Tvtropes and Parents

Do your parents know that you're a troper, if so how do they feel about It? If your parents don't know, how do you thick they would react? Are your parents tropers? If you are a parent, what is your opinion on Tvtropes?

Mine don't know, but I think they might allow me to contuide troping although they might be like "stay away from bad stuff" and tease me about it or they would be disapproving of it while not outright banning me from going on. Or they'll just brush it off as some web site I go on which seems the most likely while never doing any research into it.

edited 30th Jun '14 7:27:36 PM by Soulucid

I'll kick this one off. Being a parent of a young child, I would only encourage him to participate in the site when he gets old enough, but I wouldn't want him contributing until he can write well enough not to get in trouble over it.

I'd also want to supervise where he goes (as I would any other part of his Internet browsing) to ensure that he isn't getting into stuff that he shouldn't be; our recent effort to purge the more lewd and ugly bits of the site make me much happier in this regard.

If he wants to start writing and talking about fanfiction, I wash my hands of the consequences.

I don't think my mom knows any of the sites I'm a member of except Facebook and Twitter. Once we got a laptop and I didn't have to use the desktop computer in her bedroom she quit knowing or really wanting to know anything about my internet habits. Though my mom did know that I read fanfiction but she's not that computer savvy so she didn't really know about fanfiction's reputation for weird sexual stuff.

My mum knows that I'm part of many forums, I'm not sure she really know the difference between them though. She knows that I talk about a lot of stuff on here and spend a fair amount of time here though. She does at times disprove, but that's because she sees what I do here as time wasting, and that's because she doesn't understand the importance of TV Tropes (and my other main forum) to both my mental well being and the amount that TV tropes helps keep me good at my chosen subject.

As such I decided recently that instead of saying I've been foruing I will instead call my time on TV tropes "studying", I'm a Politics and IR student and I hang almost totally around OTC discussing political issues, so I say it's legit.

I talk a lot about the people I know online, both a lot of my meat-space friends and my family will recognise names I mention of people I talk to online, it occasionally gets lampshaded how all my internet friends seem to have really weird names (as I know them largely by their handle's)

My parents know because I list modding on my resume. I work in a tech field. It was relevant to the position I was applying for in moderating a business's in house forums.

How would you describe modding on a resume? I've got some modding experience myself (on another forum obviously) and it would be interesting to see if I could add something to my CV.

edited 30th Jun '14 3:59:37 PM by Silasw

My parents don't care, since they don't use computers or the Internet. As long as I don't get into trouble, there's no issue.

However, I do mention from time to time some things I learned or heard about in a few OTC threads when there's a particular discussion about politics or economics in my house.

Yeah i'm also curious as to how you add moderating experience to a resume, if it is at all relevant to the position.

Community management looks good on a resume.

As a parent, I wouldn't be horrified if my kids decided to get on tvtropes. That said, my kids don't actually get on the internet to do much beyond homework and flash games.

My dad would enjoy wikiwalking, and my mom would doubtlessly consider this entire website a colossal waste of time, which is her opinion of anything fiction that was created since she was born.

My parents are actually kind of happy about it. When I started using the forums lines up pretty well with when my interests began to diversify, and they think that's great.

Blue: Same with my parents only reversed.

I'm applying for a job moderating a company forum that they use to interact with their customers. So basically it would be pretty much exactly what I do here on TV Tropes. So I'm listing it as experience moderating a forum.

My own parents don't really approve that I am here, and never hide it.

My parents know full-well that I use TV Tropes (I've even discussed parts of it at length with my dad), so clearly they're fine with it.

Then again, my parents have always been lax about controlling my internet browsing. That, and I'm 21 now so it's not really their place to judge anymore.

It's actually one of my brothers who doesn't like that I use TV Tropes. But even there, it's more because I keep talking about it when nobody else in my family is a Troper.

I actively point out tropes in programs and movies to my kids and make sure they're aware of how they're used but as far as them participating on the forums, I'd want them to be old enough to behave maturely.

My parents decided quite some time ago that there was no way for them to understand any and all entertainment I engage in. Luckily, they weren't the type to be afraid of that which they don't understand, so we put the whole thing on a "Don't ask, don't tell" basis.

You know, as much as I appreciate that they didn't feel like policing my free time, I sometimes wish they made a bit more of an effort to get involved in my world. As a (mostly) adult, I feel very much estranged from them.

My parents think that all forum users are washed-up bums that have no goals in life and will never achieve anything. No, really. (they are indeed absolutely wonderful people to chat with)

On the other hand, they are very surprised that I can put up with massive walls of text without having my brain melt down. Considered the first novels I got into were doorstoppers, as well as having multiple school textbooks that are filled to the brim with text, I do believe that I've had practice. Plenty of it.

As to being a hypothetical parent to hypothetical offspring, I would point out tropes in the media that they do watch, but yeah, no forum usage until they prove a sufficient level of maturity for it.

edited 1st Jul '14 5:44:50 AM by Krieger22

I'm far past the age of living at my parents', but back when I did, the only member of my family who's fluent in English didn't care much about fiction that wasn't murder mysteries, and I'd bet he still doesn't.

He also considers Fantasy and Sci-Fi with contempt.

edited 1st Jul '14 5:55:07 AM by Medinoc

I point out tropes that crop up in everyday life, as well - just today I told my second-oldest son that what he used was a Suspiciously Specific Denial

I don't think they'd really care. Though I think they might agree with Tv Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.

As a hypothetical parent I'd consider Tvtropes, at least as it is now, to be pretty safe. I'd try to make sure to keep them from sinking all of their time on wikiwalking though.

edited 6th Jul '14 11:06:17 PM by Qeise

Actually, he got the reference and laughed like hell. Though I think everyone in this house knows that TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.

I like to keep my online life and my meatspace life separate. The only times I ever let them intersect is if someone asks about something online, if I meet someone who knows about stuff I know about online (e.g. my ex-girlfriend knew about and used this site before I'd met her), or if I become close enough to someone online that I'm willing to let them in my inner circle (which has really only happened with two people so far, only one of whom is on this site as well).

As such, I don't talk to my family about this site because I don't feel the need to do so. If ever I reference something, say, from the forums, I just say that it's "something I saw that someone posted online" or say something to the effect of, "Someone I talk to online said this," and leave it at that. Hell, I've only ever really talked to one of my RL friends about this site, and he couldn't really care less anyway. I don't feel a need to discuss my online activity with other people. Maybe I value it less than face-to-face experience. Maybe I just don't think it's important at all on the whole. Maybe I just even see them as separate spheres that would be pointless to force to collide. I dunno. Anyone else get this vibe?

I HAVE NO PARENTS!

/Batman

Actually curious: why would anyone's parents care if their kid posted on TV Tropes? It may get more foot-traffic than a typical forum, but this is still a forum. I mean, I don't know if Wikipedia has a forum, but I imagine someone outing themselves a Wikipedia editor as like,

"Hey mom, I have something to tell you."

"What's that, sweetie?"

"I'm a Wikin."

"You're not going to cast a spell on me, are you?"

"No, mom, I post on Wikipedia."

"You're not going to cast a spell on me on Wikipedia, are you?"

"No, mom."

"Okay, sounds good. What do you want to have for supper, sweetie?"

I'm not sure I understand how it could matter even a little bit.

edited 10th Jul '14 7:00:05 PM by chi_mangetsu

The only thing I can think of is that Tvtropes has a really horrible reputation in some circles...