Misused: Word Salad

Word Salad is something of an odd bird. It's supposed to be a redirect to Talkative Loon, which is about a character that spouts Word Salad. However, a majority of the wicks use it as a separate concept or trope. While there's less than 200 wicks, the usage still appears to be significant enough to be concerning.

In the Word Salad Wick Check, I checked 50 wicks. The results are in the sandbox, as well as summarized below:

• Used as a unique trope: 36/50, or 72%
• Talkative Loon: 5/50, or 10%
• Misuse: 4/50, or 8%
• ZCE: 5/50, or 10%

A few interesting things to analyze here. First off, the misuse folder didn't end up used for things that were misuse of Talkative Loon, but rather for things that simply didn't qualify as Word Salad. All of the wicks in folder 1 were misuse, too, but in the way that it correctly identified these examples as fitting the dictionary definition of Word Salad, rather than the trope it redirects to. It's also interesting how few ZCE examples there were.

My solution is simple: We make Word Salad into a proper trope, as well as a supertrope to Talkative Loon, Word Salad Title, Word Salad Lyrics, and Word-Salad Horror. Even with only about 192 (not counting the sandbox) examples, and knowing some of those examples would probably need to be cut or moved to Talkative Loon, we're still looking at about 140 examples for this trope, which is in the healthy range, albeit assuming my math is correct.

Opened. How does Word Salad Index relate?

I don't think most of those qualify as actual Word Salad, which is specifically about using speech made up of random words and phrases. For example, Angrish is angry gibberish, but usually the person doesn't use actual word salad. If anything that index should be named to something like Incoherent Index.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jan 21st 2022 at 3:19:01 PM

Count one for un-redirecting Word Salad and sending it to TLP. Also renaming Word Salad Index may be a good idea.

Add me as a fan of splitting it off into its own trope.

Agree with both.

I am fine with splitting off Word Salad

Oh, and add Word-Salad Humor as a subtrope- I forgot about that one.

I think we should turn Word Salad into a separate trope. It helps that it's a preexisting term that has to do with what a person says instead of how talkative they are.

That wouldn't be unlike what I already thought should be done with Gameplay and Story Integration (which is a redirect to Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration, but is frequently used as a counterpart to Gameplay and Story Segregation to the point that the redirect has significantly more wicks).

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 21st 2022 at 11:21:57 AM

One question I have though: If we do end up splitting Word Salad off, will we have on-page examples? Most of the ones I found were in-line wicks or potholes, and while they can certainly be rewritten or expanded upon, it might also just be best as an exampleless supertrope, at least as far as on-page examples go.

I'm fine with turning it into an exampleless supertrope for tropes on the Word Salad Index.

Eh, I still think that index needs to be renamed, since most of it wouldn't actually qualify as Word Salad. I suggested Incoherent Index above. I'd rather this just be a supertrope to things that specifically are Word Salad.

We can use this thread to rename Word Salad Index. There aren't too many wicks to it, so there wouldn't be too much to change.

I'll tag Word Salad Index and Talkative Loon (the latter because a redirect to it is being discussed).

Edit: Both pages have been tagged. Incoherent Index is a good name; it's catchier than the current name in addition to more clearly indicating the index's purpose. Incoherence Index might also work (and we could always turn one into a redirect to the other).

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jan 21st 2022 at 11:56:42 AM

It's been three days since I posted this (well, if you go by the time zones...). Here's a free bump, but also a question of if I should just make a crowner.

I think a crowner is a good idea.

Alrighty:

• Spin Word Salad off into a supertrope for things like Talkative Loon, Word-Salad Horror, Word Salad Lyrics, and Word-Salad Humor.
• Rename Word Salad Index
• If Word Salad is spun off, make it no-on-page-examples.

I think this can be called?

Alright, looks like we need to mine examples. Should I take Word Salad to TLP?

For example gathering, sure.

I'll write a description up and mine my wick check for examples later, then.

Title crowner for Word Salad Index is up.

Draft up. I'm not entirely satisfied with it, but it's a start.

Already someone is concerned about the examples. I think we'll have to rethink the crowner's vote to include examples on the supertrope; I'm really not sure it's viable. If the TLP community ends up agreeing it should be definition only, does that trump the decision made here?

Edited by WarJay77 on Jan 28th 2022 at 5:57:21 AM