Works being used as tropes (tropers don't read)

I'm not sure if this should be in one of the project forums, but I thought I'd bring it up here because it's mildly amusing.

If you want proof that people do not read trope pages before linking them, you need look no farther than The Avenger. When I was namespacing this work, I found nearly half a dozen examples where it appeared on a character page. Apparently, several characters, including some women, were secretly Richard Harry Benson, better known as "The Avenger". :D

Anyway, I tried tossing the Main/ page on the cutlist to avoid future misuse, but the cut was declined. So I thought I'd bring it here for discussion.

But what really prompted this thread is that I just found a similar situtation with Hostile Takeover. Apparently Matt Damon attempted this book on a talk show recently. Or not... :)

edited 12th Mar '13 4:55:42 PM by Xtifr

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

I don't know if this is kosher under wiki guidelines, but perhaps put up a page on /Main to the effect of "If you got here from a page using this as a trope, delete it from that page. If you're looking for [work], go [potholed "here"]"?

/guess

All your safe space are belong to Trump

It is sign that people think a trope should be there, not just a work. I'd say put Main.The Avenger into YKTTW and see what develops.

edited 12th Mar '13 8:32:45 PM by FastEddie

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty

Yes, I suppose that could work. And if there is a trope, then Main/ could become a disambiguation. The problem is that YKTTW tends to look at you funny if you just show up with a name. And the examples were basically all Zero Context. I might have been able to salvage one of them if it had occurred to me.

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

If you want to make a trope from the name of a work that was used as a trope, you can use the "examples" and their usage for the YKTTW.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Except "[a]nd the examples were basically all Zero Context".

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

I've started a few YKTTW's only with name and description (I have no plans to proceed with more, though), largely because example finding is often hard to do.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

I think making a Main "disambig" page is the best action.

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.

Another example I've seen (actual numbers pending) is Dungeon Crawl.

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

^ "This is about the Video Game called Dungeon Crawl. For the gameplay trope, see Dungeon Crawling."

The solution for that seems simple, namespace the work then make the page on main a redirect to Dungeon Crawling

I'm sure that this would be less of a problem if the wiki didn't already have a problem with work names without italics or namespaces.

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.

Moved to VideoGame.Dungeon Crawl, redirected Main.Dungeon Crawl to Main.Dungeon Crawling.

edited 15th Mar '13 1:35:59 PM by Discar

I presume you're also taking care of the wicks?

Yeah. Looking over the wicks, it seems there aren't as many on work pages as I was led to believe, but oh well, they need to be namespaced anyway. There's only 155, it'll take an hour or so.

EDIT: Nope, nevermind, lots are being used as a trope. This is definitely necessary.

edited 15th Mar '13 2:03:48 PM by Discar

VideoGame.Dungeon Crawl is done.

Maybe a disambiguation would serve Main.Dungeon Crawl better.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Better to disambiguate. People keep using Main/ redirects in spite of namespacing quite frequently.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Disambig's up.

Typed and indexed, too.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

I'm not sure that is ever going to go away^note (and I've disagreed with the system from day one).

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

I think it's already happening a lot less; heck, a lot of people are using namespaces these days even when it gets a red-link, and the non-namespaced version gets a blue one. (I know because I constantly find pre-existing wicks pointing to pages that I move to namespaces.) The steadily increasing number of pages that don't have a mainspace redirect should help as well.

I just found a new one, though this one wasn't particularly surprising. Out of the dozen or so wicks for Wild Hunt, not a single one was a reference to the work that that used to point to. That one was an easy and obvious case for disambiguation. Still, it's yet more evidence that tropers don't read what they're linking to.

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

I've seen this for Achievement Unlocked. I think it tends to happen when a work is named for a trope, but we don't have the trope.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

^^^ I think it will get there eventually. Right now people are reluctant to fix non-namespaced links when they see them because not all works have been namespaced, and we are not at a point where we are suspending people for not namespacing properly. Once all the works have been namespaced we can we more strict about it and eventually the main redirects will fall out of vouge.

edited 20th Mar '13 12:23:41 PM by willthiswork

That doesn't explain when people seem to think My Little Pony is a trope(yes, I've seen this, and yes even as a brony I think it's dumb)

edited 15th May '13 7:45:11 PM by shoboni

Eleventh Hour sounds like a common expression for the buildup to the climax ... but the article is actually about a US/UK television show. And of 33 articles, only one is using it like a trope.

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.