More Than One Page Top Quote Just Gets in the Way...

Or does it? I have seen many pages that still have two of them, and yet I find myself having no motivation to remove the second item. Nor does anyone else seem to, given that many of them have remained that way for months, despite that rule having been added. So how do people really feel about this rule? Admit it - if you see that a page has more than one page-top quote, do you ignore it?

“I just think that's really shady." "Shady?!" - Stephanie & Chad, The Amazing Race 17

I generally don't mind two, as long as neither of them are very long. In the past I have seen pages with three or more, which does get kind of annoying.

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Two seems reasonable, especially if they illustrate different variations of the trope at hand.

More than that though should go on the Quotes page.

I move the second one to Quotes when I come across them.

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty

Two usually isn't a big deal for me if they're short, although I don't think I'd ever personally add a second quote. If one or both of them are several lines long, I'd be inclined to move one or make a To-Do to move one. Three is definitely out.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

That's pretty much how I deal with things.

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.

What about four?

Bad example. That's a game about four characters, so each character being quoted once is completely fair.

Thanks Luc "Fourpete" French

We're only supposed to have one? I've been using a two quotes rule.

Fight smart, not fair.

One of the editing tips on the Tips Sheet that appears when you go to edit something says that there's only supposed to be one.

“I just think that's really shady." "Shady?!" - Stephanie & Chad, The Amazing Race 17

I usually don't mind two, but I recently removed a second one from My Horse Is a Motorbike, because both of them were four line long song verses, that looked horrible.

Hm, I remembered it as two quotes, unless one of them is long.

Fight smart, not fair.

Ramming Always Works is a good example of where a two-quote pair works. The first is a stock invocation of the trope and the second deconstructs it.

...Damnit, it got removed *again*. Last time it did, people added more, blander quotes that failed at illustrating the trope nearly as well as the Schlock Mercenary one. Please don't ding me for restoring it just now...

edited 28th Feb '11 2:56:10 AM by Elle

As long as it says on the Tips Sheet "More than one page top quote just gets in the way," there's always a chance that it will be removed. And you can't fault whoever does it either, because it's stated policy.

“I just think that's really shady." "Shady?!" - Stephanie & Chad, The Amazing Race 17

Sums my feelings about that pretty much up. But it really shouldn't be more.

People aren't as awful as the internet makes them out to be.

I don't think that works at all. The second quotation is so long that we lose track of the funny.

Two short quotes or one short and one longish quote works just fine and is not at all disruptive in my book, but if I see more than that I tend to take it upon myself to fix them.

Removed some too long quotes to their Quotes pages. One should be the limit. One short, funny, or at least punchy line. Let us please let the reader get to what we have to say. The vast majority of page top quotes are just examples, not illustrations of the trope that make sense before you read the article.

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty

At least, for Ramming Always Works, can the main quote be switched then? The Schlock quote is long-ish, but funnier. The Worf quote by itself is not funny and says nothing interesting about the trope.

(I realise it's a snowballs chance in hell of Eddie saying yes, but...)

edited 8th Mar '11 4:14:24 PM by Elle

Was Eddie the one who decided to change it? If not, then how about this - go ahead and change it and provide your explanation. If nobody changes it back, then you're good to go. If they do, then probably better to just leave it.

“I just think that's really shady." "Shady?!" - Stephanie & Chad, The Amazing Race 17

I would prefer two there are usually major fights over the best quote and no one ever reads quote pages.

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

I enjoy having two when there's something genuinely amusing or illuminating in the juxtaposition.

The trouble is that in order to allow cases like that, it seems like we have to say "up to two quotes is okay" which immediately translates into "if there's only one, go ahead and add that quote from your favorite show even if it doesn't really add anything that the first one didn't do". I can't think of an obvious way to reinforce "only one quote unless the second quote really adds something", though. Also, script-style sections of dialogue usually strike me as an awkward fit when there's more than one quote.

I have seen pages with three quotes, and that always seems excessive to me. If it's cool to nuke the third quote (or the weakest quote) on pages like this, I'll routinely do so in the future.

edited 9th Mar '11 12:55:00 AM by Bailey

It was Eddie who changed it back after me. No banhammer for me, thanks.

I definitely agree that a lot of quotes don't make any sense until you've read the article. And I would tend to say that this indicates they're not the right quotes for that article's top-billing quote spot. (Though I've got a little quibble that says "maybe they're there for if you pop in to check a trope you've seen before and can go "Oh, right, yeah, that one" easier with certain quote that really wouldn't help a first-timer.) So I'd say if it's not showing the trope before you know what the trope is, it doesn't belong.

I do think the policy should be changed to two quotes (two short or one long), because it seems like the right number. Assuming the quotes are short and pithy, two of them give a more rounded view of the subject than just one. It's like, when I'm studying a new language, and they give me only one example of a thing (point of grammar or whatnot), I feel like I don't understand it, but if there are two or three, I can pick out the similarities and also the differences, which helps me grok it.

Similarly, with writing a new script, I need to see a couple different styles to see which elements of the letters are necessary and which are optional. (Handwritten version is very useful there.)

Or you know how a show with only one major figure of each race (a la LotR) gives the impression that "this is what all elves are like" or "this is what all Vulcans are like"? Cast limits aside, if there were two developed characters of the same race on the show, you could compare and contrast and therefore get a more rounded picture of what the core elements of the race really are. ("Oh, I see, they both value logic, but he's taken that in X direction and the other guy went in Y direction.")

That's obviously what we're doing with the example section to begin with. I think it'd be useful to do it with a well-chosen double-quote at the start as well. So yeah, if there's any sort of vote on this, I vote for two quotes at the top of a page.

ETA: Also Raso said two things I totally agree with. There are fights over Top Quote, which can be reduced if we maintain two quotes instead of one, and I don't think our quote pages get used much. I mean, I don't even both most of the time, and I love quotes. Then again, the last few times I tried a quote page here, I found maybe one or two quotes only, which made me think I should back off and wait for the pages to get filled before I try them again.

edited 12th Mar '11 4:18:14 AM by Kilyle

Only the curious have, if they live, a tale worth telling at all.

Count my vote in for:
1 quote- rad
2 quotes- acceptable if they don't amount to a Wall of Text and they have a good "compare and contrast" thing going
3 quotes - No. Just... No

edited 16th Mar '11 4:50:55 AM by TripleElation

Pretentious quote || In-joke from fandom you've never heard of || Shameless self-promotion || Something weird you'll habituate to