Brought up in the Trope Repair Shop
, we need to take out the in-jokey Understatement references. People are using it to make any given example "witty" rather than actually using the trope.
It's is extremely excessive, by early calculations there is a 95% misuse rate in that regard. But don't worry, the actual number to fix seems to be less than 9,000 (about 8700).
{Note, as of 12:30 am September 19th, the tally is down to 4228; We've gotten over halfway.}
{Note 2: as of 8:37 pm September 29th, it's down to 2412}
{Note 3: as of 6:16 Am October 3, there are 1868 wicks remaining. If the original assessment of ~90% misuse turns out to be correct, there will be between 800 and 900 good wicks left when we're done.}
{Note 4: As of 2:50 pm, October 6th, there were 1079 wicks remaining.}
{Note 5: as of 8:58 am on October 10, there were 729 wicks remaining. The entire list had been scrubbed. 111 of that 729 are those that a software glitch counts even though the page it's supposedly on no longer exists.}
{Note 6: Fast Eddie has modified the wick counter so that it no longer counts the dead namespaces "JBM" or "Crowning *". This killed off 75 of the phantom wicks remaining, for a final tally of 655 good wicks remaining of 8700+ original wicks}
Cleared Punctuated titles starting with:
- Completed!!
Cleared unpunctuated titles starting with:
- A-Z!
edited 21st Oct '11 8:54:57 AM by Madrugada
Think of the mooks!
I zapped the second and third of those two because they weren't Understatement at all (if you use an adverb to deliberately emphasize the adjective, that cannot, by definition, be understatement). The first and fourth were not in-work Understatement, so I zapped those, too.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.
someone
Is there any way to make these less likely to return?
By the way, if this is potholed to a character's dialogue, then it's okay, right? As the understatement is by the character themself.
edited 20th May '12 11:35:29 AM by ThatHuman
something
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I don't know but it was suggested few pages back that maybe we should just faux-redlink it. It's still being used correctly as a trope and and actual one unlike So Yeah however. But the misuse outweigh the times it was used correctly so that option does sound tempting. People clearly aren't reading the warning on the page.
As for your second question, yes it's okay as long as it's actually an understatement. We're only hunting down sinkholes and misuse.
![[down]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_down.png "[down]"){kind=icon}
I guess I remembered wrong. Fixed
edited 20th May '12 11:47:33 AM by Oreochan
"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."
someone
The warning, while written clearly isn't in bold.
But, I'm guessing that troper potholes are a self-propagating culture, People notice these things, and they believe it is encouraged to do so, which means they make them, which leads to more people noticing,and so on.
Also, I removed what looks like misuse from Reincarnation, but wrote my reason as "removing sinkhole". I'm not completely sure what that link was about, anyway, as it's not something one can understate.
edited 20th May '12 11:47:29 AM by ThatHuman
something
(Avatar by Coffee)
You can just say 'Understatement cleanup as per TRS thread' or something similar.
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground
Think of the mooks!
@230 The warning against using Understatement as a sinkhole was a compromise move - it was originally constructed as a lengthier and bold warning, but the mods worried that it was both too shout-y and a bit detracting from the purpose of the page.
As for your question in @228, as noted, quoted dialogue is acceptable to link back to Understatement, as long as it's actual understatement. I stress this because you have no idea how many times I've seen folks try to Pot Hole the words "very," "extremely," or the like to the page. I'm starting to think that people have a poorer grasp on "understatement" than Alanis Morrisette has on Irony.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.
Think of the mooks!
Okay, cleared through S. Current count is at 569.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.
(Avatar by Coffee)
Going to go through another bunch now; tally is currently 570. Also, I got one reply, thanking me for informing them and saying that they did so because it's quite common. We need something more efficient than the warning in the page IMO, because most people don't even visit the page before they Sinkhole Understatement AFAICT.
EDIT: Cleaned R, Q, and P up to (not including) Video Game/Postal. Wick count is 562.
- FanFic.Reunion In The Morning Sun had a Sinkhole, with a comment (in allcaps) saying 'NOT A SINKHOLE. DON'T REMOVE.'
edited 21st May '12 7:05:25 AM by desdendelle
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground
Think of the mooks!
Technically, it's true that it wasn't a Sink Hole. A sinkhole only happens when you Pot Hole another word to an inappropriate page, and it wasn't potholed. This is why, when I remove such misuse, I simply say "Not Understatement."
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.
(Avatar by Coffee)
Well, I did confuse sinkholes and misuse. Oops. Lucky me; I'm using 'Understatement cleanup as per TRS thread, desu' as an edit reason. Anyway, got a PM back from that guy, and he said that he's aware of the TRS thread, he just didn't know that the trope's definition was changed.
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground
Think of the mooks!
Gyah! No, the trope's definition has not changed in the slightest. It has always been for actual understatement when used in the work itself. It was misused in two fashions.
- The link with the note was not for in-work use of Understatement.
- The link in question actually used "a lot" to increase the magnitude of the description... which means by definition that it was not understated at all. It was either correct statement or overstatement.
edited 21st May '12 9:14:51 AM by 32_Footsteps
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.
Think of the mooks!
Okay, cleared N- and O-. By my count, we've hit:
- A- through Ch-
- E- through J-
- N- through Z-
Number is at 470.
EDIT: Updated with Oreochan's work. As for the OP, I think that could stand an update, but I am not one who could update it.
EDIT 2: Finished the previously-unchecked P- section. Updating this post, since this is the one I have access to.
edited 29th May '12 9:44:33 AM by 32_Footsteps
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.
F is done. Going to sweep through G-I. Shouldn't the OP be updated, since we now have go do a second cleanup?
"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."
someone
How come? The instructions are still the same anyway.
something
There is a progress report in the OP. That's what she means.
G to J is done.
"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."
Think of the mooks!
Okay, the rest of P- is done.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.
(Avatar by Coffee)
Think of the mooks!
I already went over both of those; I left them in because they can at least be argued to be Understatement and are quotes from non-wiki sources.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.
The second cleanup is done; I just finished a complete sweep.
(Avatar by Coffee)
Thank goodness. Someone should probably keep watch and see we don't get another outbreak.
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground
In uffish thought
Sure. I've saved a copy of the current wick list, and when the number goes up I can check for if the new ones are correct.
That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.
Think of the mooks!
Sorry I slacked on this by the end. Well done, everyone.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.
"In distress", my ass.
Nothing to apologize for. Part of the whole idea behind a wiki is that it doesn't rely on one person to do everything (save for server-level admin stuff, and even that can be spread out if need be).
All your safe space are belong to Trump
Finished T, except the following:
- The Enigma of Amigara Fault
- The Breakfast Club
- Terminator
- Technology, since I don't know Shin Megami Tensei.
I also PM'd the people who added the Sinkholes when possible, using Nocturna's template.There are currently 631 Wicks.
edited 20th May '12 9:45:01 AM by desdendelle
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground