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Our policy is "strong national ties", which Harry Potter definitely qualifies for.
The two tropers are edit warring over a trope name however, Curb-Stomp Battle vs Kerb-Stomp Battle. I don't think we rename or pothole tropes based on regional spelling.
I didn't choose the troping life, the troping life chose meAlso, I'm more in favour of "Curb" over "Kerb" due to familiarity.
I know what's a Curb-Stomp Battle ever since knowing this thing is a trope at least 7 years ago, but tbh this is the first time I've heard of "Kerb" Stomp Battle...
The redirect was only implemented 2 and a half weeks ago, going by edit history
.
Also my first time seeing "Kerb" outside of Kerbal Space Program
Edited by sgamer82Also, offa is rude in their edit reasons, writing things like "I don't know why you're obsessed with this and none of the other British spellings on the page" and "I don't know why you fixate on this when there are several other tropes with British spelling on this page."
Also, they use bad indentation.
I'm gonna summon them now.
FWIW, redirects can be used if they're gendered redirects or minor spelling tweaks, and don't ruin the alphabetization. Using Nice Girl instead of Nice Guy is fine. So is using Gloomy Grey over Gloomy Gray. Using Kerb-Stomp Battle, not so much.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall"Kerb" is the British English spelling of "curb" as the word applies to the edge of the sidewalk.
Edited by Vandagyre Cave Johnson, we're done here."Curb-stomp battle" is not a British idiom. I'd never even heard the term until I saw it on TV Tropes.
In British English, "kerb" is the side of a pavement where it meets the road ("Mind the kerb when you're crossing the road!").
"Curb" is used solely when talking about restraint ("Someone needs to curb that child's behaviour before he lands himself in gaol").
I've just looked up the origin of "curb-stomp". If it did exist in British English, it would indeed be spelled "kerb-stomp". What we do have is a phrase called "bite the kerb". While this is a reference to a "curb-stomp" it actually has death connotations. For example, instead of saying "Fuck off and die, bitch", you could say "Bite the kerb, bitch".
Edited to add: Actually, I've done a bit of digging, and "kerb-stomp" does exist in British English. I'm Welsh, so it's not a thing in Wales. However, it does exist as a term in English regions such as London (so, regions that are relevant to Harry Potter). Its use has Nazi origins dating back to WW2. The BBC has even used it in news articles (with the "kerb-stomp" spelling) when reporting in the London area about the arrests of neo-Nazis.
So, I stand corrected. "Kerb-stomp" does exist in British English.
Edited by Wyldchyld If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.So the question becomes should the entry on the page be Kerb-Stomp Battle, due to the British tie, or Curb-Stomp Battle due to the most common usage of the trope and the affect on alphebetization?
Side note: There's another ATT thread about this issue
started by ~Arthas 123
I hate to bring this up, but the redirect was added to about 40 pages, all of which were added by offa. Some of the pages are fine (like some Doctor Who subpages), but then there's pages like The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and Tomorrow Never Dies, which...I don't think that's correct.
They also have done a lot of changes from English to British spelling on these pages other than Kerb-Stomp Battle, and I'm not sure they're in the right here.
Edited by Arctimon^ Of the three, the only one I'd judge as "strong national ties" is Bond.
(As an aside, because alphabetization changes, whichever spelling ends up not used on a page should have a comment explaining the situation. So if we use the British spelling on K, a comment should be placed where the American spelling would go on C.)
2025: the year it all ends?I can understand why you'd want to use British English when discussing a work where the characters are Britons and it takes place at least partially in Britain (Bond travels all over the world, but he doesn't start talking American English when abroad). Not so much in the case of spelling, actually, but more when it comes to vocabulary. In the context of Harry Potter, it would feel jarring to talk about the "principal" of Hogwarts, or to say that Harry is in "junior high".
But I think it's going too far to say that The Hobbit has strong national ties in that sense. That would put us on a slippery slope where we'd end up only being able to discuss most authors in their native language.
Edited by GnomeTitanRight. Part of those strong national ties are the fact that the character and setting are explicitly British, not because their authors are. Even if Bond travels the world he's still a British secret agent. Their British icons in a way similar to American characters like (off-the-cuff example) Superman.
Tolkien's work, meanwhile, is in a pure fantasy world with analogues, at best. It would fall under "first come, first serve"
Edited by sgamer82I was going to ask about how it affects a fantasy setting because someone's just reverted British spelling on the YMMV.RWBY page to American English on the grounds that RWBY is an American-created show and therefore must use American English. However, the show itself is a made-up setting on a fantasy world, inspired by (and using) fairy tales from all over the world to create its characters, setting and plot.
That's the same situation as Tolkien's works, making it 'first come, first serve', isn't it? It would only fall under 'American spelling preferred' if the show was set in the US? note
Edited by Wyldchyld If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.It's HodorForKing who shouldn't have changed the spelling. Zaptech was correct to revert it. I'm just seeking clarification that the correct edit reason should be "violation of the 'first come, first serve' rule" rather than "fantasy work created by Americans should use American English".
The only reason I asked here is that it's directly connected to the Tolkien discussion, and I wanted to spare ATT a third thread on the same subject.
Edited by Wyldchyld If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.Gotcha.
Anyway, there are a few works that have national ties to them, including Indiana Jones, Jaws, The Iron Giant and Ready Player One (all of which are set in the United States and the main protagonists are American).
Edited by gjjones He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.^ I wouldn't say any of those have "strong National ties", speaking as an American. If anything, I think of movies like Independence Day.
Being set in a certain part of the world =/= "Strong National Ties". I consider that for works where, if you try and change the setting, more than just the setting would change. The plot and characters would be fundamentally different, maybe even radically so. Or, they're so tied to their home culture that you can't separate them.
Edited by WarJay77 Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallWell, yeah, that's the default policy. The question here is what to do with the "strong national ties" exceptions.
But we might want a Wiki Talk thread to discuss the idea and leave this one to be about the edit war.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallSince nobody has mentioned a notifier yet, I sent ~offa a rudeness one for the edit reason on Characters.Harry Potter Death Eaters, provided the URLS for this ATT thread and Administrivia.American And Commonwealth Spellings, explained the thread was discussion which pages did or did not fall under "strong national ties" and what to do with them, invited them to join in the discussion, and requested they hold off on further edits on this matter, if only because they may go to waste if the consensus decides to change them back.
Edit: in hindsight, I realize I forgot to mention the edit warring. Ah well, if they show up here they'll see it. If they don't, it probably won't matter.
Edited by sgamer82At that point wouldn't it just be more straightforward to have the pages for anything produced exclusively by US companies/creators use American spellings and every other page use Commonwealth spellings? I feel like that's where you'd eventually end up, anyway.
Personally, I'd rather use first come-first serve for everything; they're all legitimate spellings, after all. It's only an issue when people start edit warring over it, right?
Old Enough to Be Your Absurdly Youthful Mother

Arthas 123 and offa are edit warring on Characters.Harry Potter Death Eaters over the usage of American vs. British English.