All-Purpose Policy and Meta discussion: Administrivia.Trope Repair Shop

Freudian Excuse is definitely a trope that should be taken to TRS for many reasons, including it being used for any sympathetic villain backstory when it is specifically supposed to apply to bad childhoods.

On another note, a troper just deleted a bunch of examples of Audience-Alienating Ending based on the pre-rework definition of “the ending turns away potential fans from seeing the work”. I already sent a message about this, but what should I do if I don’t get a response? If I add the examples back, I’m technically edit warring, right?

You can take the issue to Ask The Tropers. If you receive support to revert the removals, then you can do so and it won't be an edit war.

~Adept

You haven't edited the Fountain Of Expies Wick Check in almost 6 months - that's almost half a year ago now. The trope is 52nd in the queue, so the thread won't be launched for a while, but given how quickly you managed to finish some other wick checks ahead of their launches (with that last one being for a trope that's currently 47th in the queue) I'm growing quite concerned.

I saw that Trans Equals Gay was added to the TRS Queue because the description is unclear and misuse needs to be cleaned up, but neither of those requires TRS since the amount of misuse isn't that high and it seems like the description just needs to be trimmed to make it more clear what the definition is instead of the definition itself being unclear. We have this thread for description clarification and Short-Term Projects for cleanup.

Edit: There might be other listings that don't require TRS; I just saw this one because it was added pretty recently.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 28th 2024 at 6:28:50 AM

I second Freudian Excuse being taken to TRS, not only because of the "bad childhood" issue, but because I've seen use for it beyond just villains (something I do not mind, TBH).

Notably, Trans Equals Gay was the result of a Trope Talk thread. Probably should have been brought up there that the proposed solution didn't require TRS.

I overlooked the fact that there was a Trope Talk thread when checking the folder on TRS Queue (when reading the OP, I was more focused on the relatively high amount of correct use and the argument that the description needs to be clarified) and I rarely go on Trope Talk, which is why I didn't post anything there. Plus, I didn't notice the listing for that trope until I skimmed the recent edit history of the Queue yesterday.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 29th 2024 at 1:06:24 PM

A user pointed out here that Homophobia Index mixes negative stereotypes, In-Universe discrimination against LGBT, and "carries Unfortunate Implications". I have an in-progress analysis at Sandbox.Homophobia Index Comparison. I discovered that some of the Unfortunate Implications-sounding ones are dubious and come across as Political Overcorrectness complaining. Additionally, 55 out of the 99 items are in Queer as Tropes.

Between multiple purely subjective indexes being cut in the past and Unfortunate Implications being Flame Bait, I could get behind to limiting the index to the "objectively negative stereotypes/discrimination In-Universe" category mentioned in that post and removing the "tropes that can carry Unfortunate Implications about LGBTQ+ people" category. If we do that, we could leave a commented-out note about the changes at the top of the page's source code like we did when Scrappy Index was cleaned up a few years ago.

Edit:

For reference, this is what was added to Scrappy Index's source:

If we leave a similar note on Homophobia Index, we could probably have the note say to restrict additions to tropes involving in-work bigotry instead of tropes the audience could think are bigoted.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Feb 3rd 2024 at 8:53:43 AM

I in general would prefer indexes apply subtrope logic to its content and not be listing every related page. For example Non-Human Non-Binary or Ambiguously Gay should not be at Homophobia Index because the tropes aren't inherently negative.

Edited by Amonimus on Feb 3rd 2024 at 3:57:46 PM

That's something I think is already a thing, but nobody has enforced it.

I remember the Homophobia Index being brought up somewhere on Long-Term years ago. It definitely needs a good cleaning, but I’m not sure how viable or district the concept really is from Queer as Tropes. We don’t have a Racism Index, after all. The only option that could really work would be limiting it to In-Universe attitudes, but I don’t know how much we could squeeze out of that.

Edited by jandn2014 on Feb 3rd 2024 at 10:42:53 AM

Double post: would it be fine if I place several tropes listed under The Merch on the queue as one thread? The Merch itself is fine; the problem is that many of its subtropes (ex. Blind Bag Collectables, The Kiddie Ride, Official Cosplay Gear) are not Trivia when they ought to be. Most of these are under 100 wicks each, so it'd be easier to lump them all together in one post. (Merchandise-Driven is also listed on Tropes Needing TRS, but with over 2000 wicks, that'd be a much greater effort and should be dealt with separately.)

If Homophobia Index is brought to TRS, cutting it could be an option if redundancy with Queer as Tropes is a concern.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Feb 3rd 2024 at 12:32:19 PM

As mentioned here, Idiosyncratic Mecha Storage is currently starving, probably due to its very tumultuous launch. Do I need a wick check for this kind of situation, or can I just launch without it?

Most likely. A wick check should be super-easy in this case, as there are only 20 wicks.

Except tropes that are Not Thriving do not require wick checks. Idiosyncratic Mecha Storage's TRS thread can be launched without one.

Edited by JHD0919 on Feb 3rd 2024 at 9:36:53 AM

A wick check isn't required since it's starving, but if you want to do one regardless of that, whatever floats your boat.

You can go ahead and add it to the TRS Queue if you have an OP to write, since a wick check isn't required here.

Edit: I saw that it was unlaunched at least once in the past, and it seems like the concern in the "Is this tropeworthy/Chairs?" thread posts that were linked to is that either it's Too Rare to Trope, or it's underdeveloped due to it being abandoned in the site's early years and then launched hastily after being picked up several years later. (I'll save further comments for the TRS thread when it's made.)

Edited by GastonRabbit on Feb 3rd 2024 at 12:30:32 PM

Did the idea of a "fast track" for easy/short threads ever go anywhere? because it seemed like a solid idea

Edited by Tremmor19 on Feb 6th 2024 at 7:02:33 AM

If you're referring to moving Not Thriving threads further up the TRS Queue instead of always putting them at the bottom like every other thread, then no, I'm pretty sure that hasn't come up in the past, so whether to do that would merit more discussion if that's what you're referring to.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Feb 6th 2024 at 3:05:37 AM

The idea was to have a specific thread for "not thriving" tropes to bypass the usual thread-making process and tackle them in a quicker timeframe.

That's come up multiple times since I became a mod, and I'm not convinced that's necessary, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only mod with that opinion.

Edit: I suppose another thing that could be done for Not Thriving threads is to split the TRS Queue between Not Thriving threads and other threads, with the former taking priority when opening new threads. The Queue is already informal, so adjusting how we use it (if we do that) shouldn't be a big deal.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Feb 6th 2024 at 3:21:09 AM

I've grown not liking making a shared thread for not thriving tropes as it could be difficult to handle. The idea of putting the not thriving tropes first and having like "the month of getting the small stuff out of the way" sounds entertaining.

yea, exactly. or i suppose also the very obvious duplicates, that sort of thing. Tropes with <50 wicks and an easy solution that can be gotten through without needing to wait in line

Eh, idk. I'd rather prioritize issues that actually need cleanup over tropes that have only committed the sin of being underused. I know they close fast, but then serious issues won't be handled any sooner and will instead just be treated as a lesser priority each time — especially if the not thriving list would always take precedent no matter what.