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A few notes on page quotes

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Prfnoff Since: Jan, 2001
#1: Dec 19th 2010 at 1:38:28 PM

  1. Tropes aren't supposed to have more than one quote on the main page. That doesn't stop people from adding their favorite quote — sometimes at the top.
  2. Even though It Makes Sense in Context, it might not be a good page quote. If you're spending twice as many words as are in the actual quote explaining what happened around it, it's probably not good.
  3. Quotes don't count as examples. Paraphrasing a quote into example format sometimes works better.

Willbyr Hi (Y2K) Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
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#2: Dec 20th 2010 at 4:18:15 AM

Is the first rule set in stone anywhere? I've seen quite a few pages with two quotes and as long as they're fairly short, it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

Shale Since: Jan, 2001
#3: Dec 20th 2010 at 5:00:18 AM

Number three also doesn't strike me as a hard-and-fast rule. When you're dealing with a dialogue trope, or a quote that gets the example across in a clear and concise matter - "I'm seeing gorillas riding pterodactyls with harpoon guns, stealing a boat" from Batman The Brave And The Bold comes to mind - what makes using the quote bad?

edited 20th Dec '10 5:00:29 AM by Shale

blackcat Since: Apr, 2009
#4: Dec 20th 2010 at 6:13:58 AM

I'm thinking these are guidelines, rather than hard and fast rules.

One succinct quote is nice, more than one feels like someone is just throwing quote darts in the hopes one will stick.

I also think it is important to pay some attention to how the page looks. When a page comes up with 5 lines of quotation at the top and I have to scroll down to get to the description, I'm probably going to skip it.

Prfnoff Since: Jan, 2001
#5: Dec 20th 2010 at 4:01:35 PM

I'm not saying these are rules, because I'm sure I lack the authority to set them. By "quotes don't count as examples," I was talking about top-of-page quotes, not in the example section. It's not necessarily a bad thing, though.

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