It's also a common initialism for Warhammer 40000's Battlefleet Gothic game. Definitely should be renamed to something else, like Big Freaking Gun.
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The Renaming Guidelines have "unclear" as a good reason for a rename, you know.
edited 12th Feb '12 4:41:11 PM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.The attempt to rename BFS for the same reason didn't exactly go too well. Please demonstrate confusion with the book title or other evidence of misuse.
edited 12th Feb '12 4:45:21 PM by Catbert
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It's also not clear at all, which violates the "Clear first, Concise second, Witty third" principle that we're supposed to apply for trope names.
Not gonna happen. Pretty much for all the reasons Shima just outlined.
I've read The BFG and I also have the minimum level of cognitive ability needed to differentiate the two based on context or the lack of the definite article. I believe most others can do the same.
"Did anybody invent this stuff on purpose?" - Phillip Marlowe on tequila, Finger Man by Raymond Chandler.But unclear must be proven. When it seems that this is one of the most consistently used and most recognized at a glance tropes on the site, clarity is apparent. In practice, no one is finding the name unclear and no one has actually cited any evidence that it actually is.
There is no evidence of this trope or name being broken or unclear. If there continues to be the same lack of proof by the end of the page I shall nuke this in accordance with the new policies.
edited 12th Feb '12 4:55:17 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickJust for the record, "BFG" is a pre-existing term for OTHER things as well.
Understanding what the name "BFG" means requires prior familiarity with Doom, the Trope Namer. Not everyone is into action video games, let alone first person shooters.
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Or, alternatively, that the term's complete obscurity for anyone not familiar with the Trope Namer forced anyone that came across it to click the link and see what the heck it means.
edited 12th Feb '12 5:07:07 PM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.You need to be familiar with the Trope Namer, which means that IMO it's unclear.
2025: the year it all ends?I started to do a wick check, and on the first four pages I looked at, there were a total of ten wicks, all of them correct. There's conceivably potential for confusion but the page has been around for years and I don't think anyone's made the mistake alluded to.
The child is father to the man —OedipusWould anyone be opposed to calling upon the assistance of Special Efforts to do a wick check of BFG's 2000+ wicks?
Too small of a sample. IIRC unofficial standard procedure is to check around either 50 pages or 10% of the total number of wicks, whichever is larger.
edited 12th Feb '12 5:19:35 PM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.That's not what special efforts is for. It is now the job of the OP to do this check before things go into the forums. If you think there's a problem, prove it. It doesn't look like you're interested in proving it.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickI got a list of 50 numbers, but had to manually count down the list, which is tedious.
The child is father to the man —Oedipus

I know some of us don't like to admit initialisms are bad trope names, but BFG is an initialism could easily be expanded to avoid confusion with the Roald Dahl book The BFG (which needs namespacing, but that's not the point.) Big Freaking Gun works as a new name, while also avoiding the F-bomb problem mentioned in Everything You Wanted To Know About Changing Names.
The new policy says that I need evidence of something being broken. Having the same name as an unrelated work in which the letters stand for something else, plus being an initialism, may lead to erroneous links in the future, if there isn't already misuse.
If you do keep this thread (which is very unlikely) apply the same solution to BFS as you do to this. I understand your thoughts if you decide to not keep this for lack of misuse.
2025: the year it all ends?