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Do you remember the three original Sorting Algorithms?

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AoeAbility Akarat bless you. from Personal Evil Tower of Ominousness Since: Mar, 2021 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
#1: Apr 5th 2023 at 11:07:54 AM

In my early troping days, I came across the Sorting Algorithm of Mortality, Sorting Algorithm of Deadness, and Sorting Algorithm of Face-Heel Turning, and I found these pages really fun. I think it's cool to have a numeric measurer of how likely it is for a character to die, stay dead, or undergo a corruption/redemption arc, even if it is just a joke.

I do have a couple things on my mind about these pages, though, that I would like to share:

1. They haven't been touched in AGES. The only edits I saw on the pages themselves are renames and trope cuts resulting from TRS threads. The WMG sections for all of them are also pretty barren, filled with deprecated editing practices, and, again, not used for a long time.

2. They are filled with cliches that have been parodied into oblivion (I'm looking at you, Black Dude Dies First!), and cannot be used seriously anymore, making the system a bit archaic, and seem to be missing a lot of detail, as many entries from the aforementioned WMG pages have to, well, guess what number to assign to each character based on the missing information on the tables.

3. They are articles on the main namespace, even though they would probably fit better under Just for Fun.

I believe these abandoned parts of the wiki need some attention, and, in case they deserve it, some Wiki Magic.

You keep using the term "POV". I do not think it means what you think it means.
MorganWick (Elder Troper)
#2: Apr 7th 2023 at 6:08:04 AM

Worth noting we seem to have a semi-official position of "no new sorting algorithms" because Type Labels Are Not Examples and sorting algorithm pages are generally not tropes, although I think that was primarily the position of Fighteer who might not be around anymore and seemed to disdain the existence of Just for Fun pages, or anything they considered off-mission, at all. That's somewhat orthogonal to your point but it does point to the attitude that might contribute to these pages being neglected and the uphill battle you'd have trying to revive them.

Edited by MorganWick on Apr 7th 2023 at 6:08:43 AM

AoeAbility Akarat bless you. from Personal Evil Tower of Ominousness Since: Mar, 2021 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
#3: Apr 7th 2023 at 4:40:40 PM

Reviving them is not one of my goals here. Despite this, I do believe something needs to be done with them, because they seem like oddballs in the wiki in hindsight, and could use a lot of work, especially namespacing and cleaning up the poor editing.

You keep using the term "POV". I do not think it means what you think it means.
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#4: Apr 7th 2023 at 6:45:31 PM

Honestly, although they aren't tropes proper, I always thought they served a useful function. Sure, individual tropes describe a work, but the sorting algorithms gave a framework for how multiple tropes can be used to analyse one and its outcomes.

AoeAbility Akarat bless you. from Personal Evil Tower of Ominousness Since: Mar, 2021 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
#5: Apr 9th 2023 at 1:07:33 PM

I see your point. If that's the case, the pages might need some updating and cleanup anyway, for reasons I explained above.

Edited by AoeAbility on Apr 9th 2023 at 1:09:03 AM

You keep using the term "POV". I do not think it means what you think it means.
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