So about those four little bars...

I apologize if this has been asked before, but I can't find any mention of it anywhere and I would just like to know once and for all.

Are we, or are we not, supposed to put ---- at the bottom of trope pages?

My understanding was that this is leftover code from earlier versions of the site, and that it's no longer necessary, so we're supposed to delete it when we see it. But I recently made edits to a page, one of which was to remove that, and a moderator came by and put it back in. So am I wrong to be removing it? I don't have a preference either way, I just want my edits to be consistent with what we're supposed to be doing.

The <<|Index|>> code is outdated and should be deleted. The line rule above the indices is a visual choice, one (we) typically don't even pay attention to, but our understanding is that the wiki at large is in favor of keeping it.

Thank you! I'll leave it where it is from now on.

I prefer it because

1. it just looks cleaner imo. Especially if there are redirects listed at the bottom — the horizontal line will visually separate them from the body of the article.
2. it makes the edit history neater in the event of someone adding something to the bottom of the page.

Without it, you'd get something like

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.dog. 
 
The five boxing wizards jump quickly.

With it, you'd get:

The five boxing wizards jump quickly.