Since we have a thread for improving the descriptions for tropes
, I thought I would make one for improving descriptions for works. This is also a good place for requesting creator page cleaning.
Here are some common problems with many work descriptions:
- Over-analytical Walls of Text: Many works that have a high Troper Critical Mass have egregiously long descriptions, and could use some trimming, possibly moving some of it to the Analysis page.
- Critical reception/audience reaction cruft: "Edit Tip #12: We are not interested in whether or not something is or was popular. Whether or not it was liked has nothing to do with tropes." In other words, work descriptions should not contain paragraphs nor any mention at all about how the work was received. Zap it.
- Editorialism: A similar issue to the above, some tropers have a tendency to try to sneak stealth reviews into works' descriptions. This is obvious deletion fodder - Kill It with Fire.
- Plagiarism: Copy-pasted text from another source, such as Wikipedia.
So just post any work or creator page descriptions that are in need of cleanup and we'll see what we can do.
edited 23rd Dec '15 8:06:12 PM by MyTimingIsOff
"In distress", my ass.
I came across Colors (which I saw like two decades ago; not fresh in my mind, in other words) earlier. and the description is nonexistent. It talks a lot about the achievements elsewhere by the people in the production, but the only "description" of the actual film story itself is to point to the Wikipedia and IMDb entries for it, in violation of Weblinks Are Not Examples.
edited 10th Oct '14 2:55:53 AM by Nohbody
All your safe space are belong to Trump
Made a fanfic page for a story, but didn't give it a description which really explains the plot. Help in fixing this would be appreciated.
Fanfic is The New Math
No longer a forum herald
I'm pretty sure that 1) you're expected to do that yourself when making a work page, and 2) this thread isn't here to do it for you.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
TV Tropes' Sonic Wiki Curator
The work summary and examples for Bullet Witch needs a little pruning. It's a bit too complain-y and natter-ish.
Experience has taught me to investigate anything that glows.
Worked on that a bit.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Rise of the Kasai reads waaaay too much like a review.
Crazyrabbits
I've fixed up Bullet Witch and chainsawed the review in Rise of the Kasai. At first glance, it looked like they were both written by the same person.
Kasai has bigger problems than just the description, though. It has tropes for both it and the first game in its series, The Mark of Kri. Evidently, someone didn't bother to make a work page for it and just lumped in tropes from both games into one page.
Edit: I've also fixed up Colors.
edited 5th Dec '14 10:53:17 AM by crazyrabbits
"In distress", my ass.
^ Other than a tweak, that's much better for Colors.
(Yes, a lot of work pages talk about the work's reception, but that's off-mission. Feel free to delete when seen, folks.)
All your safe space are belong to Trump
The description for From Homeless To Harvard appears to be plagiarized from Amazon.
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"
The Unknown
Sinfest goes into an unnecessary tangent about its Broken Base at the very end.
edited 2nd Dec '15 8:47:44 AM by Karxrida
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
No longer a forum herald
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
As much as I agree, that description was overseen by a mod (I think it was Willbyr, but not 100% sure). Might want to bring him in if you want to change it.
Sinfest in general is a very touchy subject.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
The Unknown
Hi
I ran those major changes through the comic's thread on the forums (see this page for reference) to improve it from what it was and flesh it out a bit, but I do see how that part you mentioned could be problematic. Lemme do some digging on that before any changes are made...might be able to find some justifications, might not.
edited 2nd Dec '15 11:42:46 AM by Willbyr
The Unknown
I honestly think that entire paragraph can be shortened to get to the important parts about Cerebus Syndrome and Continuity Creep, but that part definitely needs to go.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
Definitely agree. Broken Base is YMMV, YMMV items do not go on main pages unless it's in-universe. Simple matter of What Goes Where on the Wiki.
Hi
I took a stab at that last paragraph...better?
The Unknown
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
No longer a forum herald
The second paragraph of the description of Linebarrels of Iron is almost a straight copy-paste from Wikipedia...which is promptly followed up by a single sentence outright stating it's from Wikipedia. (Bonus points for this not having been noticed when the page was moved from its Japanese name to the English one.)
Someone needs to take a stab at reworking that one into more original language, so to speak. Since I know nothing about said manga, I'd prefer not to tackle it myself, so...here we are.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
Copypastes from Wikipedia should be removed, aye, both for plagiarism and copyright concerns.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Hi
I've noticed that several articles in the Anime and Manga namespaces have their descriptions ripped at least partly or wholesale from Wikipedia, scanlation sites, or anime-related pages.
No longer a forum herald
Can you provide a list for us to look at? It would help us to proceed in cleaning them up, and moreso if we could identify patterns among the people who edited these pages, or the works in question.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
Hi
Ugh...unfortunately, all of them that I've found so far, I cleaned off my To Do list when I put images on their pages. I've still got a long way to go on this project, so I'll report any more that I find.
Ouran: The Vaguely Abridged Series.
So this is a bit of a mess. As it points out, it was written by the creators themselves. That's not an issue in of itself, but I do think it led to it being messy, overly focused with behind-the-scenes issues and reception, and personal opinions (about both the work and others).
... honestly, it reads like a 13-year-old girl's LO Lrandom fanfic.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
The Unknown
Dissidia Final Fantasy has a stupidly long description that may need a trim.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
The description for The Flight Before Christmas is a huge mess. It looks like a 2nd grader wrote much of it. The writing is subjective, biased, and chatty. I think much of that junk can get cut.
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