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1%%
2%% Do not add tropes without discussion!
3%% An item can only be added to a No Real Life Examples, Please! index if it was:
4%% - agreed upon during drafting at the TropeLaunchPad or
5%% - discussed and agreement reached on a crowner on the RL section project thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800
6%%
7
8Many tropes allow RealLife examples because they are [[JustForFun fun]] and can sometimes be useful to understand the idea behind the convention. This policy describes what is acceptable for such examples and what is considered problematic. Certain tropes have proven too problematic for any Real Life examples. That includes any real person, living or not, or any real institution, organisation, political party, nation, ''etc.'', existing or historical -- in other words, real people or things.
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10Administrivia/RealLifeTroping is the broader policy, describing the difference between what we consider "Real Life" and what we consider a story with the potential for tropes. To summarize; {{trope}}s only exist in relation to a story with creative intent. Because real life isn't a story being told to an audience (at least not any that we know about), it cannot be said to include tropes. The Real Life folders on trope pages are not really examples of tropes; they're amusing trivia about how reality and storytelling are related.
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12The "Real life" media category doesn't include works ''about'' real life, like a biography or a documentary. In those cases, examples describe that work's perspective on "real life", which is usually a lot less {{ambiguous|Situation}} than what "real life" really is. Any such examples belong in their respective media category instead.
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14Think of it this way -- when a real person or thing is listed as an example of a trope, it looks like the ''entire'' wiki has judged it so. And for certain tropes, such a judgment isn't exactly fair, especially because it can often depend on the perspective of an individual editor which doesn't apply to everyone. Say, for instance, that a Christian, a Muslim, and a Sikh walk into an Internet cafe[[note]]and [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall the barista asks]], "What is this, a joke?"[[/note]], and each edits the page ScamReligion to add the other two religions as examples. To each of them, what they said is absolutely true, at least from their perspective. But when they see their ''own'' religion added as an example, they get mad, and they blame everyone else at TV Tropes for having added the "wrong" example. And this is how {{Flame War}}s start. But the ScamReligion as a trope is well-established, and there are tons of uncontroversial examples of it in fiction. The problems only start when you add the "real life" examples, which is why they're not allowed.
15
16There are several types of tropes which fall into this category, like:
17* MoralityTropes. We aren't in the business of passing judgment on real people. Even if they're nearly ''universally'' thought of as good guys or bad guys, there's always someone who thinks otherwise. (Contrarianism is a powerful thing.)
18* SexTropes. We shouldn't focus on the sex lives of real people. Also, it violates our Content Policy, owing to their inherently NSFW or squicky nature and tendency to attract fetish gushing.
19* Rape, sexual assault, and incest tropes, out of respect for the victims and to prevent gossip.
20* Gossip. TV Tropes is not a {{tabloid|Melodrama}} rag. We've historically had problems with this kind of thing (we're still cleaning up the PersonalAppearanceTropes), and we'd [[StopBeingStereotypical rather avoid being the kind of people who would focus on that kind of thing]], thanks.
21* Tropes that may be valid in fiction or other media, but count as Administrivia/PeopleSitOnChairs in real life, just because a "Real Life" section would bog the page down tremendously.
22* Tropes that invite {{flame war}}s, [[Administrivia/ConversationInTheMainPage natter]], Administrivia/{{edit war}}s, and Administrivia/{{complaining|AboutShowsYouDontLike}}, and violations of the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement when discussing real life examples, such as many political tropes.
23* Tropes which are impossible in real life, such as tropes about TheFuture (while {{Defictionalization}} might occur some day, ''right now'' it would just be speculation) or tropes requiring authorial intent.
24* Tropes, that require an author of a story to make a conscious storytelling decision, or otherwise involve the context within or outside of a work. Tropes involving beginnings, endings, and other story parts, or tropes that are exclusive to one medium, such as interactive games.
25* Stock Characters and Stereotypes, since they harmfully distill real people into flat characters.
26* Tropes that attract {{Squick}}, including gory retellings of real events, or NSFW weblinks.
27* Tropes that attract misuse or encourage Trope Drift, which is when the ''de facto'' definition of a trope changes while the official trope definition doesn't.
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29To provide a little more guidance on these trope examples:
30* Don't try and hide RealLife examples under some other media category. Yes, we can trope someone else's judgment that such-and-such is a ScamReligion, but only if that judgment actually appears in something we can call a "work". Otherwise, it's just a collection of random artists' opinions. And especially don't attribute such judgment to large groups of disparate, unidentified people (''e.g.'' "this mindset is prevalent on Website/{{Reddit}} and Website/{{Tumblr}}" listed under WebOriginal).
31* Be aware of your own biases when dealing with tropes like this. Some people [[OpinionMyopia can't fathom that anyone can think differently than they do]], and they also [[Administrivia/RightingGreatWrongs tend to overstate the importance of this site and what's on it]], so they end up expending a lot of time and energy trying to get the wiki to conform to ''their'' version of reality. Don't be one of those people. There's a reason why starting an Administrivia/EditWar is a bannable offence.
32* If you can properly trope someone else's opinion about a RealLife person or thing that appears in a work, ''attribute it'' to that person. And even if you do, please be mindful of the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment. This only works if we trust people to use their common sense.
33* RealityTV and stuff like it is a funny scenario here. Yes, the subjects are real people, but participants are very much characters in a work, which is sufficiently edited (often [[ManipulativeEditing misleadingly]]) to be separate from their lives ''outside'' the work. These characters should only be listed as examples for things we see them do in the work, not offscreen and should be worded to focus on that.
34* We have UsefulNotes articles about a lot of real life things, which are particularly subject to the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment where these tropes are concerned. If we can't easily come up with an uncontroversial way to include the trope in the UsefulNotes page, it shouldn't be included. We can leave describing the details of whatever abhorrence the subject is a part of to Website/TheOtherWiki's "neutral point of view" and "due weight" and [[VastBureaucracy the rest of its immense policy]] on this kind of thing.
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36Compare Administrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly, where examples must be within the same "verse" as the work being cited (Real Life counts as a "work" in this context), and Administrivia/LimitedRealLifeExamplesOnly, where real life examples are only forbidden for certain subjects instead of completely forbidden. See Administrivia/KeepRealLifeExamples for tropes that have been discussed for NRLEP but deemed their RealLife sections not being problematic enough to remove entirely. A trope cannot be both NRLEP and [[Administrivia/DefinitionOnlyPages Definition-Only]], as D-O pages do not allow any examples, regardless of medium.
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39'''NOTE:''' Please consult [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800 the Real Life section maintenance thread]] if you want to propose adding a trope here.
40
41----
42!!Pages where RealLife examples are not allowed:
43[[index]]
44* NoRealLife/Tropes0ToC
45* NoRealLife/TropesDToG
46* NoRealLife/TropesHToK
47* NoRealLife/TropesLToO
48* NoRealLife/TropesPToS
49* NoRealLife/TropesTToZ
50[[/index]]
51

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