TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Ask The Tropers

Go To

Have a question about how the TVTropes wiki works? No one knows this community better than the people in it, so ask away! Ask the Tropers is the page you come to when you have a question burning in your brain and the support pages didn't help. It's not for everything, though. For a list of all the resources for your questions, click here. You can also go to this Directory thread for ongoing cleanup projects.

Ask the Tropers:

Trope Related Question:

Make Private (For security bugs or stuff only for moderators)

DracMonster Since: Jan, 2001
2017-12-02 04:58:22

Yeah go ahead. Removing them was incorrect.

WaterBlap Since: May, 2014
2017-12-02 06:08:27

Just remember that the indexing won't work when they're created and they'll need to be added again after being made.

Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty
LB7979 Since: Mar, 2016
2017-12-02 06:45:18

^ Thanks, will P.M. others about this in the future (unless it's on an Index page, see below).

^^ O, in that case it's better to remove them I guess! Because if someone creates the work page and sees the movie already on the Index page, they won't know it not showing up in the actual Index, so won't add the work (again) to the Index. Good to know.

Edited by LB7979
Derkhan Since: Nov, 2012
2017-12-02 09:29:20

It's not so much that they will have to be added again as the index needs to be edited again (even if it's just a null edit) to register that the page now exists. This should be done by whoever creates the page, but in the worst case, if the redlink already existed the next time someone edits the index for any reason it will register as not red anymore.

crazysamaritan MOD Since: Apr, 2010
2017-12-02 17:49:32

I've seen it recommended NOT to leave red links in indexes, because it breaks the index linking for "next page" and "previous page" clicks, forcing the user to go back to the index page.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
jormis29 Since: Mar, 2012
2017-12-02 18:46:16

^ That's odd because it doesn't work like that, indexes just skip to the next bullet point if the first link is a redlink

Candi Since: Aug, 2012
2017-12-02 19:21:59

I've been on this site for 4-5 years now, and I have never heard of that. I've just been kicked to the next blue link in that situation. I will say the last time I did that was before the first post-Eddie upgrade.

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
Xtifr Since: Jan, 2001
2017-12-03 12:55:16

^^ I remember that. But yeah, it's been fixed.

There are still at least three problems with redlinks on indexes, though.

One is updating, which was mentioned above.

Two is what happens when the page gets turned into a redirect instead of a regular page. Which, I can say from experience, can be quite annoying under the right (wrong?) circumstances.

Three is what happens when you have an example like:

Where Anne Author is a blue link. Then someone else comes along and decides to unlink My Book, and now Anne Author is indexed...

So, overall, even though I'm generally very pro-redlink, I prefer not to have them on indexes. (Unless the index entries include context.)

Edited by Xtifr Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.
Candi Since: Aug, 2012
2017-12-04 07:13:47

Unless it's a P5 devil headed work, no one should be unlinking that. That calls for relinking.

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
Fighteer MOD (Time Abyss)
2017-12-04 07:34:53

The problem of the author's name getting added to the index when it's a valid secondary link on a redlinked work page is known, but there's no workaround other than not bluelinking the author, or wrapping the entry in [noindex] tags.

The problem of redirects causing erroneous behavior on indexes will be fixed in the 1.8 redesign. Instead, they'll be ignored entirely.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
crazysamaritan MOD Since: Apr, 2010
2017-12-06 11:07:31

Good to hear. :)

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Top