Likes and dislikes about TV Tropes

So anyways, what do you like and dislike about TV Tropes.org?

What I like is browsing and editing the wiki, it's very addicting for some reason. This is definitely one of the largest geek sites about fiction, media, and pop culture you'll find. The editing atmosphere is usually relaxed instead of combative, unlike some other wikis. It's a very interesting way to waste your time.

What I dislike though is trying to figure out what to do on the forums. I don't know why, but I find it difficult to try and find someone who has similar interests on a subject. If there's something I really like, chances are that the thread I'm posting in will be quickly forgotten and buried; meanwhile, there's a handful of other threads that will persist for tens of thousands of replies later.

NOTE: I don't know if this is the right sub-forum or not, move it if needed. Also this is NOT supposed to be a complaining thread, it's supposed to be a balanced opinion thread about positives and negatives.

edited 19th Jan '15 8:53:47 AM by AHI-3000

Uh, should this be moved elsewhere?

I guess that I posted in the wrong place.

Yeah, this sort of thing is social in nature and more adept for Yack Fest.

So can you please move it there?

Done.

Uh...you sure this wouldn't develop into a Complaint Thread^TM?

I'm asking people to give both positives and negatives. A two-sided opinion thread shouldn't count as a complaining and bitching thread.

I dislike how unhelpful and harsh some people are when they try to "help" you after you've made some mistakes in editing or creating a page, and when you ask for concrit. I've found some people don't understand the concept of approaching someone politely at all, being more "con" than "crit" and would rather just shoot you. That said, aside from a couple of pages for my own fan fictions no one cares about made on a lark, I almost never edit or contribute to the actual Tropes pages. I'm too afraid.

What I do like about it is the overall humor of the site. I mean, I don't feel like I'll ever be in the "in-crowd" here, but years-long before I ever started posting regularly on the forum, I've been reading the site and I like how things aren't taken overly seriously, how a lot of the trope names are puns and wordplays and how there is a catalogue of just about EVERYTHING one can find in fiction.

And because I want to give more of what I like to counter the one complaint, I also like how people on this place know about the oddest, obscure things. Vintage TV, bizarre cartoons that had only a few episodes I remember as a kid, and is very fair in countering some of the stereotypes associated with certain tropes - (notes on Madness Tropes, for example, about how most people with illnesses do not fit the "Hollywood" versions).

Likes: There are people who I can relate to here, and we share similar personality traits.

Dislikes: There are people who I can relate to here, and we share similar personality traits. (What the fuck is wrong with you?)

edited 19th Jan '15 12:07:41 AM by Aespai

Having been here for four years (permanently on the wiki and on-and-off on the forums), I've met a lot of folks and seen the site go through a good number of changes. So here's my take.

Dislikes: I'll be honest, there have been a few bans I wouldn't agree with, and sometimes I'm not 100% supportive of the methods that the mods feel they have to use in order to defuse drama. (The drama itself can also grate; I've actually promised myself I'd never set foot in OTC permanently because of what I had heard/seen). Also, this is more of a personal gripe, but I'm not super thrilled with the "no redirects from Main/ to InsertPageNamespace/" rule. I can understand why it was instituted, but it makes typing out links to works with long titles a pain in the ass (PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale comes to mind, and I can only imagine the nightmare of typing out the full title of Marat/Sade).

Likes: Aw, man, where to start? The community is full of creative, clever and kind folks, and the level of diversity within it is awe-inspiring. I think TVT was probably the first place on the internet besides Tumblr that I could open myself up without having to worry about filtering my nerdery. Even now, I'm able to display love for things nobody gives a shit about (*cough*looks at avatar*cough*) and instead of being shrugged off, people actually take an interest in figuring out the things I enjoy.

I've made a ton of friends here and figured out about stuff I probably wouldn't have ever discovered otherwise, too. And that's not even including the wiki, which is just as much of a drug now as it was in 2010.

(Also, the design finally looks like it came from a year in the 21st century after 2003! I'm still kinda in awe, tbh.)

tl;dr It has its issues here and there, but I really do believe that TVT is a great site.

edited 19th Jan '15 1:23:19 AM by Tre

Likes: The website and its community offer a wealth of information on a variety of topics, both prominent and obscure. I love being able to interact with people from a variety of sub-cultures, education and professional backgrounds, political leanings and nations. For all of the hangups people tend to have about the moderators being too strict, the trade-off is that TV Tropes is noticeably more civil, organized and efficient in its debating atmosphere than most other websites. You can mostly say what you want around here, but you had better do your homework before you step into a debate because you will most likely be in the company of people who have done theirs.

Dislikes: Some of the people here, while operating under good intentions, need to be more careful about providing unqualified advice on things like depression, being bullied, suicide and coming out of the closet. However, I understand that many tropers looking for an outlet live in countries that forbid their views in some shape or form.

edited 19th Jan '15 10:04:37 AM by Aprilla

This place needs more monkeys. Also needs More Dakka. Never enuff.

The sheer variety of stuff I can find is pretty cool, though.

TV Tropes is interesting, varied, fun to edit and review, and it's at times educational, but I dislike how random, informal and jarring this place can often be. I also hate it when people overuse trope links in their conversations. It's confusing and needless. When this website's good, it's great. When it's bad, it approaches levels that I find disturbing and lowbrow.

By the way, to the guy who made this thread... I can totally relate! I rarely post on this forum because I too have interests no-one cares for. Plus, I hate various stuff that a lot of people here like.

Pros: This site has both one of the generally friendliest communities I can think of, as well as one of the most frequently used forum game subforums. It's also a super awesome distraction to read through, and a great way to discover new things you wouldn't have otherwise. (I know I discovered all 3 Two Best Friends Play, Binding of Isaac, and Retsupurae through here)

Cons: The community comes across sometimes as a bit too.. anime-centric. This technically isn't a real major flaw, but it's still something that bugs me (as a person who doesn't watch anime). Maybe it's just me, but I also feel like a few of the trope names go into Unfortunate Implications territory (Depraved Bisexual immediately comes to mind, but I've heard similar concerns from someone I follow about the name for Straight Gay). Additionally, the forum's activity tends to be kinda... unpredictable. Sometimes going to fast to keep track of, other times going agonizingly slowly.

Overall, it's a good site, but it has some flaws to it.

On the unfortunate implications, there's a couple sides to the issue. The main thing is that they are tropes that are seen throughout media. The main problem comes from the format of "simply list instances of trope" and the general lack of deeper analysis on the site. That and people slinging around the tropes without bothering to make sure it really fits the definition, but that's why we have TRS and the Projects subforums.

Dislikes: The trope name Gender Bender

Likes: Most of the rest of it

Yeah, unfortunately that trope name wasn't coined here and it's a much more widespread term even though it's inaccurate and a pet peeve of mine.

That'd be another trope name that falls under Unfortunate Implications territory — though like Sixth said, that wasn't originally coined here. (Maybe something like "Sex Switch-up" or something like that'd work better?)

To be blunt, it's less the tropes themselves I have a problem with and more the name. If Depraved Bisexual and Depraved Homosexual were just, like, Depraved Sexuality or something like that, and they had examples of different depraved sexualities as different categories or something like that, I'd give it a pass — as it is, it feels like it's singling out sexual minorities. And the guy who I mentioned has a problem with Straight Gay says he specifically has a problem with it due to the name reminding him of ideas like "gay passing for straight" or "gay person being seen as better than other gay people due to 'acting straight'" rather than the actual trope itself — maybe something like "Subtle Gay"'d work better?

edited 25th Jan '15 2:10:53 PM by Makeyejr

I rate tvtropes 10/10, would adopt everyone again.

Ok, I dislike the un-tropefication of real life and real people. It was fun. While I don't hate it, the fact that everyone is always hasty to learn about the Japanese version is strange. And the fact that I've had my editing privileges banned for over a year because of bad grammar, allegedly.

Otherwise I enjoy this place. I can tell people my crazy headcanons in the Pokémon thread. I can make jokes/references to things with links that explain the joke, like my current sig.

edited 25th Jan '15 2:54:05 PM by Smasher

You should fix the spelling in the first link in your sig.

Unfortunate Implications cannot be avoided by those who seek them out. There are people who subconsciously want gays and minorities to be viewed differently in their works. Some people do it on purpose. Literally every trope associated with Gender, or anything LGBT has Unfortunate Implications tagged at the bottom because of this.

And that is an Unfortunate Implication in itself.

And the fact that there's no Fortunate Implication to balance it out kind of devalues any, you know, fortunate implications a work has.

edited 25th Jan '15 7:01:11 PM by Aespai

I'm not sure I entirely agree with that, but I can see your concern. Speaking of fortunate implications, that seems to be a missing point of deconstruction tropes. Deconstruction isn't necessarily a matter of making things Darker and Edgier, and while that problem has been mostly clamped down around here, it still crops up from time to time in the World Building and Writer's Block hubs.

I agree with the problem regarding some of the trope entries being bare-bones descriptions that offer in terms of analysis. I do like how the Troper Repair Shop and the Edit History features allow us to examine and discuss the use of these tropes on their pages. We can always tweak and double-check the entries if need be, and aside from the drive-by style of editing that the community sometimes encourages, it's a feature I mostly enjoy.