History Administrivia / WhatGoesWhereOnTheWiki

For this reason, we came up with different categories of articles, so that for a given work there'd be a separate article for each type of content. Later we implemented {{namespace}}s (see that page for a technical explanation) and a top-page banner system, so that it'd be easier to see right away which category an article belongs to.

Here at TVTropes we have plenty of different kinds of content. We point out patterns in a work, discuss patterns that may or may not be in that work, share our reactions to fictional happenings and take wild guesses at what happens next - among other things. It became clear early on that letting all this content mix together was not the best idea.

In theory, YourMileageMayVary on nearly all tropes. Who says that a HappyEnding is happy, for example? In practice, what we mean by a ''significant'' judgment call is exactly the duck test outlined above- an item falls under YMMV if people often disagree about it. Either we can figure this out from the definition, or a huge {{natter}} infestation wherever the item is mentioned clues us in. Either way, it gets stamped with the "subjective" stamp and relegated to YMMV subpages, where the varying of mileage and resulting {{natter}} will not get in the way of the objective tropes.

** Used on a [[CreatorPageGuidelines creator page]]. Creator pages are not allowed to have YMMV items, and YMMV items found on creator pages should simply be deleted rather than moved.

* Trivia entries can be listed as examples on pages that describe actors, writers, directors, musicians or other creators in general. These already contain mostly trivia information. There's no sense in splitting them. See also CreatorPageGuidleines.

* Trivia entries can be listed as examples on pages that describe actors, writers, directors, musicians or other creators in general. These already contain mostly trivia information. There's no sense in splitting them.

''NOTE:'' Recently we started implementing an in-page notification system as well. At the moment it only works for items in the YMMV or AudienceReaction indexes and only within the examples section for pages with the "work", "creator" or "examples" type. If you see any link on a page that is preceded by a red bullet, that means it may not belong in the main article. It will also appear in a list over the editing box for that page. If you intend to help move such examples or remove potholes, ''please'' make sure they don't meet some of the criteria from the "Exceptions" section above.

* Are not listed in ''main pages'', ''character sheets'' or ''YMMV subpages''

** Part of a group of specific items that go ''in their own namespaces/subpages'', which link back to the main article via the buttons in the "Moments" section. These include: MomentOfAwesome ("Medal" icon), FunnyMoments ("Smiley" icon), HeartwarmingMoments ("Heart" icon), TearJerker ("Tear" icon), NightmareFuel ("Moonface" icon), HighOctaneNightmareFuel ("Screaming" icon), FridgeLogic, FridgeBrilliance and FridgeHorror ("Lightbulb" icon)

!{{YMMV}}

Factoids that occur during or around the production of a work but are not elements written to tell the story. Casting choices not relevant to the story, who did what to whom on set, ThrowItIn, etc.

* Are found on the ''main namespace'' or the UsefulNotes namespace for some.

Pages that basically play by their own rules. We keep them around, because... well [[CaptainObvious they're fun]].

These have the Flame Bait banner, many of the ones on DarthWiki have had their redirects from the Main wiki made members of the PermanentRedLinkClub. The reason for this is they are used to complain, attract massive amounts of {{natter}} and don't actually contribute anything to the wiki's mission. Do not pothole these ''anywhere'', and no examples outside their main page (if the page accepts examples - some of them we don't want any examples of, please). The only exception to this is within trope or work descriptions (above the examples line).

These have the Flame Bait banner, many of the ones on DarthWiki have had their redirects from the Main wiki cut and locked and made member of the PermanentRedLinkClub. The reason for this is they are used to complain, attract massive amounts of {{natter}} and don't actually contribute anything to the wiki's mission. Do not pothole these ''anywhere'', and no examples outside their main page (if the page accepts examples - some of them we don't want any examples of, please). The only exception to this is within trope or work descriptions (above the examples line).

!!{{Administrivia}} / WikiTropes

!!JustForFun

!Natter Bait

Items that attract {{natter}}. Technically this includes all items that are not Objective Tropes or {{Trivia}}, but in practice it's limited to only the most problematic items. These are only used to define the term and have a note not to add examples and can be locked as well if needed.
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Factoids that occur during or around the production of a work but are not elements written to tell the story. Casting choices not relevant to the story, who did what to whom on set, ThrowItIn, etc. [[{{Trivia}} Index]] is currently under construction.

* Are usually found on the ''main namespace''

ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Items that attract {{natter}}. Technically this includes all items that are not Objective Tropes or {{Trivia}}, but in practice it's limited to only the most problematic items. These are only used to define the term and have a note not to add examples and can be locked as well if needed.

ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Items that attracts {{natter}}. Technically this includes all items that are not Objective Tropes or {{Trivia}}, but in practice it's limited to only the most problematic items. These are only used to define the term and have a note not to add examples and can be locked as well if needed.

* If YMMV or Trivia items happen InUniverse, are [[InvokedTrope invoked]], or are part of a ShowWithinAShow, we treat them like an objective trope. Make sure to explicitly mention the example is "{{In-universe}}" or "{{invoked}}". It turns off the YMMV flagger and makes sure it doesn't get moved by mistake. You can also use the [=[[invoked]]=] markup, which does the same without appearing in the text at all.

* Finally, certain namespaces that are just for fun also don't need to obey these rules. These include TroperTales (and Fridge as well), JustBugsMe, WildMassGuessing, HaikuWiki, and {{Analysis}}. Same goes for the Discussions, Reviews and Live Blogs sections. This does ''not'' mean you can do whatever you please there.

!Tropes

It is objectively true that the author may have intended to play a character or a plot element inspired by something from subcategory 2, but even so, it is impossible to say objectively whether it is actually ''present'' in the work. We try not to take a stand on the DeathOfTheAuthor issue, but even the most ardent intentionalist would concede that the author intending to have some pattern of fiction in their story doesn't mean the attempt worked.

For this reason, we came up with different categories of articles, so that for a given work there'd be a separate article for each type of content. In turn, to make it easy to which category an article belongs, we implemented {{namespace}}s (see that page for a technical explanation) and a top-page banner system.

Here at TVTropes we have plenty of different types of articles. It became clear early on that letting examples from all of them mix together in one page was not the best idea.

That is why we came up with certain namespaces, specifically for the purpose of creating sub pages for articles that describe works of fiction. Later we added the banner system in order to flag certain articles for easier recognition. Seeing as all this can get very confusing for new people, and in some cases even veteran tropers, here's a breakdown of what goes where on the wiki.

See {{Namespace}} for a more general and technical explanation of namespaces and how to use them.

YMMV stands for "Your Mileage May Vary". There have been plenty of attempts to pin down what this class objectively ''is'', but the definition in practice- and the reason the "YMMV" distinction exists in the first place- is simple: it's a YMMV item if editors, drive-by and otherwise, can't stop arguing about it. YMMV basically breaks down into 2 subcategories, which are

When we say an article is a YMMV (YourMileageMayVary) item, we mean it falls in this category. The idea is that these are tropes to which YMMV applies, as opposed to objective tropes. Pure AudienceReactions like {{Shipping}} are also part of this class.

These are elements and patterns of fiction that require a significant judgment call to decide whether, how and to what degree they exist in a work. They are relatives of objective tropes insofar that it is objectively true that the author may have intended to play a character or a plot element this way. Even so, it is impossible to say objectively whether these are actually ''present'' in the work. We try not to take a stand on the DeathOfTheAuthor issue, but even the most ardent intentionalist would concede that the author intending to have some pattern of fiction in their story doesn't mean the attempt worked.

In theory, YourMileageMayVary on nearly all tropes. Who says that a HappyEnding is happy, for example? In practice, what we mean by a ''significant'' judgment call is that these tropes involve elements that people often disagree about. Either we can figure this out from the definition of the trope, or a huge {{natter}} infestation wherever the trope is mentioned clues us in. Either way, the trope gets stamped with the "subjective" stamp and relegated to YMMV subpages, where the varying of mileage and resulting {{natter}} will not get in the way of the objective tropes.

!Flame Bait

These have the Flame Bait banner, many of the ones on DarthWiki have had their redirects from the Main wiki cut and locked and made member of the PermanentRedLinkClub. The reason for this is they are used to complain, attract massive amounts of {{natter}} and don't actually contribute anything to the wiki's mission. Do not pothole these ''anywhere'', and no examples outside their main page (if the page accepts examples - some of them we don't want any examples of, please). The only exception to this is within trope or work descriptions (above the examples line). A list can be found [[FlameBait here]].

** Part of a group of specific items that go ''in their own namespaces/subpages'', which link back to the main article via the buttons in the "Moments" section. These include: AwesomeMoments ("Medal" icon), FunnyMoments ("Smiley" icon), HeartwarmingMoments ("Heart" icon), TearJerker ("Tear" icon), NightmareFuel ("Moonface" icon), HighOctaneNightmareFuel ("Screaming" icon), FridgeLogic, FridgeBrilliance and FridgeHorror ("Lightbulb" icon)