Fixing titular mentions

so, looks like we need to start fixing the sentences that use the word "" in them that no longer make sense. I'm not sure if replacing it with "title" or "eponymous" is allowed.

Can you provide a source for this, please?

Not that I'm objecting in the slightest - I just haven't seen any mention of this.

There was a topic about this.

It's apparently been nuked.

Again, I'm not really objecting to this. "" has been one of the most frequently misused words on the wiki for some time - I'd call it the new 'egregious', except most uses of that technically did fit the dictionary definition. But I'd just like some confirmation that getting rid of it is actually a policy now.

Edit: Although what just happened does look like confirmation.

edited 9th Sep '12 6:55:16 PM by nrjxll

Well thanks to that thread, I have been fixing the word where I see it, such as several instances on Pretty in Mink. It just doesn't show up as much as hottips, at least on the pages I've seen.

edited 9th Sep '12 9:37:04 PM by DragonQuestZ

Since the original thread came up, I've been looking idly for examples, and I'm not seeing more than about 20% misuse at most. I've been fixing it/removing it when it's wrong, ignoring it when it's correct, but hiding it doesn't impact anything, and using markup to force it to display when hiding it destroys the meaning of the sentence.

edited 10th Sep '12 3:09:09 AM by Xtifr

Now I almost want to post an its/it's cleanup thread. (Sing it!)

And there/their/they're. And loose vs. lose.

I asided somebody in a mailing list just this morning for using the wrong 'lose'.

Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. It completely broke the sentence, and even the edit reasons!

...next time I come across such a broken example, I'm tempted to go Clbuttic on it.

May I ask why it got censored? We didn't do this with "egregious".

"Egregious" can be misused in a You Keep Using That Word sense, but "titular" is pretty much universally misused on this site.

(Guilty as charged on misuse, unfortunately.)

edited 4th Oct '12 4:30:04 PM by Nohbody

It was? The word has the alternate meaning that is a synonym for eponymous.

^ That. Language and word usage has simply evolved, and TV Tropers are not unique in using it that way.

Maybe we should also be censoring the word "decimate" because nobody uses that word correctly either.

edited 4th Oct '12 9:52:03 PM by Stratadrake

In fact, the original (and still common) meaning of the word is synonymous with the altogether-too-obscure "eponymous".

"of, relating to, or constituting a title <the hero of the play>"

According to Merriam-Webster.

I think we outta ax the censorship.

You'll have to convince Eddie on that. And not here, please.

IMHO I do think it is a "solution" in search of a problem.

Either way, the word also has the advantage of rolling off the tongue faster (three syllables versus four).

edited 6th Oct '12 10:29:51 AM by Stratadrake

What not here?

[Edit]:

Okay.

edited 6th Oct '12 4:25:50 PM by TropeEater

If you want to contest the decision, do so over PM. The last thread was simply deleted.

For what it's worth, I ran a Google search across just the TV Tropes.org domain an came up with 96,000 hits, and from a quick scan on the first three pages it looks as if nearly all of them are used in the "eponymous" sense. ("Eponymous" racks up only about 78k or so.)

Heaven forbid it be part of an actual work's title ... well, at least the [...] parser leaves wikilinks intact. Had me worried for a minute there.

edited 6th Oct '12 6:36:29 PM by Stratadrake

Or part of an actual quote. Of course, you can use [= markup to make the word appear, as titular. Which is what I tend to do when the magical disappearance mangles meaning.

eta: as for it being more common than "eponymous", that surprises me not at all. It's much clearer and more obvious, and in general a much better choice than that obscure bit of latin-derived opaqueness. With titular, you get a good hint of what's intended even if you're not familiar with the word. With eponymous, you have to scramble for a dictionary.

edited 7th Oct '12 2:52:14 PM by Xtifr

... "eponymous" is Greek, not Latin.

Ugh. I don't have anything to say about the level and egresiosity of misuse, but haven't we learned that blanket "corrections" of anything on the wiki annoy people and never improve anything? This is just like all the custom titles that overwrite trope names without fixing the misuse, so your Super Robot Genre punches kaiju in the face. Except that this is worse because it will turn into a linguistics debate. (considering that a previous thread got nuked, should I presume that it already has?)

And how is P Ming a better way to resolve this than a thread?

edited 9th Oct '12 12:08:35 PM by unfound

Because the previous thread became a discussion about why the change was there and whether it was a good thing, and the thread was subsequently nuked (as you know). We don't want the same thing to happen here since that may hamper attempts at clean-up, so please take it to PMs to avoid that.

edited 9th Oct '12 12:19:02 PM by Telcontar