Self-Demonstrating Lex Luthor

So I've done some reading over of this page: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SelfDemonstrating/LexLuthor I think there's some problems with it. This is supposed to be the page for Lex (there's a reason why all his tropes were removed from the Superman character sheet). However due to the way the page is written, it doesn't actually discuss the character in a lot of detail, or allow the actual insight into who he is and how the tropes that are applicable to him are used, as other pages like say, this one does for fellow Superman villain, Brainiac.

I know we have several other pages like this, including one for The Joker. That page at least is moderately funny. Also, due to The Joker's tendency towards breaking the fourth wall, it's easier to talk about tropes without breaking character.

Would it be out of line for me to ask if we can rewrite this to more closely resemble that page for Brainiac?

The problem with these pages is that apparently they were written from the get-go to be self demonstrating. Or at least, I can't find any non-self-demo versions of these pages.

They aren't supposed to be the primary pages on these folks, either - these would go on ComicBook.The Joker and similar items if my memory of comic book character pages policy serves right.

There is no page called Comic Book/The Joker, just a disambiguation page. The page Main/The Joker links to the Self-Demonstrating article for him. Similarly, Lex Luthor redirects to the self-demonstrating page.

I hate the Self-Demonstrating character pages. They're sort of fun, for a bit, but then the joke just gets old.

The worst is when it leaks into the subpages, too. Deadpool for example.

Indeed.

edited 7th Nov '13 9:15:36 PM by Willbyr

These pages have always rubbed some people the wrong way. There's also plenty of people who enjoy them. We've chosen to leave them on the wiki because they're fun, harmless in small amounts, and Grandfather Clause. New pages in this style are discouraged because they're really difficult to write well and it's not worth the effort to sort through the bad 90% to find the good 10%.

Is there a thread in one of the Projects forums for working on these? If not, there should be, because we shouldn't have a SD page that doesn't have also have a regular page about the character.

No such thread, as far as I know. We would need someone with enough familiarity with the characters to write up "normal" versions of the pages.

I agree. It's best if it was kept only to the self-demonstrating pages as well. Case in point: the Characters.Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Marvel Characters page. Perhaps split the Deadpool and Doctor Doom entries into a seperate SelfDemonstrating.Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Marvel Characters page and rewrite the entries on the proper page? Because right now, it's extremely inconsistent with the rest of the page.

Would it be acceptable for be to create a page for Luthor? And if so, could somebody with mod powers arrange it so that Lex Luthor would link to that page instead of the self-demonstrating article? We'd also have to put the new article onto the lists that the self-demonstrating one is currently on. I can easily create the page.

There's no point in trying to maintain two separate example lists for the same character. If that were a concern, we'd probably just rewrite the examples normally and leave the description, like The Riddler. I'm not convinced it's a concern.

Creating a proper page is fine (given that the self demo version can be hard to read), although the Main/ page ought to become a disambig between the self demo and orthodox version.

I am not sure why "keeping the example lists identical" is a problem that would preclude creating a proper page.

As far as I know there is no main page. Both Lex Luthor and Lex Luthor automatically redirects to the self-demonstrating article. How would we go about changing that?

Not sure I follow your concern.

edited 10th Nov '13 11:51:42 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar

The main page is a redirect. These can be edited by appending ?action=edit to the URL, unless they are locked.

I'm not actually sure I trust myself to do that without screwing up the page somehow.

Well, if push comes to stove, I can do that for you - and other people as well.

If you don't feel comfortable doing that sort of edit, you can always make a Sandbox/ version of the page and rewrite it to not be in-character, then someone else can move it in for you.

I'd almost forgotten that I'd started this discussion. Looking over that self-demonstrating page again, it is veritably impossible to read. I think that we need a non-SD page.