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:
- 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
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
.
- 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
One Of Us has always struck me as a completely pointless trope. "Oh, look, that [semi-]famous person is a member of our geek community. Let's celebrate that we are mainstream!" It's so self-congratulatory that it makes me want to vomit. And it's becoming more and more obsolete as the generation that started playing video games is rapidly becoming the main consumer demographic.
edited 25th Jun '17 7:50:57 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Its not just gamers becoming mainstream. There are also cases where the inmates are Running the Asylum as writers, actors and musicians. As Another Duck had said the geek stigma has lessened and with the likely hood of AscendedFanboys to some degree, the stigma will only get more and more moot until it would be considered Values Dissonance some time in the future.
As it is, One Of Us is definitely unnecessary
It seems like there are several options here: 1. Delete the trope altogether. 2. Make it in-universe examples only. 3.Move examples of fans becoming creators or reviving an in-universe reference to the relevent trope page. 4. Possibly split into mulitple tropes? It looks like this is being used sometimes as "unexpectedly geeky," "famous fan," and "famous fan becomes a creator". The third one would already fall under Promoted Fanboy (another page that may need some work). Is there already a trope for "Character who is not a geek surprises everyone with stereotypically geeky interests?"
I like One Of Us, but my problem is that it conflates entertainment stuff with education stuff (i.e. famous gamers with, say, the dcotoral members of Queen).
I think One Of Us is a valid and sometimes interesting item of trivia in some cases, e.g. when an actor is not just a fan of the genre their work is part of, but a part of the sub-culture they're portraying. For example, an actor who plays a wargamer in a movie is actually a wargamer in real life. That is interesting because it relates to how the actor portrays the role.
The basic problem with the trope, I think, is the gushing. "Wow, rock star Cristina Scabbia loves video games just like I do". That says something about her personality, sure, but it's irrelevant since we don't trope creators as persons. And, as has been pointed out, as many parts of what was formerly geek culture are becoming more and more mainstream, these examples say less and less. It's not really interesting for the purpose of this wiki that I'm excited that a famous person shares my interests...
So is someone going to put One Of Us in TRS or are we venting now. I wouldn't support cutting a trope simply because it has evolved to the point where it's somewhat of a Deadhorse Trope (or Forgotten Trope or whatever-the-fuck). Maybe splitting it into a subtrope about creators who were once fans who have now become creators... or not, idk.
As to the examples, I think they're fine unless they're gushing. It could probably use a clean-up effort for those subpages or something.
I sound so on-the-fence but I'm seriously not, wtf.
Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they prettyNeed to work on paying less attention to silly shit...
Anyway, calling We ARE Struggling Together for NRLEP. Added 23rd Jun '17 at 10:39:33 AM, 6:1 (21)
One Of Us currently fails to clear the vote ratio hurdle, but it was doing well previously so I'm going to let it simmer another day to see if it's stabilized (though given the total vote count I suspect it has). Added 24th Jun 2017 03:10:15 PM, 1.13:1 (17)
All your safe space are belong to TrumpConsidering it went from 1.13:1 to 1:1 in the relative handful of hours since my last post, I don't think being tied by NRLEP status is going to be a concern...
And as should surprise no one who was paying attention, One Of Us fell short of qualifying for NRLEP. Calling to keep RL examples. Added 24th Jun 2017 03:10:15 PM, 1:1 (20)
—
larry4163, I'm not sure what you're trying to say with that entry for Beam Me Up, Scotty!. At a skim of BeamMeUpScotty.Real Life, there are references for the misquotes, and I'm not seeing the "somewhat opinionated" part.
Also, before adding an entry to the crowner it should at least be mentioned in the discussion thread.
edited 28th Jun '17 7:31:44 AM by Nohbody
All your safe space are belong to TrumpI just realized that the page for We ARE Struggling Together was in the RealLife/ namespace
so I checked out the namespace index.
RealLife.Mean Character Nice Actor does not seem kosher. The trope has been on In Universe Examples Only since as late as 2013, but the RealLife/ page was created in 2011, so I'm guessing it slipped through the cracks. I don't think we really need to put it on the RL crowner if it's already on IUEO, but in case anyone wants to discuss it, I think this page is troping RL persons and the concept is probably too common in RL to be noteworthy.
Note that there is also RealLife.Mean Character Nice Actor Film and RealLife.Mean Character Nice Actor Live Action TV.
Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they prettyIt has this weird, "In-Universe Examples Only (see here for real life examples):", in that it treats them as somewhat different tropes. The real life page is trivia, while the main is a proper trope. With that, I'm unsure how it actually should be. Well, other than that real life examples on the main page should be purged, or possibly moved.
As for RealLife.Mean Character Nice Actor, people playing villains and less moral characters are usually more pleasant in real life. However, the page does say it's about those actors who cultivate a persona about themselves that's meaner than the real thing. It's not about someone taking a completely different role. Basically, if the character is supposed to be someone different from the actor, it doesn't count.
If we clean the page with that in mind, I wonder how much would be left.
Check out my fanfiction!I deleted the Real Life examples on both Superpower Lottery and Superpower Russian Roulette. Both were generics and neither was about any sort of superpower.
Lottery:
- While most human traits aren't really considered superpowers, the genetic lottery and life circumstances (the birth lottery, for example) has an enormous influence on what we become (whether you are smart, average looking, or have a crappy personality), what we do well at, and what we do badly. Some people naturally are Born Winners.
Roulette:
- Autism. 1 in ~150 people are born with it. Of them, a great deal require extra support throughout childhood to develop somewhat normally in social matters. For a scant few, things will click just right in their mind to turn them into a "Savant," a real-life version of a TV Genius, though typically only in a very limited range of subjects (most commonly math and music).
- And being a Savant is almost always being Blessed with Suck. Roughly half are autistic. Most of the rest have a serious psychiatric issue. A very small few escape the developmental disabilities, who are usually known as prodigies.
- This is subject to Science Marches On, though, since autism is currently classified as a spectrum disorder, affecting different people with varying severity. While many of autistics do require "extra support throughout childhood," and only a few of them will become "savants," most will end up able to live fairly normal lives with perhaps a slightly-higher-than-average IQ, which makes autism more of a Super Power Lottery.
Since there was only one example in Real Life on either page, this means I deleted the whole folder. I don't think we need to declare either one NRLEP, unless the examples are restored, but we could, since both tropes are Impossible In Real Life
edited 1st Jul '17 5:17:05 PM by Madrugada
The people who added those two Superpower X entries should feel ashamed, though being the internet that may not be possible for them.
More seriously, I don't think either need to go through the crowner, but taking an occasional look for any anomalous entries wouldn't be a terrible idea.
—
So far Beam Me Up, Scotty! is completely in the toilet, but lacks the minimum of ten votes to be called. Added 28th June 2017 11:50:39 AM, 0:8.
edited 2nd Jul '17 9:50:20 PM by Nohbody
All your safe space are belong to TrumpI'm not surprised that Beam Me Up, Scotty! is so unanimously being voted down. I almost never vote anything down in this crowner, but I honestly don't see what the argument against it was at all. Though it could probably use some cleanup.
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

For instance:
The Current entry for Curt Schlling:
A new write-up demonstrating more than "he likes gaming":
edited 24th Jun '17 3:31:05 PM by Madrugada