Strikethrough is now locked.

Vorpy

I completely agree that this thread has become unproductive and will lock it as soon as I'm done typing this reply. The reason the slippery slope argument is a fallacy in this case is that there is no "slope". There's just a gradual series of changes that are occurring over time. Call it an evolution if you will. Each issue is decided on its individual merits — Eddie is not sitting around thinking, "Gee, I took all this other stuff away from the tropers, what can I get rid of next that will make the site less fun?" Eddie has gone on record as disliking strikethrough from the very beginning and this removal, however contested it may be, is entirely consistent with his established attitudes. I know that it rankles to have a "hardass" administrator who is willing to defy the democratic process to push a point, but I guarantee that without it, we'd have a far more anarchic and less useful wiki. If there's a moral to take away from the situation, it's that the way to prevent further "admin fiats" in the future is to use the tools we have responsibly. FYI, about the forums, nobody was ever talking about removing them entirely. They are, however, a revenue drain on the site because they get fewer ad clicks than the main wiki in relation to their consumption of resources, especially the right side. As long as the balance sheet is positive, there's no need to worry about it, but we are sharply limited in our ability to do some of the things we'd like to do because it's too expensive in terms of server resources. That is just a fact of life for an ad-supported public wiki. In summary: nobody is plotting to take away your fun For The Evulz. There are facts of life behind the scenes that govern the kinds of resources the wiki can provide. There are features of the wiki that we expect our members to use responsibly.

Komodin

Whatever...

Komodin

Whatever...

Vorpy

The primary purpose of the forums is to aid in the wiki's development. I guess the other sections are nice to have, but if we kept every thread archived, we'd be wasting a lot of space for something that very few people will ever look for. And you can't really complain that your story was zapped if even you didn't care about it enough to remember it or write it down somewhere else.

Komodin

Hee hee hee...

Vorpy

Wow, that mirror wiki does look pretty rant-y and terrible.

I dunno. I think some of the complaints here are somewhat justified. I have often felt like the wiki was a bit less formal and a bit more fun when I first discovered it a couple years ago, and it was that wiki that drew me in. This specific change does seem very arbitrary. The kind of humour that strike-through can be used for may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the admin simply axing it because in the admin's personal opinion (which is presented as objective fact) it is "clown shoes" does seem a bit much. I do understand the more pragmatic argument — we want to encourage people to edit the wiki and correct mistakes, not "correct" them with a strike tag — but it's not like strike-through tags are the cause of the underlying problem (people with an affinity for discussing mistakes instead of simply editing them out) or like removing them will make it go away. On the other hand, they do have legitimate uses — including humour. I personally don't see anything inherently juvenile about them. More broadly, I think this wiki can pursue its mission while maintaining a sense of fun about it, and I think this has been getting chipped at bit by bit.

I've largely (though obviously not largely enough :P) given up arguing about any of this, and try to avoid the forums because I realise I'm in the minority. There isn't any other wiki out there that offers what this wiki offers, so I'll just sit here quietly, try to maintain a few tropes, and just hope never to see them in the Repair Shop, or affected by issues such as this one. In other words, the wiki is going where Eddie is taking it, and I'm going to try and hold on for the ride, while I can.

Komodin

Sure...

Vorpy

I get really annoyed by potholes in trope lists that don't do the strikethrough thing. I don't want to have to mouse over links to distinguish between snowclones that I might not have seen before (The Alleged Steed) and potholes (The Alleged Truck). And then there's the problem of alphabetization, which has no good solution. If we're not going to be allowed to strike things through, I think that means we're better off not doing that kind of editing at all.

Anonus

I thought you weren't gonna post over here!

Komodin

I changed my mind.

Also, since when were we able to change the title of a thread?

Central Avenue

The OP can always change the title of a thread.

Vorpy

I don't buy the argument that "strikethrough was abused, therefore it's got to go". By that "logic" this entire wiki ought to be taken down.

If strikethrough is abused for natter, or for bogus "corrections" instead of replacing the incorrect text with the correct one, the answer is to re-edit that page accordingly; I've clearly read a different subset of pages, for unlike others in this thread I've never come across a use of strikethrough that was non-legitimate or which could have been done another way. On the Yellow Submarine page is at least two such examples (which are ruined by strikethrough not working any longer); for my part, in referring to Stonkers I've at least twice used strikethrough to represent the "it's definitely not Stonkers" Running Gag (once on the Stonkers page itself, once on the Older Than They Think page). Also, on the ZX Spectrum page's Bomberman entry, I used strikethrough to represent the fact that although the series title is now Bomberman, it was originally Eric and the Floaters. All these are legitimate and non-replaceable uses of strikethrough, and all are broken by this (to my mind arbitrary) decision.

Bring back strikethrough!

Central Avenue

On this forum, I meant. And most forums, actually.

Just not TVTropes.

Schitzo

I'll second Komodin's unwarranted shitting on a thread where his attention isn't wanted. Sorry dude, but sometimes, you get on people's nerves with that attitude.

Mod edit: I see your triple single-quotation marks, and I think you mean bold.  Here's some bold.

Komodin

Sorry...

glennmagusharvey

Komodin

Nothing. Just a bit of horseplay, is all.

Bob

Dammit, Komodin, must you always horse around like this?

RedEyedAbyss

"Whatever..."

"Whatever..."

Since when did you turn into Squall?

Stormtroper

I'll second Komodin's unwarranted shitting on a thread where his
attention isn't wanted. Sorry dude, but sometimes, '''you get on
people's nerves with that attitude'''.

Ehh, I don't care, really.

Now that the obligatory joke is out of the way, sometimes it does get a bit annoying.