Needs Help: Pageswithmedium-specificsubpagesandpagepics

The policy that tropes with medium-specific subpages should not have pics has managed to annoy the hell out of me every single time I come across it. It was never formally discussed anywhere. All I could find for why this policy exists is that it was put in place by Fast Eddie circa 2011 because, in his words, "We want medium-agnostic main pages for these because we do not want to signal that they are about one medium or another."

The thing is, a page image is not going to associate the trope with a particular medium any more than it's already associated with that medium. A Western Animation pic on Censor Steam might help show that it's not restricted to anime, but an Anime pic on Delayed Explosion isn't going to tell the reader that it's an anime trope, and it's always going to be better to have a pic on the main page than on any subpages, because not everyone reads the examples section.

Since Fast Eddie is no longer in charge of the wiki, we are no longer required to follow his rules, and I think we need an actual discussion about this. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Lightning round:

For instance, when some non-anime fans come into an article and the first thing they see is an anime picture, they figure it is about anime, and mash the random button again. If we leave the words there to make the initial impression, that wrong first impression doesn't get made.

A reader's first impression of a trope isn't the page image. It's the title. Hence why picking a good title is important.

Fan competitions over which medium gets two pictures.

This could happen, though I figure that if it did, making the relevant subpage imageless could probably solve it.

My take has been that if a page has subpages but still has some examples on the main page, we should try to get a page pic from those examples if possible, and if not, we can open the floor for discussion for a page pic from examples that are on the subpages.

I'm of the opinion we should always try to put an image on the main page before subpages, because anyone on a Wiki Walk is more likely to end up on the main page than a subpage.

IE - There are more wicks and inbounds to Main.That One Boss than ThatOneBoss.Final Fantasy.

Edited by bitemytail on May 24th 2019 at 7:55:52 AM

I definitely think the image on OlderThanTheyLook.Anime And Manga should be moved back to Older Than They Look, since none of the other subpages have images.

I would argue that a page image does help with a first impression.

As stated in How to Pick a Good Image:

Essentially, they follow the Clear Concise Witty mantra that's followed by titles as well. That, to me, supports the notion of this being just as important for first impressions.

I personally like the way Wilbyr described it. I also support leaving a pic in the main page if none of the subpages have one. We could use fanart too (with permission, of course).

Edited by Drope on May 24th 2019 at 9:06:58 AM

I say troper-made images could work for such instances.

Sure, if we can get troper-made images. I doubt we would have enough qualified and willing tropers to make pics for every big trope.

Can I move the Older Than They Look image back, since no other subpages have images?

I am all for prioritizing the main page over any subpage when it comes to finding the best image to illustrate a trope. The risk that the medium of an image could mislead the viewer about the scope of the trope is negligible. The media folders should give a clue about the applicability.

Edited by eroock on Jun 1st 2019 at 7:53:25 AM

If we do allow main page pics for such cases, which I support per Willbyr's idea, can we move Expy out of the "no pic" status since this very policy is why that page is listed as such?

Exactly. Can I please move the image on OlderThanTheyLook.Anime And Manga back to the main Older Than They Look page where the IP thread put it since no other subpage has an image? Also, this image was pulled from Hilarious in Hindsight, but I liked it.

Can I please move the Older Than They Look pic back to the main trope page? None of the other subpages have pics, and it looks like a mod unilaterally moved a pic chosen by IP thread.

Eh, no argument here.

Same here. Any thoughts on comment #10, by the way (in reference to Expy and Yandere, for that matter)?

I'd be okay with moving both of those to BUPKIS since they'd both need pretty good pics. As for Expy, I skimmed through the subpages and I'm thinking at least one of those pics isn't very good.

I agree wholeheartedly. This policy about main page images has always baffled me.

I always think that a trope page with at least a decent picture looks prettier than imageless pages. Not to mention images that are great or funny.

(I happen to like collages, but collages with many images from different media could be an overkill...)

SelfDemonstrating.Yandere has a pretty good image, and there's stuff on ImageLinks.Yandere.

As for Expy... would that page be Expy.Live Action Films that doesn't work? If so, I agree. If not, then which one?

That's the one.

I'm going ahead and closing this as the consensus is pretty clearly in favor of doing away with the former policy.