Real Life section maintenance

3395:
I think that is because the eary ones were the trivial ones. By now, we've gotten most of the RL sections that were clearly terrible and completely unsalvageable. Like epidemics: the most virulent strain kills off the most vulnerable people first, then the pathogen gets weaker and the population more resistant.

Also, as the thread has gone on we're getting a clearer picture of pruning as an option.

I think most pages that get discussed in the thread are getting put in NRLEP because the RL sections that obviously don't need cutting (or that obviously don't specifically need cutting, if you're going to take that position) aren't being brought up here. My bias is towards voting down, but I usually vote up — I have a short list of narrow criteria for voting up, but most pages that are nominated in this thread meet them (which suggests that my list is consonant with other people's).

I freely admit I almost always vote in favor of cutting, but that's because my standard is that if there any issue that causes a trope to be brought up here, it should only be kept if it actively adds to our appreciation and understanding of the trope. Now, that's a really strict standard, but there are also tons of tropes that are not brought up here. I routinely look at RL sections and go "Meh, the worst that you can say is it takes up space" and move on.

Simply put, I think as RL sections are off-mission, we should be much stricter about allowing them.

Re: Awesome Mc Cool Name. Apparently, back in February, we declared that it would be In Universe Only. See https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13919623400A60223300&page=0. No sure what we want to do about that.

edited 24th Sep '14 9:26:21 AM by Terrie

I missed the RL section of Preppy Name not being at the end like it should have been, my mistake.

That said, a lot of the entries, RL or otherwise, are Zero Context Examples, which is a problem in and of itself; I commented out the ZCEs when I moved the section to the end of the page, in accordance with wiki policy. I'm not going to put it on the crowner and probably won't vote if someone else does, but that going away as well would not bother me in the slightest.

edited 24th Sep '14 9:52:07 AM by Nohbody

So Preppy Name can have real life, but Ghetto Name gets on the crowner?

Well, Preppy Name DOES have a ZCE problem and some shoehorning going on. Maybe it should be considered.

edited 25th Sep '14 4:56:15 AM by Terrie

If you feel it's so important, you can add it yourself, ACW.

I'm perfectly happy to have all tropes about names as class indicators be NRLEP

I'd broaden it further. For instance, I found that Embarrassing Middle Name is full proclamations that someone should be embarrassed by their middle name, not matter what the person's actual opinion is. My personal tendency is to NRLEP such tropes, but at minimum, I think we need to limit to claims by the actual individual that their middle name is embarrassing.

For some reason, I'm thinking Embarrassing Middle Name should be In-Universe examples only. I don't have a good reason for it, though.

Calling:

• And the Adventure Continues: Added 23rd Sep '14 at 09:17:53 AM, 12:1 (13)
• Comedic Sociopathy: Added 23rd Sep '14 at 09:19:11 AM, 4.5:1 (11)
• Ghetto Name: 23rd Sep '14 at 09:49:02 AM, 10:1 (11)

—-

As for the other name tropes, my main concern for their RL sections is more "does it stir shit up?" than anything else. Ghetto Name does, Embarrassing Middle Name does (if to a lesser degree than GN, which is part of why I'm not adding it to the crowner, the other part being current discussion of alternate handling options), Preppy Name does not.

edited 25th Sep '14 7:38:53 PM by Nohbody

Yeah. There's a different between "causes problems" and "could potentially cause problems". If the problems it could potentially cause haven't actually been caused, it's a sign that people can actually behave, which means there's no cause to strike it down, since there's nothing to strike down other than the imagination of someone who could potentially see a problem.

It's the Unfortunate Implications of saying one causes trouble and deleting it, but the other doesn't.

ACW, if you think Preppy Name needs to be cut, put it on the crowner. As it stands, your failure to do so makes this look like a passive-aggressive argument that we should keep Ghetto Name. I see one person did vote in favor of keeping it. Maybe that was you. In that case, if you can't see the difference between a trope whose name implies tennis whites and boating shoes, and another whose name implies drive-by shootings, well, frankly, I'm disturbed.

Yeah, I'm begging to wonder what you're doing here. So far, all you've done is get mad at us for doing our job.

You're disturbed? If I didn't know better, it'd seem like you're saying a black-sounding name implies drive-by shootings.
Oh, wait, I see, you're saying that's the problem with having a Real Life section.

Fighting the lonely fight.

edited 26th Sep '14 6:59:22 AM by ACW

We don't fight here. We discuss whether tropes should have Real Life sections based on what the tropes imply about the people in the examples and how tropers handle the section, and vote on it.

ACW, yeah, that's what the TROPE name implies by saying such names are "Ghetto" name. That's not something needed on this site.

But, like others, I'm baffled by what you want out of your participation on this thread. It seems like you think all RL sections should be allowed, but have offered no reason why beyond the fact that its what you want, not even discussing WHY you want it.

ACW: "Fighting" goes against "Don't be a dick". This thread is for discussing whether Real Life sections should be allowed based on what the trope says about the people and/or situations involved, as well as if they are even possible in real life. (Like when a character is immortal.) This is not to fight about whether we should have RL sections at all.

Please contribute in a constructive way. Or you can choose to not participate. It's your call.

On the subject, I don't see a problem with Preppy Name at the moment.

Totally agreeing with Another Duck at 3412. If there's clear potential for problems, and no sign of actual problems — especially if there's little or no flamebaitery in the history — that's a sign the folder is safe.

Though I also think "impossible in real life" is not a good enough reason unless people have tried to add real life examples anyway.

edited 27th Sep '14 9:16:17 AM by HersheleOstropoler

Getting back to actual tropes, Embarrassing Middle Name and similar tropes. It seems like everyone agrees that they need to be restricted, but no one is 100% certain on how. The three pprposals so far are:

1) NRELP

2) Restrict it examples of people actually stating they find their names embarrassing

3) In Universe Only

Any thoughts?

edited 27th Sep '14 10:35:44 AM by Terrie

My preference is 2, followed by 3 (which is substantially the same thing)

edited 27th Sep '14 11:32:47 AM by HersheleOstropoler

Ditto.

Ichigo Montoya, I know I've said this in the past, but apparently it didn't catch.

When adding an entry, like with Too Clever by Half, please post that you added it, ideally with a reason more detailed than the crowner entry blurb. Putting a timestamp on the actual entry would be nice, too.

edited 27th Sep '14 11:54:52 AM by Nohbody

Re: Embarrassing Middle Name: agreeing with Hershele Ostropoler here.