Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

The general consensus on the Wiki is that the fun fact system for toons is currently inadequate. Personally I think STUFF was a bad idea, but that's not what this poll is for.

Clearly, something needs to be done, and recently I've converted some of the Strong Bad Emails to split up the fun facts into different categories to make things easier. However, change isn't always a good thing, and not everybody seems too thrilled about the idea of breaking down the fun facts.

Soo, I offer this poll to the HRWikizens. Should we:

a) Have one Fun Facts section on each page and put everything under that section;
b) Have a Fun Facts section on each page, but create subcategories for things such as cultural references and references to other toons which would otherwise clutter the Fun Fact list;
c) Do away with the Fun Facts section and split them into various categories such as "Trivia", "Glitches/Goofs", "References", etc.;
d) Have a Fun Facts section but each Fun Fact must be approved by an admin before it can be posted;
e) Option b or c, but only for pages bloated with fun facts, especially the newer toons and emails.

Well, you can cross d) off the list altogether; that's not going to happen.

What, exactly, is the difference between b) and c)?

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With option b, there is still a "Fun Facts" section, but it has sub-sections for cultural references and references to other toons.

With option c, the Fun Facts section goes away and all Fun Facts are organized into appropriate sections.

I vote b.

While B could be helpful, I have seen the proposed subcategories on the Wiki and, well, let's just say the number of proposed subcategories is maybe a bit large. It's not that entirely bad, though, I will admit.

I think the subcategorization should only go on pages with a large number of facts in the first place. Attempting to do it on pages that have very few fun facts would just clutter things up.

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Yeah. Shut up, kid.

I really don't like the "organize into seperate categories" idea. Sometimes, you can run the risk of over-organizing things.
Truthfully, I kind of like the idea of some sort of approval, maybe not admin approval, but something similar. Lately, it seems like every word spoken, every sound made, and every object that appears "is a reference to" something. I'm waiting to see "The mask Strong Bad is wearing is a reference to all of the emails, where he wears the same mask." We've seen about everything else. Man, that came out a lot harsher than I wanted it to.. If you want to take the last half of this post the way I mean it turn up the "lightheartedness" about 2 notches.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

I think that a good process would go a long way to cleaning things up.

Here's my take on a good way to keep the Fun Facts section clean and informative:

If you see a fun fact that you think is questionable:
Either:
1) Remove the fun fact, and then on the Talk: page, cite the fun fact removed, and give an explanation. aka, "The talking computer is so prevalent in television and movies that it is impossible to ascribe Strong Bad's computer as a reference to a particular show, or even to make it unusual."

or similarly,
2) On the Talk: page, mention the fun fact that you think needs to be removed with an explanation, and if someone agrees or if no one has disagreed after a few days, remove the fun fact.

If your precious fun fact is removed by someone else:
1) On the talk page, cite your fun fact, and explain why you think it should be on the page. If support for your argument doesn't appear, or there are more people who disagree than agree, drop it.

It's not like we are having a shortage of fun facts, so if your fun fact is removed by someone else, please don't worry about it. It's not the end of the world. It's not a personal offense to you or what you think is fun or obscure. It's just that if there are too many fun facts, it's difficult to find the truly brilliant references amid the teeming hordes of middling or dubious references.

Quality over quantity in this case.

And also: HRWiki: Teeming Hordes of Dubious References

I think the best idea is for now to restore the Fun Facts for the emails I organized back to normal, and only do categories for the emails and toons with too many fun facts. I'm going to do that right now.

I vote B. I like it organised.

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I like the way things are now (which is pretty much B.). Divided into categories looks nice, and STUFF seems to be working well.

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