1st time editing - questions

Hi. I've enjoyed tvtropes for years, but only created an account yesterday. Please tell me if there's another (sub)forum where this message should have been posted.

The other day my son showed me a scene from a Star Trek episode, and I pointed out to him an example of a trope. When I later looked it up here, I was surprised to see that the trope was missing from the "tropes featured" list. I signed up, edited the page, and now I have some follow up questions. The epidode is TNG S 4 E 24, The Mind's Eye Star Trek The Next Generation S 4 E 24 The Minds Eye. The Trope is Bilingual Backfire.

1. The conversation with the Backfire is already noted on the page under Pardon My Klingon. Is that a problem, where it illustrates two different tropes? 2. Any suggestions for how to revise the language I used for the example's text? 3. Should I include an intra-page cross-reference to the Pardon my Klingon example below? Is that possible? 4. The Bilingual Backfire page's examples list does not include this episode. Do Trope pages like that automatically pull in examples added to specific shows, or are must inter-page cross-references be added manually? 5. If the latter, is there a norm to limit the length of trope page examples lists such that I shouldn't add this new example to Bilingual Backfire? 6. What order are examples on a trope page in? Under Bilingual Backfire live action TV there are Stargate, NCIS, and Babylon 5. Because the final NCIS example involves Klingon, I'd want to put my example immediately after.

Thanks! Eph

Edited by Foxtrot437 on Aug 27th 2021 at 9:28:11 AM

1. No, it's not a problem. The exception is if one trope is a Sub-Trope to another — in such a case, only the subtrope should be listed.
2. The relevant policy pages are How to Write an Example and Zero-Context Example. Basically, make sure it's an example and write it in a way such that someone who is unfamiliar with the work will be able to understand why it is an example. For this particular example, based on the context given (I am not familiar with the work), I am not sure if it is an example of Bilingual Backfire. Part of the trope is one party assuming the other will not understand what they are saying, and based on the example text, I can't tell if that's the case.
3. No, examples should be standalone. See How to Write an Example -> Example Don'ts -> Don't Refer to Other Items on the Page. However, you may insert links to other tropes in example text where relevant. e.g.
   • Bilingual Backfire: Bob insults Alice in untranslated Martian, assuming she won't understand, only to be surprised when she retorts in the same language.
4. They must be added manually. This practice is known as Crosswicking and is policy.
5. No, there is not.
6. It is encouraged to list trope page examples alphabetically by work (within medium-specific sections) to help avoid accidental duplicate listings, among other reasons. However, this was not always standard practice, so there are many pages that are still unalphabetized. If a page is alphabetized, then add it in alphabetical order. Otherwise, it doesn't really matter, although generally they are inserted at the end of the folder.

Edited by Twiddler on Aug 27th 2021 at 1:30:49 AM