Recap policy

Current draft: Sandbox.Recap Guidelines

My current understanding of Recap/ pages, which I believe was told by one or more mods, and I've been repeatedly citing:

• Synopsis is merged with Recap and Synopsis/ can't be used.
• Recaps are brief summaries to help a curious troper to check the order of key events in the work. Recaps aren't supposed to substitute experiencing the Work and should drop non-important details.
• Recap/ pages need either or both the plot summary and a trope list. It's fine to not have one if there's no issue with the other.
• It's preferable to have one Recap/ page per chapter/episode/arc for a long Work, with Recap/Work page as an index. For short works Recap/Work page can have the entire summary, but don't need tropes.
• Recaps/ subpages follow Recap/WorkNameChapterName naming convention. Recaps shouldn't have like "Season S Episode E" if the episode name is known, unless they are literally called like "Chapter 12". For story arc recaps, arc fan names are acceptable if there's no official one.
• If the work's main Recap/ page is an index with all chapters redlinked, it's to be cut as a stub. It's fine if it has at least one healthy chapter subpage.
• Recap/ pages that only have a few sentences for summary and no trope list aren't allowed and to be cut as stubs.
• Recap/ pages with Wall of Text summaries should be condensed first and split if it can't be helped.
• Recap/ text with episode summaries from work's official resources count as plagiarism and need to be removed.
• Recap/ pages can have own Trivia/ or YMMV/ subpages if work's main Trivia/ or YMMV/ are large enough. They shouldn't have other namespace subpages.
• Trope lists on Recap/ pages are considered in effect organizational splits or sub-works and are subject to all writing rules like ZCE and Crosswicking. For Crosswicking, the work's main page should be used as an example and a link to respective recap can be added in example context.
• Recap/ page's images, captions, and top quotes follow the rules of Image Pickin.
• Recap/ pages shouldn't have additional info like staff credits, plot coupon progress, kill counts, or formatting gimmicks.
• Tropes that happen only in one episode/chapter are to be moved from the work page over to the respective Recap/ subpage if it exists. Unless the main work page would become a stub itself by doing so. Tropes that need context from more than one episode beside the immediately previous one can't be in Recap/ and stay on work's main page.

None of this is official or standardized, causing ATT and the cleanup asking the same questions over and over. So I'd like to ask if the above is acceptable, is there anything missing and if we can write something into Recap page description.

Edited by Amonimus on Oct 5th 2022 at 7:02:12 PM

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

No, I don't agree with all of those details, so thank you for starting this policy thread before changing the article.

• Recap/ subpages need a complete form of one of the following details:
  • A summary of events in the work (which can have more detail than in the main article description, including sharing spoilers).
  • Part of the main trope list, restricted to the events of the episode. These follow the 3 tropes minimum (and less than ten tropes risks becoming a stub from cleanup efforts).
  • The subpage for the main work may index the chapters/episodes of the work. Merely listing the names is not sufficient; they must create links to the recap subpages, even if we don't have any yet.
• The Recap/WorkNameChapterName naming convention. For story arc recaps, arc fan names are acceptable if there's no official one.
• If the work's main Recap/ page is an index with all chapters redlinked, it's to be cut as a stub. It's fine if it has at least one healthy chapter subpage. This doesn't work, because it requires the editor to create the "episode" recap before creating a naming system for all of the known "episodes". You must know the naming system first, and the index is the best place to add it.
• Recap/ pages that only have a few sentences for summary and no trope list aren't allowed and to be cut as stubs. Redundant with a previous bullet.
• Recap/ pages with Wall of Text summaries should be condensed.
• Recap/ pages can have own Trivia/ or YMMV/ subpages if the work's main Trivia/ or YMMV/ are large enough there are at least three tropes from the "episode". They shouldn't have other namespace subpages.
• Tropes that happen only in one episode/chapter are to be moved from the work article over to the respective Recap/ subpage if it exists, unless the main work page would become a stub itself by doing so. Tropes that need context from more than one episode beside the immediatelly previous one can't be in Recap/ and stay on work's main page.

• Trope lists on Recap/ pages are considered, in effect, organizational splits and sub-works. Therefore, they are also subject to work article rules.
  • The Recap/WorkName page must be indexed on the general Recap index, and index the subpages.
  • Recap/ text with episode summaries from official (or fan-made) resources count as plagiarism and need to be removed. The subpage might be cut as a stub.
  • Recap/ pages shouldn't have additional info like plot coupon progress, kill counts, or character lists.
  • When Crosswicking to the trope page, the work's main page should be used as an example and a link to respective recap may be included. This often takes the form of [Work Name: In "Episode", context]
  • ZCE are commented-out or deleted, and if this leaves less than three tropes, the subpage might be cut as a stub.
  • Recap/ page's images, captions and top quotes follow the rules of Image Pickin'.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Well I know how things works here and I wouldn't touch anything without a consensus. Thanks for the clarification.

These weren't crossed-out or commented on. Are these explanations not needed?

It's written as a subbullet for "one of the following details:" but it reads like it was meant to be own bullet.

This may be extra, but we have a lot of pages literally called Recap/WorkS4E23 and wrongly custom-tiled to their actual names, so I've considering mentioning this.

Regarding redlinking, I agree with you. And I've remembered (and misremembered) when I've asked that specifically, for future reference.

I'm failing to see how it redundant, or even related to other points. We have suspended tropers for making a lot of 2-setnence summaries.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

If it's at all relevant, here's the thread that merged Synopsis/ with Recap/.

You're very welcome. Figured it'd be relevant here.

Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Oct 5th 2022 at 12:23:35 PM

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

Yes, thanks for that actually, I haven't found it. (21:7 for a namespace move, interesting)

Edited by Amonimus on Oct 5th 2022 at 7:22:49 PM

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

The first two were left out because I had nothing to say about them. They're appropriate statements about the namespace. The third I had meant to include, but forgot. It also misuses certain terms. The terms "long work" and "short work" are used to identify if the title is italicized or in quotes, so a movie is classified as a "long work", yet doesn't have chapters/episodes (Yes, there are exceptions). I'm also uncertain if it is redundant to the first bullet (including sub-bullets) that I posted.

It is intended as a subbullet, because it is one of the three types of recap pages:

• Summary of the work
• Example trope list of a segment of the work
• An index

Recap.Anime And Manga is a page in the Recap/ namespace and its purpose is to index recap pages. I suppose theoretically it might be possible for a page to have all three, but generally speaking, indexing and example listing probably shouldn't overlap. Recap.House, for example, might be used to provide a summary of the arcs present in each season and index the subpages.

That's a misuse of the custom title tool, not of the recap namespace. We also have editors that try to "move" regular work articles by doing the same thing. Moderation is supposed to help prevent that, but if you see a list of 15 title adjustments that all look pretty much the same, you might not notice the 16th button in the middle that was submitted by a different user for a different style of title. If that's what you're trying to express concern about, you'll want to phrase it differently:

• Subpages with the naming pattern of "Recap/WorkS04E23" or "Recap/WorkCh34" should not use the custom wikiword tool to rename the subpage to anything else, even "Episode Title" or "Chapter Title". Unlike a medium-namespaced work article, you may pothole recap work articles, so do that instead.

Your own versions are essentially identical in the warning.

• Recap/ pages need either or both the plot summary and a trope list. It's fine to not have one if there's no issue with the other.
• Recap/ pages that only have a few sentences for summary and no trope list aren't allowed and to be cut as stubs.

If it is the "stub" aspect that you feel needs to be included, that's fine, but it doesn't need a separate bullet.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Btw Recap page has "maintenance" sub-section. It looks extra and takes most of the page. I've cloned it to Sanbox.Recap Maintenence and would like an opinion on removing that part.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

I don't like how that section looks like a big "WIP" stamp and see no reason for it to exist.

That should be Sandbox.Recap Maintenance. The last thing we need is pages in misspelled namespaces...

Questioning if I had a seizure back then, I've moved the page accordingly.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

I could see issues arising with the chapter name format in the case of things like there being multiple fan names, which the [SeasonNumber EpisodeNumber] format wouldn't have problems with.

We'd have fewer problems with having to deal with very long work names, unclear work/arc names, or things of that nature. It would be slightly easier than remembering the episode name exactly.

On the other hand, not everyone remembers every episode name perfectly either, and we'd need to rely on a lot of custom formatting for the page name, which could be a problem, especially with the custom page titles being in the state that they are right now.

You would also have to deal with the possibility of arc names being the same as an episode name, which may cause a conflict.

Having both season/episode number, and the episode name in the URL has the downsides of both, with the additional problem of needing to remember both episode name and order correctly, while also reducing the available space that the names have.

Something like Recap.Star Trek The Original Series S 03 E 08 For The World Is Hollow And We Have Touched The Sky would almost certainly exceed the character limit.

Unfortunately, I don't think that we can nest namespaces, or else that might be a better solution. Something like [Recap/Show/(Season|Arc)/Title] (meaning that the above would be something like [Recap/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries/Season3/ForTheWorldIsHollowAndWeHaveTouchedTheSky], but that has its own issues, not least of all being a considerable rewrite, and adding a lot more namespaces to the site.

That is one of the ideas behind a "2.0" revision to the website. You could identify the episode title and series name and be sent to the article for that episode. If you use the production code, it recognizes that as well. You're correct that we cannot currently do this, but it is part of the goal when the admins can prepare the major revision.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Any regulation on "Work Name Episode Name" or it's fine to have production codes in page titles under current system? Relevant ATT.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

No regulation. I personally prefer the inclusion of Ch/Ep/Vol when possible because it means that we can trick automated systems (like the "Related To" tab) to alphabetize the pages correctly. The most important thing right now is that each series (/franchise) use the same naming convention. Don't change between having/ignoring either detail without a good reason (such as the character limit for the title).

Edited by crazysamaritan on Dec 8th 2022 at 4:45:35 PM

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

None, but I like the numbering system with the abbreviations because it's easy for alphabetizing/ordering installments.

Edited by Tabs on Dec 8th 2022 at 8:49:37 AM

I would personally prefer some regulation, or at least some recommendation, even if the formatting isn't strict.

If nothing else, it would reduce confusion going forward, although the more important part is that it is consistent.

3 Ok.

Edited by Amonimus on Dec 8th 2022 at 7:49:06 PM

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

They only have to be consistent with each other. If you create the first Recap/ page, you can decide how to format installments.

IMO, this is the only rule that needs stressing or codifying. I can think of at least one work where episode numbers wouldn’t have helped: Love, Death & Robots, which used inconsistent episode orders across accounts — to say nothing of all the “story arc recaps” that are not alphabetized.

Per the Recap guidelines, Recap pages can have their own Trivia or YMMV subpages, but they shouldn't have other namespace subpages. Does this include Laconic pages? Because I've seen quite a few Laconic subpages for individual Recap pages.

They aren't causing any harm (aside from clogging up the list of Laconics).

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.

Bumping this thread because I came across a few recap pages that are probably of interest to yall, since you're hammering out what the policy is. I discuss them in this ATT post I made, but the key point for discussion are recap pages with no summaries on them, just tropes. Per our stub policy, bare minimum for a work page is a brief description/summary and 3 tropes. And I know for recap pages, just a summary is considered ok since recaps and synopsis pages were merged. But is just a list of tropes considered ok? If so, is the three trope minimum still in effect (can you have a recap page of just 2 trope examples or just 1)?

ETA: scrolled up and saw crazysamaritan's post that answered some of these questions (though should this be taken to be the current policy or was this just a proposal?).

So based on this, a page that just has a list of tropes, even if it's just 3, and no summary, is considered fine?

Edited by amathieu13 on Mar 11th 2023 at 7:55:16 AM

Yes. It's not ideal and doesn't look complete but it has the minimum tropes.

Edited by Tabs on Mar 11th 2023 at 9:34:03 AM

Yeah, I'd say having three valid non-ZCE trope entries would be the bare minimum. For example, Work pages with a workable trope list but no description don't get cut however pages with a description but an inadequate list of tropes are cut if no one fixes is it in time.

Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 11th 2023 at 12:41:59 PM

Macron's notes