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There is a Google Chrome extension I downloaded a while ago that does this. I can't remember the name, but I'll try and find it now.
EDIT: It's called Laconic Hover, and it can be found here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/laconic-hover/ignndocldlheghlflchdbokagecncgmm?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon
Looking at the source, it does about what I'd expect. It adds an invisible box object to pages that follows the mouse cursor. If a hovered html element has a "href" property with "pmwiki.php", it loads the corresponding pmwiki.php/Laconic/ page in the background if exists and fetches the first "main-article p" into the cursor's box.
Edited by Amonimus TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Oh i didn't know you could view the source. My first time looking at the chrome extensions page lol.
I'm also a brand new programmer, I'm technically still just an intern until June 15th. You clearly have a lot more knowledge and experience than i do, so you'll have to forgive me for being a bit slow in the beginning here. I really appreciate you helping me out though.
Edited by kory Now monitoring Wishlist and Bugs
The problem with the extension is that it never factors in revisions.
Art Museum Curator and frequent helper of the Web Original deprecation project
The extension has a link to own github, so it took a bit to follow what's it doing.
Also it apepars there were edits to the extension just yesterday, so spookyuser must have resumed working on it.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
IDK, I remain concerned (as I mentioned on the other thread regarding this extension) that this will only contribute to more misuse. Unless we can really ensure every laconic is accurate, this will make people even less likely to use the description to double check.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
War Jay 77, what exactly do you mean by misleading and ones that need fixing? I wasn’t aware TV Tropes had a bunch of laconics that were inaccurate?
Now monitoring Wishlist and Bugs
Trope descriptions are community-reviewed and community-upgraded. Laconics however, anyone can make those and are one person's interpretation. Since Laconics are often not made by wiki regulars, they can be abridged so short they miss details that are actually required for examples. And other editors who aren't regulars don't like reading about the trope and go by the Laconic instead. So in some cases it snowballs into a lot of examples that miss the symbolism because the laconic has missed that as well.
I'm not going to bring up that debate and still have my own opinion about it, but WayJay77 is saying we'd want to increase the chance that people read full descriptions.
As for the hover tool, I'm personally indifferent since I remember most pages by now. If people want to know what the trope or work is about they'd read its page. And I'm not sure how it'd be possible to make for mobile.
Edited by Amonimus TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Basically that, yeah. Laconics have become infamous on the project forums and TRS for often giving people inaccurate information on what tropes mean. It may be missing details, or it may just simply be getting the trope completely wrong. The amount of times people say "Well, the laconic said-" when defending a misused example would be enough to fill a thread.
I'm not inherently opposed to the idea of telling people what a trope is about through hovertext, but right now, laconics are simply very unreliable and tend to cause a lot of headaches.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Are there any specific examples of that you know of?
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^^ Like I said, it's very common on the projects forums and TRS. If you just lurk there for a few days you'll see some examples real fast.
^ Eh, maybe. It just seems way more common than not. It could be negativity bias, but I just feel like anything that could impact how tropes are used need to be scrutinized as well as possible to ensure the least amount of damage occurs.
Edited by WarJay77 Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
I remember this request being made years ago and turned down by the developers b/c they were concerned that letting people read links without actually going to the page in question would reduce traffic and thus ad revenue.
Even if we decide to implement it, it's not uncommon for more than half of a trope's incoming links to be wrong. So I wouldn't assume that the fraction of bad laconics is necessarily small.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
I concur with Septimus that this is a bad idea. Laconics are frequently wrong, and I don’t see much benefit in general to having this feature.
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup Of Complaining | Troper Wall
I also think this will cause more harm than good for the reasons others have already mentioned.
When you hover your mouse over a trope link, it shows the Laconic if there is one.
Edited by kory