I have no idea.

It's a wine glass. Like we're all telling our stories over dinner, or at a fancy party... or maybe just drunk. :)

And now there's no icon at all....

Yes, what just happened? I was playing a game, with this tab opened up, it was a yellow page with tons of links, game froze, I restarted, then this page came up but not the other. I'm pulling my hair here, loads of fun has taken away from my hands in a snap. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!

I was planning to waste a whole lot of time on Troper Tales... and it all just vanished. The page history says that some mod just decided to delete it. This is not a good thing, and someone needs to fix it. Now, please, before I find something productive to do.

The pages are still there, but the links are just gone from the title page. It SAYS it's self-updating. It lies.

Oh, but it wasn't just "some mod" - it was Fast Eddie, who's pretty much the top mod on the site. In other words, there's probably no hope in convincing anyone to change it back. >>

I knew I wasn't the only one...

But why would he delete the list but still have the page itself say that there is a list?

The pages are still there it seems, just the list has gone. Which is a real dumb idea in my opinion.

Maybe there was a glitch with the auto-indexing system and it's shut down for repairs? Since none of the actual TT pages have been nuked, there's a good (in both senses of the word) chance they won't be. More likely a problem with the index itself.

...I just really wish these things would be explained to us. We're encouraged to use the edit reason feature, so why shouldn't he do the same thing? I'm sure the bitching would be halved if he would explain why he does things rather than just doing them.

So... Um... Are we getting the main troper tales page back or... Is it gone for good since this guy you mention happens to be the top authority here?

I don't know. It could be a glitch in the auto-indexing system (although we've left the list up during other glitches, so I'm not sure why it'd be gone now). Are there any other pages that use auto-indexing? On the other hand, I'm pretty sure FE has said he dislikes Troper Tales, so.

No-one P Med him to ask, or made a topic in the forum?

Sheesh, people, don't jump to conclusions. Fast Eddie added a note basically saying to use the index bar at the botom of troper tales pages to navigate them, so it's obvious that he's not trying to get rid of troper tales because he dislikes it. There's probably just a problem with the auto-indexing or the index is being reorganized.

So let's get this straight. This fast Eddie guy deletes the index for troper tales out of the blue without any proper explanation, and replaces it with a moronic system. Lovely.

I'm not saying he's trying to delete TT, I'm saying that if the indexing system broke he probably wouldn't be putting much effort into fixing it.

The "moronic system" has been in place on every page of the wiki for years.

So what now? Are we supposed to click next until we get desired topic? Without actually knowing how long we'll have to click? Instead of simply scrolling down to find the topic we're interested with? Only because Fast Eddie deleted the page? Expect within next week to browsing through troper-tales topics manually requiring "captcha" application for every arrow click...

Captcha, blood samples, a valid creditcard number and waiving our rights to our firstborn child?

I think you are exaggerating.

Just for reference, there's a forum topic here about this.

Simple solution: Go to the trope's regular page and click on the Troper Tales tab. It's a much faster and easier way of going about finding the page (instead of clicking next until you get desired topic. Without actually knowing how long you'll have to click).

The list was (apparently) getting WAY too long, so they cut it. Go to the forum topic for the full story.

now that the index has been deleted, is there any altenate ways of finding a list of all or most of troper tales?

I think I may have found a possible substitute for the troper tales index http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Main/TroperTales

"Simple solution: Go to the trope's regular page and click on the Troper Tales tab."

But what if I just want to browse across the index to see if something catches my eye?

And you'd think mods exist to regulate and SOLVE problems. Not create them...

-sigh- Do you guys really love stirring up trouble so much that you refuse to pay attention to the facts of the matter? Because it's been stated, officially and in multiple places (including this very thread), that there was a system issue, the index was getting too long, and that's why it was removed. As much as I'm sure some of you want to believe so, most administrative decisions are not part of some sadistic dictatorial agenda.

"stirring up trouble"? Sorry, but no. Looking for an answer is not "stirring up trouble". It is, in fact, looking for an answer.

Lots of trope pages have gotten too long at one point or another and, rather than getting outright deleted, they were split into different pages. Frankly from the looks of it, the whole Troper Tales index was deleted because someone was to lazy to find a way of making it work.

Let's face it, if the mods and admins acutally announced these changes before they acted on them, they wouldn't have to listen to everyone complaining. Hell, we casual tropes might even be able to come up with a better solution.

Then again, what do i know? Maybe they are working on a solution. I'm just a tiny little voice in a great big crowd, and no one really cares what i have to say.

I agree that changes need to be announced or at least explained, but can we at least "look for an answer" in a civil fashion instead of acting like an angry mob? And when we get an answer, which we did, can we take it as an answer instead of continuing to riot?

There are far better solutions to the issue of "the page was too freaking huge" than "delete the entire index."

You could split the index alphabetically, for example. Have a main Tropertales page, then have that have links to separate pages along the lines of "Tropertales A-H" or something so the links aren't just completely lost. Should not be hard at all.

There's nothing bad about complaining when someone chooses the greater of two evils to solve a problem, especially when anyone can see what the better options were.

Rabble rabble. If it's getting too long, split it between multiple pages. Seems like a simple solution to me.

Enough talk. We all know what could've been done, and what has been done instead. We know who did it. We know it won't be remedied any time soon with no specific date. And I ask: What should be done?

hopefully this wont be as woefully mismanaged as other overexposed page deletions

The Amazing Iowan: "But what if I just want to browse across the index to see if something catches my eye?"

I guess that's where my "Simple Solution" runs into a snag. Browsing was pretty much how most of my Troper Tales entries came to be, so I get how that's an issue. I guess we'll just have to hope the index returns.

the index has returned, just not on the same page as before http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/namespace_index.php?ns=TroperTales

I can live with this new page. More organized, and seems to have near the original number of entries without all the repeats and all. Now all they need to do is link to that page on the original main page.

um... they did. where do you think I got that link from?

Long story short, we have this bug where wiki pages that are too long crash the page, and it's extremely difficult to fix.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it- something the Tv Tropes need to get through there heads

Fast Eddie must like Xtreme Kool Letterz.