Ask The Tropers

It's an attempted ROT13 version of Page d'Accueil, but accented characters were unchanged.

What's ROT 13?

^This.

So it was a cypher.

... Why do we need a cypher version of the home page in the first place?

I don't think we need that page or most other jokey versions of the home pages for that matter. Yeah, they're slightly funny, but as it stands, it's just one page in an unneeded namespace that won't get a wiki of its own. Of course, a regular French translation is fine.

bwburke: The reason accented letters are unchanged is that ROT 13 only works on the English alphabet. Rotating each letter 13 places in the alphabet is only self-inverting if there are 26 different letters.

It's certainly weird, but I wouldn't mind keeping it around for the sheer novelty, maybe in a JFF namespace though?

Yeah, moving pages like AlBhed.Home Page to JustForFun.Al Bhed Home Page could work (it would certainly cut on single-use namespaces). Though our French ROT 13 home page is on the Cut List (not because of me).

I can see no reason whatsoever to keep ROT 13'd pages around. They're not funny and are completely and utterly pointless.

The cut request has been declined (for whatever reason.)

I still say we move 'em to JFF. What's the harm?

Declined it with this convo ongoing.

ROT 13 translations don't add anything to the wiki. If someone desperately wants to read an existing page in ROT 13, they can paste them into rot13.com .

Paging ~Yugnat, the page creator (I hope that worked)

Keep the joke main page translations since they're not causing any harm. I'm against moving them to the Just for Fun namespace since it would make navigating to them harder, and what's the problem with single-use namespaces?

There is a namespace cleanup thread in the Long Term Projects forum in which people discuss which namespaces are unnecessary due to some namespace configuration system being developed, and [[the first post even states "let's get rid of one-off namespaces that aren't being used for actual trope content." While the topic is currently going sluggishly and they're waiting for some tech fixes for this thing, I still tend to be vigilant when I find a single-use namespace (even if clearing them all would probably be impossible due to page splits)

Normally I'd be in favor of removing joke pages like this because they serve no purpose, but I have to ask: what harm is this causing? Last I checked, there were quite a few joke translations of the home page around — what's so special about this one that would demand its removal? I don't see any precedent set that might lead down a slippery slope of junk page creation.

I remember one April Fool's where visiting the regular Home Page would randomly give you one of the joke ones.

I'm not advocating for full deletion, I just think moving pages like these to Just for Fun would cut on unnecessary namespaces. Yes, it may make navigating them slightly harder, but there's always the Home Pages index, and I'd like to know if anyone else agrees with such a move.

Well, the crucial problem with using namespaces for the joke pages is that they're incompatible with the namespace configuration tool that we're trying to get finished. When that is fully functional, creating articles in unapproved namespaces will be literally impossible. Putting them in JFF at least solves that one problem.

Is that a yes?

You have my general support, but we could use a few more voices.

I'm in favor of a Just for Fun move.

I oppose moving them, but wouldn't mind cutting the French ROT13 one since it doesn't work.

I support moving them

Move to Just For Le Fun.

I support moving the joke translations to Just for Fun or perhaps JFF's translations.

I agree that navigation through the Home Pages index to see the Just for Fun pages is better than using invalid namespaces. The JFF pages should be moved/renamed.

I cast my vote earlier- move to JFF.

To be clear, I don't object to joke translations. (I have no opinion on moving them to JFF or not.) My objection is specifically to ciphers. Klingon fine, ROT13 no.

What's the problem with a cipher? They can technically be considered a form of language, and they certainly aren't hurting anything.

A page that was created by pasting an existing page into an encryption script does not add anything to the wiki.

Nor does it take anything away from the wiki. It just is, and it's a novelty.

There's 24 other ROT numbers one might use. Are we gonna have all of those, too, in every language? It doesn't take anything away from the wiki and is a novelty.

On principal, I wouldn't be opposed to that, just as long as it's confined to JFF, which is what most of us here want. Unnecessary, yeah, but what's the harm?

Anyway, as there seems to be consensus for moving to Just For Fun, some pages were moved. It's not completely done, but I'll finish it tomorrow, as I'm getting sleepy (it's midnight in my time zone).

PS: The only harm I assume would happen is a loss of a tiny amount of server space, but a few hundred kilobytes from all these pages or so really isn't that big of a loss.

Alright, all pages in the one-off joke namespaces are on the Cut List and are now in the JustForFun/ namespace, including our French ROT 13 (though that one's in their French equivalent which has 12 pages, FrJustePourRire/). Left legit languages alone, because who knows, maybe they will be expanded someday.

Thank you for the work.