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
Hi
Here's the pages that I found when I was finishing up my sweep of the Anime, Manga, Light Novel, and Visual Novel namespaces.
- Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino: Perfunctory description and note, marked as Needs A Better Description
- Toshoshitsu No Neversista: Exact issue as the previous, and even less there
- Legends of Androsia: Brief note about the work, nothing about what it's actually about.
- Makyou No Shanana: The description is ripped straight from Baka-Updates
- Mayonaka ni Kiss: Short description of the plot, no notes about the work itself.
- My Heavenly Hockey Club: Perfunctory description and note.
- Negative-kun to Positive-kun: Short description of the plot, no notes about the work itself.
- Ningyou Kyuutei Gakudan: Brief note about the work, nothing about what it's actually about.
Not Proven has an enormous rant about the Scottish legal system instead of a trope description.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I thought you had to be joking until I read it. What the??
No longer a forum herald
Okay, we definitely want to cut that out.
Here's my revised suggestion:
How this works out depends on where the story is set. In a American-based story, if the main protagonists are law enforcement officials and the like, you can usually expect them to find some new piece of evidence or get a confession that allows them to proceed with the conviction. If the story is more focused on the culprits or is bleaker in outlook, the verdict will effectively be found innocent, leading to a clear-cut case of Karma Houdini.
This trope takes on different meaning in a large number of non-U.S. countries (including Scotland, whose courtroom laws serve as the Trope Namer), where the principle of double jeopardy isn't observed. This means that the criminal could ostensibly be brought to trial again at a later point, if new evidence was found. Thus, it isn't quite as dramatic in works set in those regions of the world.
Compare Conviction by Contradiction, where the detectives appear to erroneously believe the evidence is enough for a conviction.
edited 2nd Jan '16 6:09:10 PM by TotemicHero
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
Holy crap the current description is terrible.
The proposed description is much better.
The Unknown
x2 ![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Filthy casual
The rewrite looks good to me.
(Annoyed grunt)
No longer a forum herald
Description swapped.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
I do not joke about these things. Thanks, Totemic.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
No longer a forum herald
You're welcome.
Oh, and maybe next time we'll remember this is the work and creator description thread, and the trope description thread is somewhere else. 
edited 3rd Jan '16 10:39:00 PM by TotemicHero
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
Yeah, I don't know why I snagged the wrong thread.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Haruhi Suzumiya is a little too long. Can I chop at it?
The Unknown
Pokémon Gold and Silver had gushing, YMMV wicking, and some other issues that I took the liberty of removing.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
The Unknown
Kingdom Hearts looks very bare-bones after a necessary removal of a paragraph about its reception. It's the only game in the series I haven't played, so I'm struggling to write up an intro.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
No longer a forum herald
I'd say adding a brief plot summary as the second paragraph would work. <does quick research> Something like this, maybe?
The Unknown
Perfect. I've added it.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
No longer a forum herald
I made a slight tweak to the wording (as well as added a link back to this thread, which you probably should have done in the first place).
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
The Unknown
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days looks a little bare, so I'm going to add onto it.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
The Unknown
Tweaking Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories to give it a better plot description and some other minor things.
edited 2nd Feb '16 9:25:36 PM by Karxrida
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
The Unknown
I've tweaked Fire Emblem due to it being inconsistent on the description about the series' use of Final Death, and removed a line about Character Tiers.
edited 5th Mar '16 8:53:34 PM by Karxrida
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
The Unknown
I've been working on Manga.Kingdom Hearts II. It's still a bit of a WIP (I'm trying to find exact dates for its release in Japan), but imo it looks better than before.
edited 16th Mar '16 11:47:49 AM by Karxrida
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a tad overlong and has too many details about its production history and influence.
No longer a forum herald
Best solution I see would be to make a Franchise page and transplant some of that information there. I'll take it to the Franchise thread and see what they think.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
...
That was obviously an April Fool's joke.
@post 149: I did what little I could to clean out that description. I don't really know what to do with the rest of it.
I had to delete two full paragraphs from WWF No Mercy because whoever wrote it was clearly writing a review and not a description. Good grief.
edited 23rd Dec '15 8:26:47 PM by MyTimingIsOff