Not Tropeworthy: Kotatsu

This trope is about a piece of Japanese furniture people use to stay warm. The description describes an example of people sitting around one, and most of the examples are just people sitting around the kotatsu or using one to keep warm, which is about as tropeworthy as People Sit on Chairs. Plus we already have Sleep Cute and Naughty Under the Table for the more tropeworthy situations that can involve a kotatsu. There was a previous attempt at a thread, but it was closed due to inactivity.

This could possibly be made into a Useful Notes page, but there's already a paragraph on UsefulNotes.Japanese Architecture about the kotatsu, and I don't think it needs its own page. So, I suggest cutting or making this a redirect to UsefulNotes.Japanese Architecture.

Opening, but I wonder if this is better off as a Setting trope. Besides, we don't put term definitions in Useful Notes.

I think we should just cut it.

It's already covered by UsefulNotes.Japanese Architecture, so I'd say just cut it.

I agree that this is People Sit on Chairs. Make a redirect to Japanese Architecture. Perhaps some of the description can be moved there, as it is a little more detailed than what's on the useful notes page.

Cut as PSOC.

Cut and move some information to UsefulNotes.Japanese Architecture.

Edited by jandn2014 on Aug 25th 2020 at 2:13:28 PM

I think that rather than cutting or redirecting an exampleless page or a setting trope would work. From 2000 inbounds it seems like there is some use, perhaps as a term definition.

Maybe as Anime Fanspeak.

Edited by ccorb on Aug 26th 2020 at 8:02:31 AM

I'm leaning toward cutting because "people stay warm with kotatsu" isn't any more of a trope than "People Sit on Chairs", and furniture isn't exactly fanspeak or a type of setting. We don't have Main.Throne as a fanspeak page for works featuring royalty, or Main.Fireplace as a fanspeak page for period pieces from before centralized indoor heating.

I personally think classifying people sitting around a kotatsu in cold weather as a setting trope doesn't sound any more tropeworthy than people sitting around a fireplace or radiator in the middle of January.

That said, maybe we could make UsefulNotes.Kotatsu as a redirect to UsefulNotes.Japanese Architecture, and cutlist Main.Kotatsu because UsefulNotes.Kotatsu would catch inbounds.

When Main.How Do I Used Tense was moved to UsefulNotes.Tenses, UsefulNotes.How Do I Used Tense was made as a redirect and the Main.How Do I Used Tense redirect was cut.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 26th 2020 at 2:03:05 PM

That's a bit apples and oranges. "Throne" and "fireplace" are in English but "kotatsu" is not and thus needs explanation. We have a number of Fan Speak pages for Japanese concepts partly because of the language barrier.

Term definitions do not belong into the Useful Notes namespace. That's been a principle for a long time, and namespacing a redirect is just a waste of effort.

I was referring to having UsefulNotes.Kotatsu redirect to UsefulNotes.Japanese Architecture, which already talks about kotatsu (we could expand Japanese Architecture using the text currently on Main.Kotatsu), rather than having a separate page just for kotatsu. I didn't mean moving the contents of the current Main.Kotatsu page to Useful Notes as-is.

Regarding this not being an English word, I admit I looked at that from the wrong angle, and I'd prefer having this as a Definition Only Page over classifying it as a trope. If we did that instead, that would mean leaving it in Main/.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 26th 2020 at 6:00:00 AM

Definition-Only Pages works for me here - it's really a synonym to Fan Speak.

So far, here's what's been suggested:

1. Cut
2. Make Kotatsu a redirect to UsefulNotes.Japanese Architecture and add relevant information from the trope description to that page
3. Make Kotatsu Definition Only

I'm leaning toward the second option, but making it Definition-Only also sounds good.

Edited by ADrago on Aug 29th 2020 at 3:26:58 PM

The salvageable part is the third paragraph which alludes to Kotatsu as the Japanese version of Campfire Character Exploration. Not sure if there are enough examples to that end.

I can't think of anything else if you're planning to put those on a crowner.

Anyway, I'm also leaning toward the second option.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 29th 2020 at 9:38:41 AM

You could also add “Move relevant information to UsefulNotes.Japanese Architecture and don’t make Kotatsu a redirect” and “Do nothing” (even if that option will likely be mass-downvoted).

I agree.

ADrago and jandn2014's options look good for a crowner.

I made a crowner. Hollering for a hook.

Attached the crowner.

Already we have a clear winner. However, the three-day rule is still in effect, so nothing is to be done right now.

Wow, this is blatantly PSOC. It’s bad for our image.

Turning it into a redirect to UsefulNotes.Japanese Architecture also has a decent amount of consensus, and it isn't mutually exclusive with expanding Japanese Architecture itself.

Yeah, I voted for both of the top options. They don't seem mutually exclusive - if anything, expanding the Japanese Architecture description while also leaving Kotatsu as an independent page would be kind of redundant.

Edited by nrjxll on Aug 31st 2020 at 9:34:37 AM