Trope meanings - are these correct?

Before I add these to the Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions, I want to check that the meaning is correct, so I'm asking here.

Disclaimer: This is not the final version for the list. It's just for definitions on here.

The tropes in question:

• Comic-Book Time: The comic is at Issue 543, 30 March 2017 or the television show is on Season 4, Episode 12, but In-Universe, it's set in November 1997, and the characters are aged 19, 24, 25 and 22, and have been for the past three years. The characters haven't aged at all (a la Batman).
• Frozen in Time: A Medical Drama's timeline starts at 1991 and finishes at 2004, and the characters haven't moved on from 2004, nor aged. The work remains stuck in November 2004 (Is this overlap with Comic-Book Time?)
• Webcomic Time: The webcomic was published 30 March 2017, but In-Universe it's June 2013, and has been for the past six weeks but there's been little attempt to move on.
• Crapsack World: The world's a horrible place and you wouldn't want to be there at all and everyone's antagonising one another. (I know this trope is on the list but not the next one).
• Crapsaccharine World: A Crapsack World that pretends to be a Sugar Bowl yet it's actually anything but.
• Sugar Bowl: The world is always bright, happy, colorful and there's No Antagonist (except for the extreme heat of the sun or drowning in a river) or a Harmless Villain.

• Corrupt Politician: The character's a politician, but only in it for what they can get.
• Sleazy Politician: They hit on members of the opposite/same sex, are lewd, crude and rude, and have virtually no or low morals.
• Windbag Politician: Long Speech Tea Time in political format, often to bore the audience.

• Con Man: They gain your confidence by using mind games, but are often Only in It for the Money and don't care about you really.
• Honest John's Dealership: He can get what you need, but as long as you don't care where it came from.
• Fell Off the Back of a Truck: An excuse used by "fences" (dealers in stolen goods) to explain where the goods came from.

• Gangbangers: Nothing to do with sex with multiple men by one woman as a gang initiation ceremony, this is actually a term for a youth street gang.

• Alternate Continuity: This runs alongside the main continuity, and is sometimes mutually exclusive of it, with a different storyline and ending. Most but not all of the main characters are retained. It can overlap with Continuity Reboot and (if mentioned In-Universe) Alternate Universe, but is not the same thing as an Alternate Universe.
• Continuity Reboot: Similar to Alternate Continuity, except it eliminates all the previous continuity, rendering previous works Canon Discontinuity. Common with Series Franchise. Often used to start works off as a "clean slate" start, due to Continuity Snarl.

Just checking before I make any major edits, even though This Is A Wiki (I did have a Dork Age when I made some bad edits recently).

edited 30th Mar '17 2:24:21 PM by Merseyuser1

On the Lists of trope differences, please don't use one trope to describe another one. That's counterproductive.

Do not change the Continuity cluster. They're concise and clear now. Your proposed changes are wordier, more complicated, and less clear.

Like you do here:

• Continuity Reboot: Similar to Alternate Continuity, except it eliminates all the previous continuity, rendering previous works Canon Discontinuity.

You've only explained it in terms of other tropes. Now the poor reader has to go look them up to see what the difference is. The list pages should explain the differences between the tropes in the cluster, concisely and clearly and without using other tropes to explain them.

edited 30th Mar '17 10:37:43 AM by Madrugada

Also, those pages are for the differences between tropes. What are you differentiating Gangbangers from?

edited 30th Mar '17 10:39:42 AM by Madrugada

Woah... lots of tropes all being listed! I'll take the ones that relate to the pacing of periodically published works.

• Comic-Book Time: The work began three years ago, but In-Universe it's only been a few days. The current date is 30 March 2017.
• Frozen in Time: The television show is on Season 4, Episode 12, but the characters haven't aged for the past three years. The work has had three Christmas specials and two Halloween episodes, but remains stuck in 2004.
• Webcomic Time: The work was first published three years ago, and despite regular weekly updates, In-Universe it's 3 April 2014.

Did we ever figure out the difference between Comic Book and Webcomic Times, ~crazysamaritan? Because your summaries sound like they're the same

edited 30th Mar '17 10:54:13 AM by Madrugada

They're very similar. The last TRS thread has some disagreement, but half the time it was rewording the statement to make sure comprehension was achieved. No-one really discussed rewriting the descriptions. The difference between them, as I put it, is that the difference between the first issue and the last issue; Webcomic has the date flow forward from the first issue, while Comicbook has the date flow backwards from the last issue. But both are "work takes longer to publish than actually occurs In-Universe."

Webcomic Time date is established by counting forward from the date the first issue takes place. Comicbook Time date is established by counting back from the date of the final issue. Is that it?

~Merseyuser1, given the confusion over the various "...Times", don't put any of them on the Canonical list yet.

edited 30th Mar '17 1:57:51 PM by Madrugada

I've added a disclaimer to my original post at the top.

Without a stronger consensus, yes. That's how I keep them separate.

Vis-a-vis Crapsack World and conciseness, the current description seems overlong, and the trope it is paired with doesn't make much sense. After revising the entry (not on the page!), I think the entry is trying to contrast Earth That Was rather than Crapsack World.

I think this could just be:

• A Crapsack World is a physically horrible and philosophically pessimistic setting, where its inhabitants are perpetually pessimistic and nasty toward one another.

I don't know what is meant by "the former" and "the latter"? I don't think the reader could understand how these two relate to Crapsack World with what is currently written.

—

I might as well offer a revision for Crapsaccharine World:

• A Crapsaccharine World is a superficially pleasant setting, but it is actually a horrible or pessimistic one, where its inhabitants pretend to be happy when they genuinely aren't.

edited 30th Mar '17 3:05:47 PM by WaterBlap

The words "former" means first, and "latter" means last. Usually used only with two things.

"Using "the former" and "the latter" instead of "first" and "last", or simply comparing the two things in pairs, is a Troper Tic that I would dearly love to see go up in flames.

In the example you quoted what they mean is

Earth That Was is when humanity has abandoned or almost-completely abandoned Earth. Earth That Used to Be Better is when humanity has only begun to abandon Earth.

Yes, I know that, but there are at least three things (Crapsack World, Earth That Was, and Earth That Used to Be Better). Also, "former" and "latter" are only ever used with two things.

Thank you for clarifying. Really "abandoned Earth for the former" makes it sound like "abandoned Earth for Earth That Was / Crapsack World" which wouldn't make sense.