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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   3276 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 21, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Why wikipedia articles on fiction are so often look like ads from publisher, avoiding any spoilers? Isn't it also supposed to shortly summarize for those who didn't read, and why exertps are very short or low resolution even if they are very publicized on the web (e.g. rickroll). (in part, shortness of exerpts might be due to concern for users with weak computers)

There have actually been historical Editing Wars over spoilers (including some involving Gerard of the recent TraceWoodgrains expose, who's generally been on the 'just spell it out' side).

But more often, especially for smaller publications, it's that you're either going to have articles from wikipedia to tvtropes written by a) the author or publisher or a related team or b) a particularly neurotic fan. That's not even specific to books! It's not that surprising that Darkship Thieves (estimated readers in the low-thousands) has a really crappy tvtropes page with the vast majority of content coming from one troper. This game has had literally hundreds of thousands of players, and it's got five writers, most of which didn't do jack, and none of whom could reveal the full plot (the game uses a season system, and the second half of the zones won't unlock for another few days).

In a word? Editing. Also don't forget regular randos create Wikipedia pages --I have made pages for more than one novel. These pages were then relentlessly edited by who knows who so that they barely resemble what I first created. I doubt computing power of some underpowered reader is anyone's first (or tenth) concern.

what is your point, that IP owners hire people to purge content from article to look like ad?

No, that isn't my point. What's yours? Is there a question you're not asking?

I don't have a point, I ask question but instead I get a bait from you to broke rules

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