Slight Problem with Potholes

While potholing series in for trope examples, many tropers will use character names, memes, or quotes that an outsider might not be as familiar with.

For example, if I wanted to add Gary Oak as an example in The Rival (which I'm sure he already is, I just want to use it as a hypothetical example), I would personally do it this way:

• Pokemon: Gary Motherfucking Oak. (Slight elaboration on why he fits the trope.)

But I've also seen it potholed this way:

• Gary Motherfucking Oak.

Or, for Cool Car:

• Back To The Future: A DeLorean that travels back in time. Can't get any cooler than that.

Versus:

• "Where we're going, we don't need roads!"

Personally I think the series should always be potholed as is so someone reading through can CTRL+F for it without reading the whole page.

By "the series should always be Pot Holed" I'm asuming you mean, the name of the series should be it's own separate Pot Hole and not hidden in a Pot Hole under a quote, correct?

Yes indeed.

The work name should always be readable without needing to mouseover a pothole. Whether it's a wikiword direct link or a pothole (as when the work is commonly called something other than the page name) to the work name doesn't matter. It should never be hidden under a character name, a trope name, or a quote, line, or meme.

Well, I've gone through the tropes on my watchlist and cleaned those up at least.

The rest of the Wiki...*shudders*

Yeah, it's listed in some official rule and/or guideline thingy that the name of the work should be written outright so it can be CTRL+F'd.

Well, it's just one more button click to "view source" and CTRL+F that, right? (This is also how I find trope names on works pages when the trope is referenced under another trope rather than listed directly.)

A reader of the wiki should not have to view the source code to find out what a work that's listed in the examples is. The work name should be clearly visible. Not hidden in a pothole to a character, a quote, or anything else. Clearly visible. Is that really so hard to understand.

Should we trust the fixing of these tropes to Wiki Magic, or should we start a thing in Special Efforts?

edited 27th Mar '11 6:30:43 AM by dotchan

I think if a page is infested with this, the Cleanup help needed thread should be a good pre-existing place to alert people.