Humour Mode and Sincerity Mode

As part of doing the scutwork of this clean up topic, I came across two trope-like pages, Humour Mode and Sincerity Mode.

I have to ask what these pages are, conceptually. The descriptions of both items look like generic Fora tropes (which as-is, has Wiki Tropes and Blog Tropes as subindexes), so they would not belong on the Predefined Messages index, which according to its description is only for the TV Tropes wiki stuff (accordingly, TRS voted to move the pages on the latter index to Administrivia/ one year ago).

However, I want to know for sure before I move them off Predefined Messages and onto Fora. Opinions?

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

I would move them to Fora, yes. They are not Predefined Messages and should absolutely never appear on the wiki proper.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Never? Why?

Wiki editors should not use them or Sarcasm Mode to reflect what tone they're using to write the examples or descriptions. Better to write properly instead.

edited 22nd Oct '13 8:58:25 AM by AnotherDuck

Check out my fanfiction!

Indeed. If you use those in an actual example, you're committing all sorts of sins, including Conversation In The Main Page, first person writing, and/or irrelevant potholing.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

I can imagine it to be appropriate when quoting a character from a work, though.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Just quote the character. The forum winky crap is irrelevant. See Sinkhole.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

• example line

—> "Well, that's what you get for hoisting the furblogs." Bob (The Ditz)

The meaning of that sentence changes drasticly depending upon being interpreted as a joke or with serious intent. Nor does the mood of the sentence require anything to do with the example. That's not a Sink Hole; that's giving the reader more information regarding what is going on

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

The context of the quote should be apparent from the example that it's in. We don't use Sarcasm Mode or Sincerity Mode as tropes; therefore they should not be potholes either.

Edit: Okay, I'm badly wrong. Sarcasm Mode has 6,457 wicks despite a note on the page saying not to pothole it. Sincerity Mode has 481 wicks.

edited 22nd Oct '13 12:51:50 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

I think that is a mistake, and the articles need editing.

edit: Sincerity mode is almost as bad, with "In some instances, this can even be a trope in a work, when a character is usually sarcastic or snarky, but then they get moments where they mean what they say." And over 1k potholes. (Second edit: inbounds)

Again, context is not always sufficient to determine sincerity or humour. If the example I gave was from Cloud Cookoolander, the text alone would qualify, but the pothole would provide more context. Unless you would rather have tropers say (he was completely serious) after the quote, which I find inefficient.

edited 22nd Oct '13 1:00:14 PM by crazysamaritan

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Ah, Sarcasm Mode. That one is a trope. It's also widely used by tropers to pothole sarcastic statements. It was the subject of a TRS thread, during which the "do not pothole" note was pulled for being unsupported. In October of last year, Michael Katsuro readded it in pretty much the current form.

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

You're kidding me. So its use as a snarky wiki meme is officially sanctioned?

... searches ...

Well, lookee here. It's officially sanctioned.

edited 22nd Oct '13 1:04:41 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

"Officially" no, but there was no "official" consensus to outlaw them, because they are "correct", if meme-y.

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

I'm only thinking quotes may have proper use. Other occasions are possibly proper use, and more likely overuse. Each of the following quotes are correct for the trope, but paint a slightly different t picture of "Killer".

• Minion with an F in Evil - If he isn't a Punch-Clock Villain, he's definitely this.

—>Carface: Isn't this just the sweetest thing?
Killer: Oh, it is, Boss, it really is. You know, it reminds me of when Lassie rescued-
Carface: Shut up.

• Minion with an F in Evil - If he isn't a Punch-Clock Villain, he's definitely this.

—>Carface: Isn't this just the sweetest thing?
Killer: Oh, it is, Boss, it really is. You know, it reminds me of when Lassie rescued-
Carface: Shut up.

• Minion with an F in Evil - If he isn't a Punch-Clock Villain, he's definitely this.

—>Carface: Isn't this just the sweetest thing?
Killer: Oh, it is, Boss, it really is. You know, it reminds me of when Lassie rescued-
Carface: Shut up.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

So we are treating Sarcasm Mode as an actual trope. Okay, well, if that's true, then what I said earlier about them being Fora specific messages is inaccurate, and there's nothing that needs to be done.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

The reason why I suggested Fora as an index to place them on rather than Predefined Messages is because it was the closest index I could find, given that they are mostly Internet-related tropes.

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

How are they not Fora tropes?

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Well, they are both. Fora tropes and media tropes, I mean.

edited 22nd Oct '13 1:17:59 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

But... Predefined Messages wasn't a media trope, I thought. It's an index of terms we use here. Do I misunderstand?

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Sarcasm Mode is considered an actual trope, because it is used, especially in comics, to inform the reader that a character is being sarcastic by using a variation of the typography or speech bubble shape.

While it's not as widely used in other written media, it can be — for example, the judicious use of italics to indicate which word or words a character in a novel hit with a harder emphasis in order to make the line sarcastic. In Theatre, playscripts will often use all three Mode tags, as stage directions telling the actor "make this line sarcastic" or "...humorous", or "...ooze sincerity." Besides that, there is the internet practice of using <Sarcasm>/<sarcasm> or just <Sarcasm> or just s tags to indicate sarcasm.

The fact that it is a trope when used that way doesn't mean that all those wicks should be considered good, though. As with Understatement, it should only be potholed when it's used within the work, not when the editor is trying to be snarky and wants everyone to know it. Which means almost every good wick will be in written or drawn media; any wicks to live-action is suspect, since there are no typographic conventions in play there.

We didn't talk about Humor Mode or Sincerity Mode in that thread, but I don't see why they wouldn't work the same way on the wiki side — as a convention of written media, not a sinkhole for an editor saying "Hey look at me I'm being <whatever>".

edited 22nd Oct '13 3:16:27 PM by Madrugada

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