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.
Deliberate redlinks are a last resort.
I've cleaned up Chekov (and Cerberus Syndrome et al) multiple times over the years. I'm in favor of redlinking it, because every other option has been exhausted.
I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.I've always found this page funny, but never funny enough to justify encouraging mistakes by tropers. I really have no idea why it's not Just for Fun.
^ Same
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure PurenessI tried to move it there a long time ago. As I recall, Eddie intervened and basically said "No. Now stop being a party-pooper."
He was our God-Emperor so I dropped the matter, but I never really agreed with his decision.
Edited by DracMonsterCurrently, JustForFun.Chekovs Gun redirects to Main/ . I think it'd be fine to move the content to JFF and cut Main/ . The "inexact title" system would reveal the page's existence to anyone who clicked a link, so the joke would still be there.
Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.Support either moving it to JustForFun.Chekovs Gun or making Main.Chekovs Gun a fake redlink like with This Troper, or doing both and making the main page a redirect.
Are fake redlinks even possible anymore? According to the Permanent Red Link Club, Heroic Sociopath, Hot Mom, and Hot Dad are supposed to be red, but appear blue.
Edited by rjd1922 Keet cleanupThe page is currently locked, so mod approval would be needed.
^^Huh. It still works for This Troper, though? Odd.
^^ Given the nature of the page, mod approval would be needed anyway.
And now that Eddie's been gone for years, it's the perfect time to get this moved to JFF.
I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.Eddie made a lot of, let's just say "questionable" decisions and enforced them with admin fiat when he still ran the site.
If it's causing issues with mass misspellings I definitely support taking some sort of action.
Yeah, Eddie may be the all-powerful creator of Tv Tropes but even he wasn't and isn't infallible. If the only reason not to do it would be because Eddie said so once when he was still around, then I say we take a stand and fix the issue.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure PurenessI support making the links appear red.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.I can see asking for a deliberate red link but I am not really excited by that idea, and in any case it'll be likely at the bottom of developers' priorities.
A namespace move it out of the question. It won't work - the reason these bad links exist is because of typos, not because people see the page and decide to link to it - and it would take away much of its humour value. No benefit at all and a non-trivial disadvantage, that is.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanUh, Septimus, they exist because the link is blue.
If the page were cut and relocated out of the main namespace, it would stop it, because the link would be red. People would be catching their typoes and (hopefully) correcting them.
Edited by DracMonsterDoing what was done with This Troper would help with bad wicks, so the joke would be on people who mistype the URL or searches instead of people who fix bad wicks.
I'll add that I'm in favor of redlinking the pages rjd previously mentioned, since the staff already decided to make links to those pages appear red, and the blueness is due to a since-corrected technical limitation.
Edited by GastonRabbit Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.I've asked about the redlink.
DracMonster, if memory serves the page was originally created because it was a common target for typo'd links. The idea was that people clicking on such links should get a somewhat humorous page to land on rather than a misleading "this page does not exist" message. So that would call into question whether a redlink would actually help.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanI don't think it would be a problem because when you search "chekovs gun", google substitutes "Chekhov" automatically.
I think most people would do a quick search when they see the redlink and realize "ah, I missed the h!" Since google nudges them that way anyway.
EDIT: Also, the cut reason could explain the typo.
Edited by DracMonsterSupport moving to just for fun, but I think the Laconic and Playing With pages should be kept.
Keet cleanupMove to JustForFun.Chekovs Gun. Past decisions aren't immutable.
Edit: I moved it and swapped the redirect. We can't cut the Main redirect until wicks are transplanted. I'm ambivalent about the subpages.
Edited by Fighteer "It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I'll take care of it gladly.
Well, it seems like there are too many inbounds to cut the page so that's not done. That, and I am still not convinced that the namespace move was necessary or useful.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanWould auto-disambiguation cover the inbound links?
Edit: I also noticed at least one incorrect use even after the move.
Edited by costanton11No, that is too crude.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanWhy'd you cut PlayingWith.Chekovs Gun with a generic "Just For Fun pages don't get subpages" message without even responding to me when I said I didn't think it should be cut? I'm glad you kept the Laconic page, which I think should be an exception to the "no Just For Fun subpages" rule that only recently came about.
Also, ImageLinks.Trope Tan was deleted and the links moved to the "fanart" folder of the main page, but later Willbyr, a mod, created ImageLinks.Bowsette. The reason JFF pages aren't allowed to have subpages according to Fighteer is so people don't confuse them for real works, but Image Links shouldn't create that confusion.
Edited by rjd1922 Keet cleanupOn a related note, JustForFun.Chekovs Gun is currently listed on Administrivia.Locked Pages even though it currently isn’t locked.
Do we really need to keep a main redirect just because it has a lot of inbounds? Main.Family Guy got cut despite having 700 inbounds, and there are probably other examples I can't think of at the moment.
Edited by Mickoonsley19Could we make the main redirect a fake redlinks?
Keet cleanupI've restored the two subpages. I think we need a bit more thought on cutting than a blithe mention of a "policy" that does not necessarily even exist.
As for cutting the main redirect, as I said before I am not in favour of the move in the first place so certainly not favouring that either. A fake redlink is a reasonable move; I'll try to get the admins' opinion on this.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanI corrected another example of misuse.
Yeah, it's a fairly common typo. Mislinks will probably continue.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Could Chekovs Gun be made a red link?
It was originally made as a joke about misspellings of Chekhov's Gun. Eddie himself unilaterally vetoed cutting it or moving or redirecting it to Just for Fun.
The problem is, as long as it's a blue link, people can't catch misspellings. There's a bunch of incorrect links on its related page.