"In distress", my ass.
The four dashes are to create a line across the page to separate sections, like the "hr" HTML tag.
It only works with four or more dashes at the very start of the line, though. Two or three are just a long dash (or emdash as it's called), and more than four doesn't have any extra effect than four does.
In terms of wiki formatting, it makes it easier to tell where a section ends, like between the description and example list or the example list and the indexing thingy.
It's not absolutely necessary to do the HR, I don't think, but I do think it looks a little neater.
edited 21st Nov '14 10:45:59 PM by Nohbody
All your safe space are belong to Trump
You Give Me Fever
Well, thank you.
That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes
Pertinent to this question:
With the new look there's now a good bit of space between the last example and the first index, making the horizontal bars unnecessary. Is it fine to remove them?
Elder statesman
They're not hurting anything as far as I know, and the description/examples separator is still useful in Source mode.
Bigotry in the name of inclusion is still bigotry.
"In distress", my ass.
Also, the line is a more decisive break between sections, although I'll grant you it's an aesthetics issue.
All your safe space are belong to Trump
Lost in Space
The breaks may come in handy if/when we get around to parsing everything into a database format for our TV Tropes 2.0 project. The bottom break is not technically necessary, unless we have stingers, because we can always play around with the format of the footer. It's aesthetic. That said, there's no reason to remove it at this point, and it's better to leave it alone unless it's actively causing problems.
edited 9th Mar '15 1:01:02 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
I've been inserting the —— separator for years.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Hi
As have I.
I've noticed people edit a page, and the only contribution made is to add - - - - - - - - - - after all the words of value are typed. When I was new here I though it had something to do with indexing but now I know that's not the case either.
- - - - - - -
edited 21st Nov '14 11:49:26 PM by IndirectActiveTransport
That's why he wants you to have the money. Not so you can buy 14 Cadillacs but so you can help build up the wastes