Note: If a newly launched trope was already given a No Real Life Examples, Please! or Limited Real Life Examples Only designation while it was being drafted on the Trope Launch Pad, additions to the proper index do not need to go through this thread. Instead, simply ask the staff to add the trope via this thread
.
This is the thread to report tropes with problematic Real Life sections.
Common problems include:
- Conversation on the Main Page
- Flame Bait
- Squicky content
- Impossible in Real Life
Real Life sections on the wiki are kept as long as they don't become a problem. If you find an article with such problems, report it here. Please note that the purpose of this thread is to clean up and maintain real life sections, not raze them. Cutting should be treated as a last resort, so please only suggest cutting RL sections or a subset thereof you think the examples in question are completely unsalvageable.
If historical RL examples are not causing any problems, consider whether it would be better to propose a No Recent Examples, Please! (via this forum thread
) for RL instead of NRLEP. If RL examples are causing problems only for certain subjects, consider whether a Limited Real Life Examples Only restriction would be preferable to NRLEP.
If you think a trope should be No Real Life Examples, Please! or Limited Real Life Examples Only, then this thread is the place to discuss it. However, please check Keep Real Life Examples first to see if it has already been brought up in the past. If not, state the reasons and add it to the crowner.
Before adding to the crowner:
- The trope should be proposed in the thread, along with reasons for why a crowner is necessary instead of a cleanup.
- There must be support from others in thread.
- Any objections should be addressed.
- Allow a minimum of 24 hours for discussion.
When adding to the crowner:
- Be sure to add the trope name, a link to where the discussion started, the reasons for crownering, whether the restriction being proposed is NRLEP or LRLEO (and in the latter case, which subject(s) the restriction would be for), and the date added.
- Announce in thread that you are adding the item.
- An ATT advert should be made as well (batch items together if more than one trope goes up in a day).
In order for a crowner to pass:
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- There must be a 2:1 ratio
- If the vote is exactly 2:1 or +/- 1 vote from that, give it a couple extra days to see if any more votes come in
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Sex Tropes, Rape and Sexual Harassment Tropes, and Morality Tropes are banned from having RL sections so tropes under those indexes don't need a crowner vote.
As per Real Life Troping, we never trope unscripted real life sports — so sports tropes where RL examples would only apply to those scenarios don't need a crowner vote.
Crowner entries that have already been called will have "(CLOSED)" appended to them — and are no longer open for discussion.
After bringing up a trope for discussion, please wait at least a day for feedback before adding it to the crowner.
NRLEP tag:
%%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800
LRLEO tag:
%%The following restrictions apply: [list restriction(s) here]
%%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800
Notes:
- This thread is not for general discussion regarding policies for Real Life sections or crowners. Please take those conversations to this Wiki Talk thread
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- Do not try to overturn previous No Real Life Examples, Please! or Limited Real Life Examples Only decisions without a convincing argument.
- As mentioned here
, the consensus is that NRLEP warnings in trope page descriptions can use bold text so that they stand out.
- The [[noreallife]] tag no longer works. This is a deprecated tag that was introduced many years ago — originally, it would have displayed a NRLEP warning banner when you edited the page. Per word of admin
as of 2025, any replacement for this system will not use markup, so these tags can be removed.
- If a newly launched trope was already given a No Real Life Examples, Please! or Limited Real Life Examples Only designation while it was being drafted on the Trope Launch Pad, additions to the proper index do not need to go through this thread. Instead, simply ask the staff to add the trope via this thread
.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 3rd 2025 at 6:31:00 AM
Not really. It varies hugely as a matter of course, from one college to another. They almost always have control over the disbursement of student fees to the various student organizations (and that can be tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars each year), and many have representatives on the governing board of the college itself.
The real life ones seem to be about the belief or real life superpowers trough enlightement, which is a running legend. So I think it's fine.
edited 26th Mar '15 8:55:22 PM by Gaon
"All you Fascists bound to lose."Bit of shoehorning and generics, though. It's still impossible in real life, though. It might fit under a Religion folder, but I'm doubtful about that.
Check out my fanfiction!Should I take Absurdly Powerful Student Council to the repairshop? The only college examples on the page are in film (Revenge Of The Nerds and Animal House) and real life.
edited 27th Mar '15 2:59:23 AM by Memers
Is Death Amnesia still under active discussion? If not, it qualifies for NRLEP, but since I'm not sure about the discussion I'll hold off on that for now.
Other than that, calling:
- Louis Cypher: Added 23rd Mar '15 at 07:13:20 AM, 5:1 (12)
- Morally Ambiguous Ducktorate: Added 24th Mar '15 at 04:03:19 PM, 13:1 (14)
- Power-Up Food: Added 23rd Mar '15 at 07:13:20 AM, 16:0
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Added 23rd Mar '15 at 06:05:43 AM, 14:1 (15)
Waiting a bit to call Absurdly Powerful Student Council to keep, as I just now added the 10th vote.
edited 27th Mar '15 5:30:18 AM by Nohbody
All your safe space are belong to TrumpI'd say that Student Council is more a candidate for TRS. It needs better definition, since the media versions seem to be more Middle School/High School, while the RL versions are more weighted towards college. I'd argue that college students (despite the questionable decisions they're prone to making
) are at least notionally adults and therefore being in a position of authority over other adults doesn't fit the definition of "absurd".
Wow, that's longer than most posts I make here. TL;DR version:
- I think the trope should apply to MS/HS, not college/university
- I do not think it should be NRLEP
- I think it needs to be taken to the repair shop.
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I was discussing it, but I don't think I made anyone change their minds. Consensus looks to favour setting it No Real Life Examples Please (13:3)
Calling Death Amnesia: Added 23rd Mar '15 at 09:23:46 AM, 4.33:1 (16)
Enlightenment Superpowers has 8 votes at present, but so far it looks like there's not a lot of enthusiasm for making it NRLEP. Unless the next few votes are all "yes", it will probably keep its RL examples
Absurdly Powerful Student Council, however, has cleared all the minimums, and doesn't look like that's going to significantly change, so calling that to keep RL examples. All your safe space are belong to Trump
I think What An Idiot should allow Real Life Examples. Specifically sports fails and warfare fails (like the Battle of Isandlwana and Little Bighorn) that we can learn from to avoid mistakes.
^^ The wiki isn't for life lessons or teaching moments. It's also not for invitations to arguing about what's "idiotic" or not, which is why it was made NRLEP in the first place.
edited 29th Mar '15 7:22:36 PM by Nohbody
All your safe space are belong to TrumpSo what should we call the Historical equivalent to What An Idiot? "Historical Logic Failure"?
Why would we call it anything? Seems like you're trying to find a loophole on the NRLEP issue.
In other news, Better the Devil You Know is a villain trope with a RL section.
Fictional portrayals of historical events are allowed.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
But we should change What An Idiot to allow some real life events outside of historical fiction.
edited 30th Mar '15 3:31:27 PM by TropeLicious
No, we should not. Really. No.
This.
What An Idiot is an Audience Reaction to a character doing something that seems unjustifiably stupid.
Applying it to real life situations is basically using it as an excuse to call someone an idiot. Which violates at least three TVT policies that I can think of without even trying.
Even 10000 years ago could be flamebait? Alrighty then.
Is Better the Devil You Know really a villain trope?
BTW, why was Bread and Circuses made NRLEP again?
edited 31st Mar '15 2:55:56 AM by ACW
Single-Target Sexuality: Sex trope. Forgot About His Powers: Narrative trope.
Single-Target Sexuality isn't a sex trope, at least not directly and not as described. It's a "Gender and Sexuality" trope, which isn't the same thing.
I'd argue that the trope is more about romantic attachments than sex, TBH.
Be careful what you wish for, 'cause you might just get it all...Also disagree with Forgot About His Powers - the RL examples listed don't seem to be blatant shoehorns, and it's been proven that unused skills "rust" with time.
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@ACW - I'm guessing Bread and Circuses was defined as Flame Bait, but I don't really know and don't feel like searching the backlog :)
Crown Description:
Vote UP to cut real life examples; vote DOWN to keep. Anything marked DONE has been resolved. In order for a crowner to pass:- Must have been up for a minimum of a week
- There must be a 2:1 ratio
- If the vote is exactly 2:1 or +/- 1 vote from that, give it a couple extra days to see if any more votes come in
- Once passed, tropes must be indexed on the appropriate NRLEP or LRLEO index
- Should the vote fail, the trope should be indexed on KRLE page

I dunno, college student government is still normally pretty powerless.