Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO SelfCloak. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

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Tropedia
Policy shortcut:
  • Tropedia:FUN

Troping is Fun. Or it should be, anyway. This, more than anything else, is the reason that Tropes Will Ruin Your Life. The site is about digging deeper into the works that make a difference in our lives, and in the end entertainment is about enjoyment.

Troping is fun not in a Happiness Is Mandatory sort of way. Feel free to have opinions on the main page and offer snarky fan commentary. That's kind of our oeuvre. But at the same time, don't trample someone else's good time either -- There is No One True Way.

If you'd like, participate in the community here. If you see an exceptionally good edit, post it on Made of Win, or offer some Wiki Love on their homepage. You might be able to find someone interested in the same stuff you are, and strike an online friendship. Life is more fun when shared with your Nakama -- though being a loner is okay too!

Edit Boldly

Policy shortcut:
  • Tropedia:BOLD

A troper's mission is to boldly edit[1] and explore new tropes. Just like WP:BOLD on The Other Wiki, we here at Tropedia encourage editors to do their best to improve the site. If you think a change should be made, just make it! You don't need to ask for permission to do something here. Every edit you make to improve the wiki helps us all, and there isn't much that somebody can do here that would break the wiki[2] -- we'd rather you spent more time editing and less time asking.

You might want to ask in The Forums with more controversial actions, like page renames -- but if a page is clearly misspelled, needs punctuation or is in the wrong namespace, just do a page move.

If you do encounter criticism for a bold edit, that's the time to sit back and talk. More than likely, can resolve things quickly an amicably. If not, contact the staff or post in the forums. If the staff questions your edits, pay close attention. They are just trying to do what's best for the wiki, as they assume you are, but might have a bit more awareness of larger issues. But the staff is not always right either -- feel free to try to convince the staff to Heel Face Turn.

No matter what, it's always a good idea to leave a good edit reason -- especially so if you feel the edit might be accidentally controversial. Good edit descriptions prevent problems before they start.

One exception to the "Edit Boldly" rule is other Tropers' User pages. Those are the places where Tropers get to talk about themselves, and other Tropers shouldn't edit them without permission. Even the admins don't edit User pages except to protect the wiki as a whole.[3]

What to do if you're not having fun

We've all experienced the phenomenon of someone being wrong on the Internet! But for some, the occasional online argument is actually fun.

But there are a few things you can try if you actually get angry:

  • Take a Wiki Chill Pill -- Walk away from the screen for an hour, or a night, or whatever it takes you to calm down. The page will still be there when you come back (and if not, we can always restore it).
  • Take time to plan your argument -- Repeating the same points over and over is unlikely to convince anyone. Aim for the Gettysburg Address.
  • Contact the Staff for help -- We're called moderators for a reason, and we'll try to help resolve any disputes you have. Listening to you is in our Policy for Wiki Staff.
  • If you do lose, accept your loss gracefully -- In any endeavor, you win some and you lose some. This doesn't mean you're a bad person. Or even that your ideas are wrong. It just means that people chose a different way, and There is No One True Way.

This page is a part of The Troper's Code.

  1. and split infinitives
  2. unless you have Administrator rights, which is one reason why admins don't usually use those rights
  3. Which includes removing spam, yes. Turning the wiki into a spam pit doesn't help the wiki.