Regarding Trope Finder threads posted in ATT

I made an ATT thread about this issue last week, but was told to take it here, so I'm gonna copypaste what I said there.

I've noticed that a ton of tropers ask ATT questions here about help in finding a trope, only to be immediately redirected to Trope Finder. I believe this is because these tropers automatically assume ATT is the place to be asking these sorts of questions, and, though this is just a guess on my part, I believe this is usually because these tropers do not know Trope Finder exists. Sure, one could click the "click here" link at the top of the page to see what ATT is and isn't for, but I highly doubt anybody would even bother thinking of doing that.

I'm not sure this problem could completely go away, but it's a very reoccurring problem and I want to minimize it as much as possible. With that in mind, I've tried to think of an idea to put on the Wishlist, but nothing's coming to mind. Any suggestions?

Edited by JHD0919 on May 18th 2023 at 11:19:20 AM

Apparently we used to have a big green banner that directed people to the right place. I know ~bwburke94 at least has expressed interest in bringing it back—wouldn't mind the idea myself. (Admittedly I don't remember what it looked like or how it functioned—do you remember Burke, since you often ask for it to be brought back?)

It may even be an issue as simple as ATT being top of the list with a generic name; people who don't know any better won't bother to look at the links under it and assume that it works. People who DO know better may still misclick and not realize it because the queries all look identical otherwise. So theoretically, just moving ATT under TF and YKTS could cause things to change... though in such a scenario, we would probably see a lot of ATT questions end up on TF due to muscle memory.

A Wayback Machine search shows no signs of green, even in the Main.Ask The Tropers days of 2010. Would 2010 wiki code have even allowed for green?

I've been here since the days of old and I recall no green banner

Is it just a meme that has lied to all of us, then?

The only green banner I know is the one for P Ms. I don't think I ever saw such a banner on Ask The Tropers. I thought it only existed because it kept being brought up. It's probably Mandela effect at this point.

Probably.

Ok, so now that we've got that out of the way, let's return to my original question. Any suggestions on how to eliminate, or at the very least minimize, the reoccurrence of ATT threads redirected to Trope Finder?

Actually create a big green banner.

this.

But what's going to be on the banner? Just a sentence detailing what Ask the Tropes is for? What are going to do with the drop down list that tells what ATT isn't for?

Edited by MacronNotes on May 18th 2023 at 6:40:26 AM

I guess "THIS IS NOT TROPE FINDER!!!" on the banner, and the list below remains the same?

I'm only in favor of a banner if I can make it go away. I don't want to be forced to look at an obnoxious green banner as I refresh ATT every day, especially since I'm not the type of person to mistake which query I'm on anyway.

And that there should be a setting for disabling said pop-up unto you decided to turn the pop-up back on.

I'm full for the green banner with that implemented alongside it.

Definitely not that extreme, but I get what you're going for.

Edited by JHD0919 on May 18th 2023 at 7:28:31 AM

Redacted

Edited by JHD0919 on May 18th 2023 at 9:41:44 AM

We didn't decide anything mate, it's been less than a day and less than 10 people have even posted.

Ok, I guess I'll hold for a few days.

Is this really that big a deal? Those posts usually get very little engagement apart from people directing them to the correct place and are quickly locked, so they're not exactly monopolizing anyone's time

Edited by Orbiting on May 18th 2023 at 12:30:00 PM

They are still very frequent.

Any way we could make it so the green popup/banner/notification happens only when creating a new query? That way people just looking through ATT wouldn't need to deal with the banner and it could be like an extra step to posting a query like when the TLP has the popup for bombs and hats saying "Are you sure this is what you want to do?"

It wouldn't have to be a popup either, just make the banner so it shows when you click the "Ask The Tropers" button.

I say, move the link to ATT below those to TF and YKTS, move the last two sentences of the current description to a separate paragraph so they stand out more, and maybe rephrase the last sentence so that the link is more prominent. Maybe add a sentence linking to the other queries directly.

Interestingly, Trope Finder is technically the default option for queries (if for some reason none selected), so making it first has another reason.

These query headers should read from some template article, Trope Finder still links to You Know That Thing Where despite it being renamed.

Oh snap, I didn't know that. Kind of odd given that it was renamed a long time ago.