Follow TV Tropes

Ask The Tropers

Go To

Have a question about how the TVTropes wiki works? No one knows this community better than the people in it, so ask away! Ask the Tropers is the page you come to when you have a question burning in your brain and the support pages didn't help. It's not for everything, though. For a list of all the resources for your questions, click here. You can also go to this Directory thread for ongoing cleanup projects.

Ask the Tropers:

Trope Related Question:

Make Private (For security bugs or stuff only for moderators)

PurpleEyedGuma Since: Apr, 2020
28th Sep, 2021 11:38:26 AM

null

Edited by PurpleEyedGuma
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
28th Sep, 2021 11:41:52 AM

^ Pages don't work on ATT, and I don't see much point to calling them over here since it's not like they haven't been told about these issues on the TLP drafts themselves...

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Amonimus (Sergeant)
28th Sep, 2021 11:45:03 AM

While the bombing button is there for a reason and seems to do its job, these can probably count as "Blanks, One-Line Wonders, and Other Zero-Effort Drafts" from TLP Guidelines.

If it's a consistent issue maybe the trope ideas and drafts should be reviewed by Broad Ideas forum thread, one-by-one, before going to TLP, the last one even started with no examples (I've heard 3+ are needed?).

Edited by Amonimus TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Willbyr MOD (Y2K)
28th Sep, 2021 12:26:46 PM

NGL I've had more than my share of frustration with the examples they've provided on my TLPs due to their writing style's handicaps and their tendency to not give enough context.

WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
28th Sep, 2021 12:36:15 PM

^ This is also true. I once had to flag them down with a PM to get context for an example.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Traveler123 Since: Mar, 2018
28th Sep, 2021 07:43:49 PM

Chiming in to support War Jay 77's observations. Some of Malady's TLP activity has left me wondering. However, as War Jay 77 stated, Malady is a good troper.

mightymewtron Since: Oct, 2012
28th Sep, 2021 09:54:45 PM

I agree they're a good troper, but they have a very unique posting style that I struggle to follow sometimes. Like Jay said, it's a lot of stream-of-consciousness posting, which often seems more for their sake than for the wiki's. It's not a problem in itself, but if they're not communicating with others, then that might be an issue. I never got the impression they were too stubborn or harming the wiki though.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
28th Sep, 2021 10:09:34 PM

I wouldn't say they're too stubborn, rather that they just sort of don't seem to absorb the information and criticism people are trying to give them. They're not like Bulma, who put up a stink because people dared to critique their writing- they're willing to listen to what people are saying. They just don't often seem to do anything with that criticism, or at least, nothing that actually sticks.

Plus, like I said, they did kind of ignore my concern about their grammar and basically responded to my issue with an example by saying something along the lines of "it was from this other draft I had and maybe I'll put it back if that one launches", which fixes nothing. It doesn't really inspire confidence in me.

Edited by WarJay77 Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
GastonRabbit MOD (General of TV Troops)
28th Sep, 2021 11:50:32 PM

Regarding their grammar, I've noticed they tend to overuse question marks (i.e., using them in sentences that aren't actually questions).

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Twiddler MOD (On A Trope Odyssey)
29th Sep, 2021 03:26:24 AM

^ I think they do that when they're not sure of something, making a suggestion, or offering an interpretation of something and not wanting to state it as fact. I do the same thing to an extent.

Not a problem in conversational posting as long as people can understand what you mean, but not something to do in description-writing where you're aiming for a "final draft" appearance. I don't think they've done it in the latter case, though. Maybe for TLP descriptions while they're in the draft stage.

Theriocephalus Since: Aug, 2014
29th Sep, 2021 09:33:45 AM

^Yeah, using question marks in non-question sentences to convey a degree of uncertainty or ambiguity... isn't really proper grammar as such, but it isn't that unusual. It shouldn't end up in examples but it's fine for conversation.

I will say that they also tend to skimp on context when providing examples, and to overrely on quotes to make for this — some of their examples are just a stub introductory sentence followed by a paragraph or more of text quoted verbatim from the source. They don't always do this, which is odd — sometimes they write out a proper example, sometimes they copy-past a couple paragraphs of text and leave it at that. It's definitely made adding their examples to some of my own drafts more frustrating that it really needed to be.

Amonimus (Sergeant)
29th Sep, 2021 09:48:21 AM

I can only speculate they treat TLP as a sort of "will finish one day" notepad for concepts, or assume others would fill the drafts for them, but I'd rather not put words into other's mouths. At any rate, I think there may be some misunderstanding about the minimum quality bar for drafts and examples.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
29th Sep, 2021 09:46:32 PM

^This. I've been around the launch pad a lot over the past few months and while Malady is certainly proactive in both making their own drafts and commenting on others, their drafts are usually bare bones in terms of the description and are often cribbing off each other in a way that feels like is cluttering the TLP. the website frowns upon people bumping their draft all of the time and what they're doing feels both like genuine effort to work on an idea and like a way to get around bumping the same draft: create a new one that's very similar.

BoltDMC Since: May, 2020
30th Sep, 2021 10:21:09 AM

Question. There are occasional examples of tropers who do a number of good things as well as some bad stuff. This particular troper hasn't responded to concerns, correct? It might just be me, but it seems as if folks like this tend to get more of a free pass from the powers that be than the usual problem troper. Maybe my impression is incorrect — just wondering.

MichaelKatsuro Since: Apr, 2011
30th Sep, 2021 11:17:45 AM

^ In my experience, that's not the case. Though again, that's just my experience.

Amonimus (Sergeant)
30th Sep, 2021 12:23:51 PM

Some tropers get suspensions even after years of active work, for example if they did only one type of edits, but try something else and consistently fail to follow the style, then they may get attention of mods. The reason why this isn't resolved I think because the post sounds like a general question and nobody actively accused them for breaking the rules. If the post sounded like a "TLP violation", then I suppose the higher-ups would take a closer look.

So are we saying Malady is a problem or not? If they repeatedly ignore recommendations for managing drafts, a mod can restrict their access to TLP "until further notice" while still allowing editing and forums.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Willbyr MOD (Y2K)
30th Sep, 2021 12:27:36 PM

We're discussing this but AFAIK a firm decision hasn't been agreed on.

WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
30th Sep, 2021 12:33:45 PM

^ Alright, thanks for the update.

The discussion is starting to sound a little popcorn-y. Let's let this thread chill for a bit while the mods think things over.

I will say though that this post was meant to be a general "TLP violation" report, but since they haven't broken any obvious rules it had to be presented as more of a "here's a weird pattern I noticed" query.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
7th Oct, 2021 03:11:24 PM

Are the mods still mulling this over? Because they just made a one-sentence stub draft that may or may not be covered by something else. I've been watching it for 40 minutes now to see if they'd update it, and thus far it seems like they're planning to do it "later". This is the sort of thing sandboxes are for.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
magnumtropus Since: Aug, 2020
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
8th Oct, 2021 08:32:30 AM

Yeah, I know... they did that like 20 minutes after I mentioned it. My point remains though.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Cutegirl920fire (Rule of Three)
8th Oct, 2021 08:50:23 AM

Even if it was nuked, they still broke a TLP rule or two.

Victor of HGS S320 | "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember."
AmourLeFou Since: Apr, 2021
8th Oct, 2021 04:21:02 PM

Have you pm'd them about it?

Check out my forum game: Rate the above YMMV.
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
8th Oct, 2021 04:24:32 PM

There's no point to it, though. Malady's drafts have been criticized multiple times by multiple parties. What will a PM do that the comments can't?

The point of a notifier is to notify someone that an issue exists. Malady's been notified.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Cutegirl920fire (Rule of Three)
8th Oct, 2021 08:38:09 PM

So if Malady won't listen, then what should we do?

Victor of HGS S320 | "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember."
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
8th Oct, 2021 08:57:56 PM

Not much we can do but let the mods keep thinking about it. The only reason I bumped this was to bring attention to the stub, which sort of encapsulated the concern we have about Malady using it more as a sandbox than a trope-making platform, and give the mods more to chew on.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
GastonRabbit MOD (General of TV Troops)
8th Oct, 2021 11:54:54 PM

Back on the subject of grammar, I admit that the question mark thing was pretty minor, but more recently (a few days ago), I wasn't sure (and I'm still not sure) what they were trying to say in this post in the TRS meta thread because it's confusingly worded.

Edited by GastonRabbit Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
9th Oct, 2021 01:24:12 AM

Their new draft also has some grammatical wonkiness...

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
BoltDMC Since: May, 2020
9th Oct, 2021 09:57:59 AM

^ Agreed. Their writing is poor quality, and some time at the Get Help With English thread wouldn’t be at all unreasonable.

Amonimus (Sergeant)
23rd Oct, 2021 10:20:26 AM

Got reminded of this thread since they're very proactive in TLP but specifically I wanted thoughts about this trope draft for the same problems previously mentioned.

Edited by Amonimus TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
BoltDMC Since: May, 2020
23rd Oct, 2021 10:26:35 AM

^^ Yeah, seriously. There’s a problem here.

DivineFlame100 Since: Mar, 2014
23rd Oct, 2021 10:52:23 AM

Just to add my two cents here, but I requested Malady to go to the English help thread twice, but in both cases, they made the same flimsy excuse of "working on mobile". I'm not sure how working on mobile impacts grammar and writing style unless they failed to double-check auto-correct errors, but this to me sounds like they do not want to commit to improving their grammar at all.

GnomeTitan Since: Aug, 2013
23rd Oct, 2021 11:24:20 AM

I know from my own experience that editing on a mobile can have an impact on grammar, even without auto-correct. It's easy to remove a word too much or too little, or accidentaly get things in the wrong order, and the small screen makes it harder to spot the errors.

That may just be me, but if you know that you have problems editing on a mobile then perhaps you shouldn't edit on a mobile.

Edited by GnomeTitan
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
23rd Oct, 2021 11:25:14 AM

Well, that and the fact that they keep dodging every grammar-notice I attempt to give them...

Also they're still not listening to people on the TLP discussion thread.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Malady (Not-So-Newbie)
23rd Oct, 2021 08:56:18 PM

Eh? I just discovered this thread right now...

Grammar Notice? You PM-ed me or something? If so, I've got nothing... My latest was from... Imperial Majesty XO, yesterday...

I'm gonna bookmark this, and try to remember tomorrow, after some sleep...

Edited by Malady Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
23rd Oct, 2021 08:59:56 PM

Grammar notices on TLP drafts specifically. Every time I or someone else brings it up, you ignore it.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Malady (Not-So-Newbie)
24th Oct, 2021 06:06:53 AM

Thank you... Well, Deliberately Non-Lethal Attack had its description changed to remove some commas, in my "Oct 18th 2021 at 11:11:01 AM" edit.

Is there still too many commas?


Timed Status-Effect... Well, that and... My other Status Effect page around here... Debuff

TSE's nuked? F. At least it's on the first page. Bringing it back... Because it's for handling the StandardStatusEffect sub-pages. We gotta stick those examples somewhere... Although, Non-Health Damage, I did allow stat lowering temporary status effects, that could do it...


I have nuked a few of my drafts, so I'm hopeful that the ones currently in the draft phase are better than the rest...


Mobile makes long sentences blocky, so blocky that a sufficiently long paragraph is larger than the screen... For example, Subtitle's whole description takes up my whole screen... But looking it over, I'm not happy with it either, I seem to be repeating myself in the first and third paragraphs, some fusion is likely needed...

On that draft specifically... Hmm... It's hard to bump without poking at the description now that there's no more tropes to add... Or are there? I'll do another search and see what I can find... But yeah, description edits first? Yep, on the second page. Time for a bump!

Edited by Malady Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
DivineFlame100 Since: Mar, 2014
24th Oct, 2021 06:48:32 AM

^ Malady, your sentences overuse the commas and break the fluidity of them, making them difficult to read properly. Like this sentence here for example: "Although, Non-Health Damage, I did allow stat lowering temporary status effects, that could do it...". It should be instead: "Although for Non-Health Damage, I did allow stat lowering temporary status effects, and that could do it...". Noticed how I replaced the comma after "Although" with "for", and I added an "and" to compliment the comma at the last sentence.

Also, for the last time, PLEASE visit the English help thread, and do not dismiss this with another "mobile" excuse. You working on mobile has nothing to do with your grammar and writing style, since mobile phone editing problems are separate issues all on their own. It's very clear that you have difficulty writing coherently, and the mods are not very tolerant on poor grammar (which has lead to many suspensions in the past).

WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
24th Oct, 2021 11:16:11 AM

Malady, besides the grammar, my biggest concern is that you seem to be using the TLP for what you should be using sandboxes for. I keep seeing you reference how you're using certain drafts as an example spot for other ones (which isn't something you should be doing, each draft needs to stand alone) and half the time your discards have nothing to do with the concerns you get, but over minor things like "this other draft launched". Stop doing that. If you're just using a draft as a place to hold examples, do us all a favor and make a sandbox instead.

Lately you've been making outright stub drafts, and you never stick to any of the feedback anyone tries to give you- whether it's with grammar, making good drafts, or even just minor things like ZCE usage. It's getting really frustrating. I don't want to see you fix individual errors but then mess up again elsewhere because that doesn't tell me that you listened to what I said. It tells me you aren't listening.

Edited by WarJay77 Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Unicorndance Since: Jul, 2015
24th Oct, 2021 12:44:57 PM

Maybe they don't know what a sandbox is?

For every low there is a high.
Amonimus (Sergeant)
24th Oct, 2021 12:49:51 PM

Them being an active contributor for years I kinda doubt that part, but anything can happen.

Edited by Amonimus TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
BoltDMC Since: May, 2020
5th Jan, 2022 08:49:12 AM

Malady also doesn't seem to get the concept behind ZCEs as they just added this to Eight Men Out:

I'll send a notifier.

MacronNotes (Captain)
5th Jan, 2022 08:56:07 AM

It probably would have been best to make a new query for that since this one is so old and long.

Macron's notes
Top