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Real Life section maintenance (including NRLEP and LRLEO) (New Crowner 9/20/25)

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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:

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:

%% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: [crowner link]
%%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800

LRLEO tag:

%% Trope was declared Administrivia/LimitedRealLifeExamplesOnly via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: [crowner link]
%%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

Nen_desharu Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire from Greater Smash Bros. Universe or Toronto Since: Aug, 2020 Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire
#16751: Aug 28th 2025 at 11:50:09 AM

[up][up][up] and [up]x4 Moral Guardians is one such case of a KRLE that was later made NRLEP.

Thus, KRLE can later become NRLEP.

Edited by Nen_desharu on Aug 28th 2025 at 2:50:44 PM

Kirby is awesome.
Lymantria Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph from Toronto Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Historians will say we were good friends.
Tyrannoraptoran Reptiliomorph
#16752: Aug 28th 2025 at 11:54:21 AM

Since Dirty Cop’s RL example restriction was decided on by this very thread here and enacted here, should it be listed under LRLEO?

Join the Five-Man Band cleanup project!
CompletelyNormalGuy Am I a weirdo? from a place where folks put cream cheese on hot dogs (Oldest One in the Book)
Am I a weirdo?
#16753: Aug 28th 2025 at 3:55:22 PM

However, if you're going to go after something that was previously listed as "keep real life examples," the standard should be pretty damn high. No vague "it's attracting examples that are kind of icky." You should actually bring up some of the problematic examples, and what kinds of specific problems they have.

Bigotry will NEVER be welcome on TV Tropes.
namra Since: Sep, 2021
Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#16755: Aug 28th 2025 at 10:57:35 PM

Per TRS, Confirmation Bias has been made into In-Universe Examples Only. Would that affect the restrictions on the real life examples?

WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#16756: Aug 28th 2025 at 11:00:05 PM

Not at all. Many IEUO pages have real life examples and vice-versa. The only thing that changes with an IEUO designation is that "meta" and audience reactions aren't allowed.

Edited by WarJay77 on Aug 28th 2025 at 2:00:38 PM

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
JMan34 from A Galaxy Far, Far Away (Troper Youngling)
#16757: Aug 29th 2025 at 12:05:39 AM

I found that Fictional Holiday has Real Life examples, which doesn't make sense, cause if a holiday does exist it wouldn't be a fictional holiday, the description says a holiday that doesn't exist in the real world. The only examples listed are I think what people are considering as "weird" or "unusual" holidays.

"I created a legacy so resilient that now you come before me."
Rotide She-Who-Hunts-Unseen (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
She-Who-Hunts-Unseen
#16758: Aug 29th 2025 at 2:40:34 AM

The Horde, a trope on the Villains index, is not currently NRLEP. The extant section in its page is clearly trying to be informative, but it still has a very flattening view of historical cultures and of events. I also feel like much of that section's content would be better-served if cleaned up and maybe moved to an Analysis page covering the formation of stereotypes around pastoral societies and the way those stereotypes are used in propaganda.

"TV Tropes looks like if Tumblr got a little crazy at a party last night and brought someone home"
RallyBot2 (Elder Troper) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
#16759: Aug 29th 2025 at 9:05:19 AM

[up][up]Obviously impossible in real life.

[up]It's on the Villains index, but it's not inherently a morality trope.

WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#16760: Aug 29th 2025 at 9:16:50 AM

I think Fictional Holiday's section is trying to be more for the silly and sort of joke-y holidays, ones that aren't "real" in the traditional sense but have caught on in pop-culture.

I agree it should be axed though. But we could also just slice all those away as misuse without a crowner.

Edited by WarJay77 on Aug 29th 2025 at 12:17:15 PM

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Rotide She-Who-Hunts-Unseen (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
She-Who-Hunts-Unseen
#16761: Aug 29th 2025 at 11:00:52 AM

[up][up] That's not really reflected in its usage, from what I could tell after a wick check, nor is that particularly observable in the description.

It opens with these lines

"They come sweeping down from the mountains like an avalanche, or surging from the deep forest like a tide of vermin. They come from across the sea in their dragon-prowed ships, or storming from the forsaken wastes that no other men can dwell in. They come to Rape, Pillage, and Burn, howling like demons, and leave only death and despair in their wake. They waylay travelers, ransack peasant villages, and even lay siege to the great bastions of kings. They take only what plunder and slaves they can carry, and torch and butcher the rest. Woe upon us, the Horde has arrived."

Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't strike me as the tone to set for a trope that's "not inherently a morality trope".

Edited by Rotide on Aug 29th 2025 at 2:06:35 PM

"TV Tropes looks like if Tumblr got a little crazy at a party last night and brought someone home"
bwburke94 I am mad scientist! It's so cool! from 1.048596% (Y2: Electric Boogaloo) Relationship Status: She does the things you do, but she is an IBM
I am mad scientist! It's so cool!
#16762: Aug 29th 2025 at 11:35:32 AM

Some of the "real life" Fictional Holiday examples belong better on Pop Culture Holiday.

2025: the year it all ends?
RallyBot2 (Elder Troper) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
#16763: Aug 29th 2025 at 11:38:13 AM

[up][up]The trope as used doesn't involve anything morality-related, it's just the description going overboard.

namra Since: Sep, 2021
#16764: Aug 29th 2025 at 11:39:07 AM

[up][up][up] The real life section comes off a history lecture, which is cool and all, but I don't think really belongs on a real life section. I would suggest moving it to useful notes.

Edited by namra on Aug 29th 2025 at 11:39:23 AM

MonaNaito Since: Jun, 2011
#16765: Aug 29th 2025 at 1:15:38 PM

The Horde's Real Life section has a lot of breakdown on "here's why X real life culture is not actually this trope", which suggests to me it belongs in Analysis or someplace.

It's a stereotype similar to Barbarian Tribe, so IMO it should be NRLEP.

Edited by MonaNaito on Aug 29th 2025 at 4:16:05 AM

Rotide She-Who-Hunts-Unseen (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
She-Who-Hunts-Unseen
#16766: Aug 30th 2025 at 3:12:00 AM

[up][up][up] I don't think I see a way to define a trope without its description, unless you mean the Laconic version, which isn't any better on this front.

"A vast tide of barbarian warriors sweeping across the land."

As noted above, it's the most ancient and basic of racial stereotypes there is. Nothing against this trope, as such, but how could this be acceptable for Real Life examples? I barely see how it's acceptable for Historical Fiction ones (though I acknowledge that's more of a personal preference).

Also the uses catalogued on this wiki, like I said, are overwhelmingly negative anyway.

Edited by Rotide on Aug 30th 2025 at 6:12:40 AM

"TV Tropes looks like if Tumblr got a little crazy at a party last night and brought someone home"
MsOranjeDiscoDancer 2much2furious from the Saja Boys' last performance! Since: Aug, 2022 Relationship Status: Will you go out with me to the End?
2much2furious
#16767: Aug 30th 2025 at 3:18:09 AM

~Gear Fried The Knight — no offence... but I am seeing a pattern of vibes-based "I don't like this" reasoning to get rid of real-life examples solely because you do not like it.

For example: what, exactly, is tasteless about Lifesaving Misfortune? You pasted the entire list of IRL examples, many of them historical. If they were all "too bad George Bush wasn't on a plane to 9/11" that'd be tasteless

Secretly Wealthy: your "posers" example as justification to get rid of it is specifically about rich trust fund kids pretending to be authentically poor. That is the definition of being a poser.

Sports Dad: [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800&page=670#comment-16726 wanting to be rid of it" for documenting crimes is too close to the "true crime" reasoning a now-banned troper was using to cut IRL examples

In regards to Buses Are for Freaks: mentioning of sex harassment should NOT make it 'sex adjacent'; it's been documented Greyhound buses in the US are prone to attracting drug addicts and the mentally ill

Edited by MsOranjeDiscoDancer on Aug 30th 2025 at 3:36:48 AM

i may be dead inside but at least i have Mystery :,)
GearFriedTheKnight BLOCKING - A weapon for the 21st century. from The nearest road that can be raced (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: I'm in love with my car
BLOCKING - A weapon for the 21st century.
#16768: Aug 30th 2025 at 3:46:06 AM

  • Lifesaving Misfortune is troping real illnesses and tragedies as if they were narrative, some of which are just a few years old, but even including the historical ones, I find it particularly tasteless to treat horrible events as if they were narrative. It doesn't help that some of the real life examples are speculative ("X happened so it's likely Y didn't happen").
  • Secretly Rich... yes, and? That is exactly why it should be No Real Life Examples — that is a judgemental take. It's one thing to call a character a "poser" because a narrative depicts them as such, it's another one to try to claim that objectively over a real life person.
  • As for Sports Dad, I hope you are not accusing me of being a ban evader I was not even aware of. The reasoning has been made clear — the trope is adjacent to another trope that was made No Real Life Examples, and all examples are cases of gossip-y drama importation or treating tragedies as if they were narrative, which is grossly tasteless. Two other users agreed with me on that regard.
As for Buses Are for Freaks, despite not having brought that one up because I was not aware of it... I do hope you realize that you accidentally implied that drug addicts and the mentally ill are "freaks" with that phrasing. If anything, that is even more reasons why that should be made No Real Life Examples, and why I'm publicly stating my support for it whereas previously I was neutral on it.

''There's no magic in tuning; yet, it's something that tends to escape from any logic."
empressteta Since: Nov, 2019
#16769: Aug 30th 2025 at 3:49:19 AM

[up][up] I agree in part, many of the examples of Lifesaving Misfortune did not strike me as tasteless at all. I don't think there is anything inherently offensive about stories about someone narrowly escaping an accident.

But I can't agree with you about Buses Are for Freaks. As far as I understand, the site does have restrictions on real-life sexual harassment stories (I understand that you can disagree with these restrictions, but this is a matter of general site policy, not a specific trope). Especially since statistics show that most sexual crimes occur within a circle of acquaintances — in families, among friends, at work, and not among strangers in public places.

And why should we call mentally ill people freaks? Especially since they are much more likely to be victims of all kinds of crimes than criminals. And why should we judge the world by North America, putting a stigma on a more environmentally friendly form of transport?

Rotide She-Who-Hunts-Unseen (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
She-Who-Hunts-Unseen
#16770: Aug 30th 2025 at 3:53:57 AM

[up] Wasn't what I came here for but I'm also going to say I'm for NRLEP re: Buses Are for Freaks for the same reason.

"TV Tropes looks like if Tumblr got a little crazy at a party last night and brought someone home"
MsOranjeDiscoDancer 2much2furious from the Saja Boys' last performance! Since: Aug, 2022 Relationship Status: Will you go out with me to the End?
2much2furious
#16771: Aug 30th 2025 at 4:10:34 AM

~Gear Fried The Knight

  • Life Saving Misfortune: "find it particularly tasteless to treat horrible events as if they were narrative" except this is about people saved from horrible events; on top of that we have plenty of other tropes about historic horrible events. If merely documenting a "horrible event" makes it narrative, we might as well throw out Wikipedia
  • Secretly Wealthy: not only is it only one example, it isn't judgmental to say someone is faking a subculture that is specifically about being poor. If the entry was "haha look at these loser rich weirdoes!!" that'd actually be something to remove. The rest of the examples, barring the general examples that can go, being covered by Snopes + the MTV example aren't judgmental at all
  • Sports Dad: "Tasteless" how? Also, how are documented examples of bad behaviour "gossip"?
  • Buses Are for Freaks: 1. I have a mental illness. 2. I don't have a car and I'm well acquainted with public transport. The main issue here is the title declaring people "freaks" imo.

Edited by MsOranjeDiscoDancer on Aug 30th 2025 at 4:16:45 AM

i may be dead inside but at least i have Mystery :,)
Rotide She-Who-Hunts-Unseen (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
She-Who-Hunts-Unseen
#16772: Aug 30th 2025 at 4:32:29 AM

[up] Re: Buses Are for Freaks, that sounds like more of a reason to explain why the trope exists in the description, and how it has roots in ableist stereotypes (Something currently absent from its description), than a reason to necessarily have a Real Life section.

Edited by Rotide on Aug 30th 2025 at 7:34:17 AM

"TV Tropes looks like if Tumblr got a little crazy at a party last night and brought someone home"
MonaNaito Since: Jun, 2011
#16773: Aug 30th 2025 at 6:58:33 AM

Would the issues with Lifesaving Misfortune be resolved by making it No Recent Examples, Please! ?

Edited by MonaNaito on Aug 30th 2025 at 9:58:47 AM

GearFriedTheKnight BLOCKING - A weapon for the 21st century. from The nearest road that can be raced (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: I'm in love with my car
BLOCKING - A weapon for the 21st century.
#16774: Aug 30th 2025 at 7:29:59 AM

How recent? Two hundred years?

I still stand by having request it become No Real Life Examples. There's a difference between Wikipedia merely describing them and stating the events through sources, and this site, by its mission, troping them by treating them as narrative. One is a service for it transparently makes information available, whilst the latter is off-topic for the site's mission and feels tasteless because, as I've said a lot, it feels like we're treating tragedies like some fantasy work to pick at.

''There's no magic in tuning; yet, it's something that tends to escape from any logic."
Rotide She-Who-Hunts-Unseen (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
She-Who-Hunts-Unseen
#16775: Aug 30th 2025 at 8:07:38 AM

Does anyone have any objections to a crowner for The Horde, on the earlier-stated bases?

"TV Tropes looks like if Tumblr got a little crazy at a party last night and brought someone home"

Projects: Long Term/Perpetual: Real Life Section Maintenance
20th Sep '25 9:57:50 AM

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

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