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Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
2014-10-20 10:56:28

You can chop them if you leave an edit note (it's good practice to always leave an edit note when deleting an example or moving it to discussion), but commenting them out is probably better, because it invites drive-bys who are familiar with the show to uncomment them and add context.

Fighteer MOD (Time Abyss)
2014-10-20 11:08:36

^ What Ramidel said. To the casual reader, the difference between a deleted and a commented out ZCE is moot. However, when they click the Edit button to add an example, the commented out entry should indicate to them that it's in need of expansion.

I can't honestly say which policy is better in the long run, as we have only anecdotal evidence to judge them by. Suspensions for uncommenting ZCEs without expanding them make up a non-trivial portion of our Edit Banned conversations.

Edited by Fighteer "It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
SolipSchism Since: Jun, 2014
2014-10-20 11:13:52

Good to know. I will start commenting them instead; it can clutter up the page source, but as long as we're not worried about that, it does seem less potentially destructive.

Would it be all right if I edited the relevant Administrivia pages to show what is allowed, what is encouraged, and the appropriate way to do either?

I ask because I dunno if the Administrivia pages have editing rules/guidelines that differ from pages in the Main namespace.

Edited by SolipSchism
Fighteer MOD (Time Abyss)
2014-10-20 11:23:18

I'm pretty sure that all relevant Administrivia pages are locked because of You Know Who, but sure, go ahead if you can.

Edit: My personal policy when editing is to delete newly-added ZCEs unless the article is already cleaned — that is, has an editing notice at the top and comments on all existing bad examples. If I don't have time to properly scrub an article, then leaving individual examples commented out is confusing and therefore counterproductive.

Edited by Fighteer "It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
SolipSchism Since: Jun, 2014
2014-10-20 11:30:23

Administrivia.Zero Context Example is locked, but I was able to edit Administrivia.TV Tropes Customs. Just added a line after the above text, to add that it's often preferable to comment them out.

Also, I feel compelled to note that I Don't Know Who, but I'm okay with that. :p

Edited by SolipSchism
SolipSchism Since: Jun, 2014
2014-10-20 13:31:34

Oh hey. There's a thread that addresses this. It seems the officially-sanctioned way to deal with them is to comment them out.

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