropers seem to think that this name doesn't cross it.

Personally, I really don't think that making a (perfectly serviceable) pun on the name of a disease in the trope name is all that distasteful. I see no reason to change it either.

Although while we're discussing possible redirects, I really don't think Colon Tumor works all that well. All other uses of "tumor" in trope names are used to indicate "an element of the work that grows to overtake everything else", which doesn't really apply here. I'm on board with having Multi Colon Title as a redirect for ease of use, though.

edited 2nd Jan '12 2:35:13 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Reaction Image Repository

This is a perfect example of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Yup!

Alt account of Angeldog 2437.

Where did I imply that I agree with that one? I simply picked this one to address first.

That said, at least the phrase Mind Rape doesn't treat rape as a joke the way this trope's title treats cancer as a joke.

Except that they have legitimate reason to in this case.

What, you think I'm the only one who objects to this kind of thing? Who's to say there aren't plenty of others who might not happen to have accounts, might not happen to come across this thread, etc... or simply presumed it to be hopeless because of TV Tropes' reputation? (Hell, just look at what people on many other sites say about us.) Use your common sense, what do you think the average person will think of a site that uses cancer puns for names of tropes that have nothing to do with cancer, when there's no need to and little reason to?

Look, I'm not denying that it's an opinion. So are plenty of other things within the site, such as whether or not troper tales was worth keeping. Obviously, just because something is an opinion does not mean it should never be the basis for any decision.

And it's not like I'm not claiming to have the authority to decide that here. I'm simply pointing out reasons in favour of that decision.

"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart