Should You Know That Show be renamed?

The only reason I ever bothered getting an avatar was for the sake of one joke - I went years without one. It's hardly surprising that most of the people who don't know the difference between ATT and YKTS are casual editors/visitors who don't feel the need to change the default avatar.

But the lampshade is the default. Not the blank-head. Right? I never see anyone except for YKTS posters using that one, save one troper who ban evaded a few times.

Like, I'm concerned because they all use the same avatar but it isn't the TVT default one. It's another random default one but not the TVT one.

Or, you know. A selfie.

Edited by WarJay77 on Oct 4th 2020 at 11:52:11 AM

I always thought the blank head replaced the lampshade as the default avatar during some site rework or other.

Nope; any other time I see a new troper besides when they're trying to post on YKTS and what not, they have the normal lampshade. There's a lot of new tropers in TLP for instance, and they all have the lampshade if they didn't pick a new avatar. Plus, any time you see new tropers complaining they can't change their avatar because of a glitch, they have the lampshade.

I have no idea where the blank-head comes from.

Edited by WarJay77 on Oct 4th 2020 at 11:56:26 AM

The default icon appears to have changed over the years. This was the default icon back when I first changed my avatar from the default (I saved it in my gallery before making the change):

I'd guess these accounts are simply of varying ages.

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense though, since these accounts seem brand new. Or were they all made years ago and only just now decided to ask about those shows they liked? Because I literally never see them anywhere else and that's why it sketches me out. Like, again, the new tropers I've met all have the lampshade and it's been that way for ages.

IDK. I just felt like this weird trend needed to be addressed. Someone else also pointed out that these people must be directed here from somewhere and that made me start wondering about the avatar thing more.

Edited by WarJay77 on Oct 4th 2020 at 12:05:40 PM

Possibly? Certainly there have been problem users with accounts that sat dormant for years.

Again, I mean, someone making an account in case they ever needed it and then not bothering to use it for ages because they don't care about the behind-the-scenes stuff - and then one day having a reason - doesn't seem implausible to me.

Plus, I mean, what is it you're even suggesting here? There's some kind of conspiracy of trolls using blank-head avatars to... mildly waste people's time by having them provide directions? Seems unlikely, to say the least.

I'm not sure what I'm suggesting; certainly not that. I just find it really fishy because it's a pattern that only seems to exist in that one corner of the site and while it's possible these are older accounts that lied dormant, I just get a weird feeling from it.

But I didn't think of trolls. More like bots. Which I don't know why that would happen, but that's what my mind jumps to when I think of this sort of thing. The "Named after themselves and with a selfie"-type accounts also give me that vibe at times, considering that's how bots or sock accounts often operate on other sites.

IDK. Can't explain it. I just think it's really strange and nobody else ever seemed to bring it up before so I had to say something when I realized it.

I'm not here to suggest we do some crazy IP checking on all of these accounts or whatever, I just wanted to discuss the weird pattern and voice my own concerns, illogical as they may be.

Edited by WarJay77 on Oct 4th 2020 at 12:14:12 PM

My own hypothesis is that the blank head avatars are simply people recycling the default avatars they had prior to the overhauls. I've noticed the selfies, perhaps a lot of these are very casual editors who simply use the stuff one uses in other social media?

Yeah. Also some people (like bwburke94) have selfies on their tropers page.

Also Snapchat avatars. The Amazing AI is an example.

Anyway, let's get back on topic. I really do think Ask The Tropers should be renamed, perhaps Community Help? Or Village Pump (like Wikipedia's equivalent that's a cross between this and Wiki Talk) or Help Desk?

YKTS could be renamed Remember That Work?

Whats That Work also sounds good.

Edited by ccorb on Oct 5th 2020 at 8:59:34 AM

I'm more in favor of something like "Work Finder" or "What's that Work?" so it doesn't sound like a prompt for forum-style discussion.

Edited by 8BrickMario on Oct 5th 2020 at 4:11:39 AM

~Alley Oop you can discuss what you requested on the wishlist here.

I'm not really in approval of imitating Wikipedia names here (especially for major features like these) and Village Pump sounds odd, potentially being more confusing with its purpose. Community Help seems somewhat better in terms of those. What That Work sounds like a good name, though.

I was just spitballing new names. I like Community Help better.

Seems like most of what I asked for got brought up in this thread, but one tactic alone will probably not be enough to deal with the issue. People already suggested that the description of ATT be clarified to make it clear it's not just a one-stop ask questions section, but should be for anything that Trope Finder and You Know That Show don't already deal with. Bringing back color-coded banners to make them more visually distinct would definitely help a lot, as well as modifying the directions at the top of ATT to direct people to the latter two pages if they have questions related to those issues would help a lot.

People have pointed out that moving the location of the name would be a hindrance, and it's indeed lower on my priorities compared to other solutions.

As for renames, I'm surprised Trope Finder and You Know That Show don't follow similar naming schemes to indicate they serve similar functions. You Know That Trope... would probably cut down on people mistaking it for an internal search engine.

6

Thanks for reminding me I have a years-old selfie there. UMass shirt probably means it's from 2014 or so.

Edited by bwburke94 on Oct 5th 2020 at 4:02:29 AM

I feel like it wasn't named that to avoid confusion with YKKTW. Now that it's TLP...

Well, what can we do?

If we could launch work pages/Useful Notes pages directly from TLP, we would have to rename it again.

And ~Septimus Heap, the weird blankheads that those YKTS posters have as their avatars are different from the one Twiddler said he/she/they had. Twiddler's was darker grey over light gray, while the two YKTS users have the same white over gray blankhead.

Anyway, I'll make an ATT query about that and link it.

Edit: Linked the query.

Edited by ccorb on Oct 5th 2020 at 4:56:46 AM

Apparently consensus was that these accounts could've just signed up from Facebook, due to the combination of default Facebook avatars and the selfies.

YKTS ought to be renamed as "Media Finder" to complement with "Trope Finder".

Edited by alnair20aug93 on Oct 11th 2020 at 5:19:20 PM

I feel like that could lead to even more confusion.

Yeah, with two names like that they both sound like internal search engines.

Bringing the topic back to alternate names, I just thought of Wiki Queries for ATT, but I do prefer Community Help. I also like Whats That Work for YKTS.

Wiki Queries is a good name IMO.