TV Tropes/YMMV

• Archive Panic: You're gonna need a lot of time to read all the pages.
• Broken Base:
  • The act of Locking Pages. Those for it state that the pages that do end up getting locked are usually prime targets for vandalism or arguing and that locking them forcefully stops any fighting in edits. Those against it don't like that the whole community ends up being punished because of the actions of a few people and feel that the people who vandalize pages should be banned/suspended instead of cutting off the page from everyone. They also point out that Locked Pages tend to become outdated with time since no one can do anything on the page. This is best seen in pages that have been locked for years and consequentially have many redlinks and/or outdated entries attributed to them.
  • The "No Negativity" rule. Those for it feel that negativity tends to quickly go out of control and that negative entries tend to start sounding opinionated. By not having negativity, entries would sound more like how TV Tropes pages are meant to sound, as if they were written by one person. Those against it state that negative entries, while having the potential to get out of control, also provide fan insight on a work or situation and that depriving pages of that also gets rid of the context on why something is so controversial.
  • The "No Recent Examples Please" rule added in 2019. Those for it state that many of the tropes that were added under it were frequent targets of misuse and edit wars, and that having this new rule would help organize and cleanup the examples. Others felt that the time limits that were added were too long a wait just to put down an example (Broken Base and Base Breaking Character were given a 6 month wait time) and that these new rules further limited what could be put on pages.
  • The complete dewicking of Internet Backdraft in mid-2019. Those for it state that Internet Backdraft had a long history of being misused for negative fan reaction because of the definition of it being so vague, and that negativity did not belong on TV Tropes. Those against it were upset that over thousands of entries were wiped away based on the consensus of about 20 tropers and pointed out that instead of putting valid entries in their proper YMMV tropes as was discussed, the tropers doing the cleanup simply nuked everything without even bothering to try.
  • Back in the site's older days, most tropes had a Troper Tales section where tropers could share funny little stories about those tropes happening in their day-to-day lives. However, it quickly became flooded with stories that tended to be either disgusting, bizzare, pretentious, blatant bullshit, or sometimes all at once, and after critical communities merciless tore into it, it was given the axe altogether. Those that remember them are of two minds: there are the optimists who think it had potential and deserves a second chance, while others feel that it's best left forgotten and unmourned, with the very concept being unsalvageable.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The community's obsessive love of That Guy With The Glasses/Channel Awesome became this after the website collapsed in 2018, which painted a lot of its contributors in a bad light for various reasons. Making it even more uncomfortable is a lot of Channel Awesome-related pages being locked and barely updated to reflect on the fallout, which means users can still see tropers openly lusting after sexual predator JewWario/Justin Carmical among other cringeworthy things.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Mostly because of Fast Eddie and Fighteer, the staff at TV Tropes have garnered a reputation for being strict, power-hungry, abusive people who will ban anyone for the most mild offenses.
  • The forums have garnered a reputation for being an incredibly toxic place with incredibly toxic people, filled with biased opinions that will be shot down unless the mods happen to agree with them.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks:
  • The purge of Porn Tropes and nearly every NSFW work, a decision so controversial that This Very Wiki came into being partially because of it.
  • The June 2018 redesign, buggy at first, was criticized for its look and the security issues it created (some users were logged in as other accounts and could access email addresses).
  • The site's more restrictive rules implemented between 2018 and 2019, particularly with complaining and speculation, was met with criticism:
    • With complaining, time limits were implemented for certain YMMV tropes that had this the most, with 6 months being the most common limit placed. Many disliked this change, feeling that the limits placed were far too excessive a wait just to put down an example.
    • For speculation, new guidelines for non-released work pages were implemented. If works didn't meet the "minimum requirements" or attracted too much speculation, they would be locked until their release at best (which could take anywhere from a few months to a few years) or deleted and locked permanently at worst. This garnered complaints for restricting tropers on what works they were allowed to make pages for and for the definition of speculation depending on what the mods felt counted.
  • Trope name changes in general. Whether it's Spoony Bard becoming Quirky Bard or Holy Shit Quotient being gutted in favor of Shocking Moments, many users feel that it's just another example of the fun being sucked out of TV Tropes.
    • On a similar note, the decision to make some YMMV tropes, such as Dude, Not Funny and Ear Worm, only document in-universe examples of said YMMV tropes was seen by some long-time users as yet another sign that TV Tropes was becoming a shell of its former self.
  • Audience Reaction tropes Ensemble Darkhorse and The Scrappy have become a lot more restrictive than they once were. While there were problems with people trying to cram in characters they either personally liked or hated, it's yet another case of overcorrection leading to characters having to jump through serious hoops to qualify for either trope now.
  • In general, TV Tropes' transition from a relaxed and casual atmosphere to a far more professional one is a sore spot for many an old fan. While most would agree that certain aspects of old troper culture such as Troper Tales did the site's reputation far more harm than good, scrubbing the website of any fun or personality in trope entries comes off as a major overcorrection leading not just to entries and pages feeling very clinical and robotic, but the website becoming its own antithesis by being just as stuffy and formal as Wikipedia.
• Unfortunate Implications: For some, the site dewicking LGBT tropes such as Bi The Way and Badass Gay reeks of this, especially since more insulting LGBT tropes like All Gays Are Pedophiles and Depraved Homosexual are still around. It also gets ridiculous when tropes like Transgender are still up, making the whole thing look like mods are picking and choosing favorites when it comes to which tropes are good, and which ones are People Sit on Chairs.

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