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Trope Launch Pad discard project

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Per Ask The Tropers, this thread will be used to reduce the number of old, poorly written drafts on the Trope Launch Pad. We don't want to discuss on the drafts themselves because that will bump them and mix them with active proposals.

Sandbox for the project: Trope Launch Pad Discard Project
Sandbox for discarded drafts but viable ideas: Trope Idea Salvage Yard

The first sandbox page above contains drafts proposed in the thread that are still pending and drafts that we've decided to leave alone, either with no action or a bump.
The second sandbox page is for awful drafts but viable ideas. According to moderators, badly written but interesting/tropeworthy drafts should remain on the TLP. Rather than allow low-effort drafts to clog TLP, though, the salvage yard was opened to keep just the ideas behind them, in one place.

On this thread, we will mention which drafts we think are unworkable, add enough bombs, and discard (nuke) them. Discarding requires at least 5 bombs. Among the features of "unworkable" drafts:

  • There have been no edits for a very long time, or at all
  • The draft is low-effort, containing atrocious spelling and grammar and/or little to no examples, e.g. NEVER saw THAT coming (!), Nut-Chuks
  • The draft was seemingly created so the sponsor could complain
  • The topic is People Sit on Chairs, Too Rare to Trope, a search query created by mistake, etc. and therefore not tropeworthy
  • The topic is already sufficiently covered by one or more tropes or is a duplicate of a better-written TLP draft
  • The draft is problematic in other ways, such being closely tied to a page that has been historically problematic, e.g. Fetish Fuel, Complete Monster
  • There's no discussion currently occurring in the comments to improve the proposal

If we decide to discard a draft after discussion via this thread, whoever does so must provide the discard reason in the comment section of the draft, for transparency's sake. Those looking at the discards section won't think it was nuked for no reason.

Also, check out the sister project, Trope Adoption Drive, where good drafts put Up for Grabs or abandoned can be grabbed, given a bit more improvement, and launched.

Edited by Tabs on Mar 24th 2022 at 12:02:43 PM

Tabs Since: Jan, 2001
#701: Nov 7th 2019 at 9:26:04 AM

Miss Desperado points out that Reflex Check is likely assimilated into Reveal By Reflex, so the former can be discarded. But if Reveal By Reflex is sufficiently covered by Hey, Catch! and Cover-Blowing Superpower, then both can be discarded.

ElBuenCuate Since: Oct, 2010
#702: Nov 7th 2019 at 11:37:43 AM

I bombed Reflex Check. I'm still over the fence with the other one.

Also, I want to bring these other tropes.

Edited by ElBuenCuate on Nov 7th 2019 at 7:48:48 AM

Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#703: Nov 7th 2019 at 12:37:59 PM

For My Relative Is Famous we actually have History with Celebrity. MTD.

For Alabama I suppose making a Useful Notes page about the American South as a whole would be better.

Edited by Synchronicity on Nov 8th 2019 at 10:05:17 AM

ElBuenCuate Since: Oct, 2010
#704: Nov 7th 2019 at 12:47:06 PM

[up]Yeah, I suspected that there would be already something like that, honestly. So I guess we must discard it.

I bombed all the drafts.

Edited by ElBuenCuate on Nov 7th 2019 at 2:59:26 PM

gc10 Human Bean from Pastastastan Since: Feb, 2019 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#706: Nov 7th 2019 at 1:15:02 PM

Edited by Synchronicity on Nov 26th 2019 at 4:29:39 AM

ElBuenCuate Since: Oct, 2010
#707: Nov 7th 2019 at 1:31:46 PM

I discarded Black Characters with Black in their Name and Crazy Hair, Crazy Mind.

gc10 Human Bean from Pastastastan Since: Feb, 2019 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Human Bean
#708: Nov 7th 2019 at 1:48:58 PM

9.651 drafts on the TLP.

HeavyMetalHermitCrab Since: Sep, 2018
#709: Nov 7th 2019 at 2:06:00 PM

Bombjour!

Single Side Family I kind of get what this is going for, but I don’t know how trope worthy it is (many examples could just be Out of Focus). It’s never been updated, and it’s so poorly written and unclear that it’d be way easier to start over than try to fix this, even if it were theoretically a trope (which I don’t know that it is). It’s also already got 4 bombs and no hats.

Intangible Vegetation “Decorative videogame vegetation that doesn’t react realistically when you touch it” is not a trope.

Treasure Hunt of Doom I don’t really know that this is significantly different from MacGuffin (what this trope is proposing appears IN THE DESCRIPTION of a MacGuffin), or anything involving a search for it. Poorly written, never updated. MTD.

possession (not a) chat Haunted Technology but more specific. No examples or discussion, poorly written, never updated.

Situational Awareness I just don’t think “being somewhat competent in a dangerous situation” is really tropable.

Became the Original Dupe of Becoming the Mask

Character Projection Dupe of Psychological Projection

Enemy Characters, Actor Friendship Not meaningfully different from Mean Character, Nice Actor, IMO

Flush the attacker out of hiding Could be Draw Aggro or Defensive Feint Trap? No updates or real discussion.

Edited by HeavyMetalHermitCrab on Nov 9th 2019 at 1:40:32 AM

ElBuenCuate Since: Oct, 2010
#710: Nov 7th 2019 at 2:07:32 PM

[up][up]New goal. Let's get to 300 pages before 2020. note 

Edited by ElBuenCuate on Nov 7th 2019 at 4:08:40 AM

gc10 Human Bean from Pastastastan Since: Feb, 2019 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Human Bean
#711: Nov 7th 2019 at 2:55:33 PM

I'm discarding Character Projection and Enemy character, actor friends.

Edited by gc10 on Nov 7th 2019 at 11:56:12 AM

ElBuenCuate Since: Oct, 2010
#712: Nov 7th 2019 at 9:40:49 PM

Here are some other drafts.

Edited by ElBuenCuate on Nov 8th 2019 at 2:12:46 PM

Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#713: Nov 8th 2019 at 8:36:13 AM

Edited by Synchronicity on Nov 10th 2019 at 2:56:51 PM

gc10 Human Bean from Pastastastan Since: Feb, 2019 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Human Bean
#714: Nov 8th 2019 at 9:35:22 AM

Damn we're working fast. We're at 9630 drafts right now. I bombed almost every other draft you posted these days. When I'll have a bit more of free time, I'll check again the last pages of this thread, to see if I can find older drafts that were fogotten but still deserve attention.

Do you know what we'd really need? A self-discard timer for drafts. I'm not talking about automatically discard drafts who aren't touched in, let's say, a month. Even if said timer was set at "one year without activity", we'd get rid of a huge pile of work. As many people say, in most cases people are more likely to start a newer and better draft rather than find an older one.

Edited by gc10 on Nov 8th 2019 at 6:38:51 PM

ElBuenCuate Since: Oct, 2010
#715: Nov 8th 2019 at 12:23:21 PM

[up] That would be a really cool idea, indeed. If only it was as easy as agreeing on it.

I discarded Sacrifice Turnaround and Character Name in: Episode Title and Milton Induced Emotional Trauma.

Edited by ElBuenCuate on Nov 8th 2019 at 2:24:38 PM

Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#716: Nov 8th 2019 at 1:31:46 PM

[up]I suppose the main hurdle would be actually implementing it in the code, etc. It's difficult to get improvements to the site passed.

Also, there are a few usernames in the older drafts who are still active, like ~neoYTPism. Maybe we can bring this thread to their attention so they can discard or bump/mothball ancient drafts at their discretion?

Edited by Synchronicity on Nov 26th 2019 at 4:32:57 AM

XFllo There is no Planet B from Planet A Since: Aug, 2012
There is no Planet B
#717: Nov 8th 2019 at 3:00:06 PM

Do you know what we'd really need? A self-discard timer for drafts. I'm not talking about automatically discard drafts who aren't touched in, let's say, a month. Even if said timer was set at "one year without activity", we'd get rid of a huge pile of work. As many people say, in most cases people are more likely to start a newer and better draft rather than find an older one.

I'm very much against this idea. We would lose so many cool ideas.

I guess majority of you are invested in discarding as many drafts as possible. I get that, many of those are pretty bad and should have been discarded years ago.

However, I'm more interested in grabbing cool ideas and polishing them for launch. But getting a page to launch is much harder work and needs considerably more investment.

But come on, one month is unthinkable: After one month of inactivity from OP, the draft is not even Up for Grabs. One year is not that long either, if you think about it.

It happens all the time that avid tropers get super busy in RL and forget about their drafts. Sometimes they come back after a year or two. Or a miracle happens and others grab their drafts. Starting afresh is probably better if there are no comments, but at times the old drafts are good for getting the inspiration in the first place.

The swift work from this thread is impressive, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Edited by XFllo on Nov 8th 2019 at 12:20:05 PM

Brainulator9 Short-Term Projects herald from US Since: Aug, 2018 Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
Short-Term Projects herald
#718: Nov 8th 2019 at 3:16:12 PM

[up] Agreed.

Contains 20% less fat than the leading value brand!
HeavyMetalHermitCrab Since: Sep, 2018
#719: Nov 8th 2019 at 3:50:05 PM

I think you'd have to add a LOT of qualifiers to the proposed automated-elimination system if you want it to be even vaguely useful, rather than simply destructive. It'd have to be something convoluted like "No activity for 1 year AND no updates AND no hats AND less than X posts of discussion."

Honestly, there's no way a script can help with the single biggest problem in this endeavor: figuring out if a trope already exists or not, figuring out it's worthy of inclusion on the site and finding (or convincing) 5 other people to feel the same. That's a value judgement and it requires human eyes, and I don't think very many people like playing the "bad guy" and slamming the Bomb or the Discard button, even if it is well deserved (90% of discards are made by less than 10 people).

While I think that reducing the size of the queue would make X Fllo's goal easier to follow (and I agree with what she said, at least in principle), I don't know of a good, quick way to do it that doesn't involve potentially murdering a lot of good ideas that never got enough sun.

HeavyMetalHermitCrab Since: Sep, 2018
#720: Nov 8th 2019 at 4:55:24 PM

Scale of Magical Flashiness This isn’t even a draft and barely a proposal, it’s more of a Trope Finder query, or an Ask the Tropers question.

Sliding Scale of Emotional Storytelling The draft makes me wonder if the OP knows what “logic” and “emotion” actually mean when talking about narrative design — they’re certainly not opposing forces. More urgently, this is YMMV stuff that’s pretty much inviting Complaining, Gushing, Natter and Fighting.

Sliding Scale of Action Vs Horror Sliding scales just don’t work that well when the two items on the scale aren’t opposites, or can’t be clearly distinguished from each other.

Return of the Abandoned Running Gag Call-Back for running gags.

Refuge in Darkness The draft is a mess — it’s trying to be a snowclone Refuge in Audacity for “grimdark” works, but the majority of the actual text is little more than trying to define and/or differentiate “dark” from “grimdark.” Personally I don’t think it’s necessary or evendistinct enough from Grimdark itself.

Edited by HeavyMetalHermitCrab on Nov 10th 2019 at 12:08:41 PM

Miss_Desperado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YD2i1FzUYA from somewhere getting rained on by Puget Sound Since: Sep, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#721: Nov 8th 2019 at 8:02:05 PM

I agree with Xfllo's warning to not throw the baby out with the bathwater, and Hermit Crab's assessment that computer code can't easily replace human judgement.

Gc 10, if you look at the history page for Trope Launch Pad Discard Project, you'll see that I've gotten as far as recording the end results of up to page 22 comment 538. It's been getting harder for me to keep up with this thread, because in real life I've been getting more and more commissions on Rover.com — which is good news for me, as more business means more money to pay the bills.

Is there any way that Heroic Sheep could be redone as Unexpectedly Badass Sheep or something like that, to distinguish it from Sweet Sheep and (maybe, hopefully) prevent people leaving examples of People Sit on Chairs sheep?

I'm mothballing Spinning Backfist according to page 22 comment 538

Edited by Miss_Desperado on Nov 8th 2019 at 8:04:26 AM

If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.
ElBuenCuate Since: Oct, 2010
#722: Nov 8th 2019 at 10:32:41 PM

I agree with the idea to try to salvage good ideas, and many people might come back to work after years of leaving a draft, but those would be the exceptions rather than the rule. Maybe a year would still be short, but I would still think a eventual automatic discard would be good, maybe after we get a more managable number of drafts on the pad, so is more likely for someone to see older proposals.


I'll bring these other drafts.

Edited by ElBuenCuate on Nov 11th 2019 at 1:47:21 PM

Tabs Since: Jan, 2001
#723: Nov 8th 2019 at 10:48:25 PM

Sometime within the next day, I'm going to move the drafts more then 3 months old to mothball while clearing out the ones that have since been nuked (with reason).

F.E.D. ... : As far as I can tell, this only exists only in the draft author's head. Since he created his own wiki over at Wikia/Fandom, we can safely discard.

Edited by Tabs on Nov 8th 2019 at 10:56:45 AM

gc10 Human Bean from Pastastastan Since: Feb, 2019 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Human Bean
#724: Nov 9th 2019 at 5:01:59 AM

I'm discarding Compressed Prequel, Extraverted Loser and Sketch-Swirl Style.

[up][up] Indestructium has 10 bombs and 16 hats, but it wasn't worked in over a year and many consider it redundant. Can we discard it then?

Edited by gc10 on Nov 9th 2019 at 2:07:56 PM

Malady (X-Troper)
#725: Nov 9th 2019 at 5:31:58 AM

[up] - Discard, I'd say, but also want a name switch since Made of Indestructium seems to require a manufactured item.

But low chance of that. Discard.

Edited by Malady on Nov 9th 2019 at 5:32:52 AM

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576

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