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Well, based on what I’ve seen, the best way to try to prevent edit warring with problematic examples is to privately message problematic tropers and try to tell them what’s wrong with their edits. In the “History” part of a page, you can see who deleted an example, or made a problematic edit. It gives you the option to privately message them, where you can use that to point out a problematic edit. They probably have their reasons, and even if they’re incorrect, it should still be discussed. If you want to add an example, but don’t want to start an edit war, wait a bit, but explain your reasoning for editing.
Edited by cwallace135
I've sent ten messages to this particular editor; none of them have been replied to and some edits have gone in and directly removed sections I've put in that are more accurate to the characters (editing previous message) and when I've removed cruft and zero context examples, they've been put back. I don't think they're replying to the corrections I've sent, though I don't want to assume they're actively ignoring them.
Edited by Nethilia I know more about obscure 1990s Middle Grade Literature novels and dolls than most people.
For example, I put in this example:
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Samantha is expected to be prim and proper befitting her well off status, which she frequently fails at; she likes climbing trees, isn't afraid to confront Eddie's insults, and wishes she could fight like boys and earn money despite her grandmother's scandal at the very idea of such a thing. That said, she does wear fine dresses as she's expected for the era and do needlework (which she finds tedious) and practice the piano—all things she's expected to do as a young well off girl.
- This also applies to Agatha Pitt, one of the twins. At Samantha's birthday party, she actually tackles Eddie to get back the teddy bear he takes from Samantha to try and force her to let him play with Jip, and earlier balls her fist up as if to punch him when Eddie says "who's going to make [him]" when they tell him to go away and let them made their ice cream in peace. (Samantha doesn't tell Grandmary about the tackle when she spots the party guests all messy, because it's against Grandmary's strictest rule that girls shouldn't fight ever.)
This is more accurate to the character, who isn't very girly—she's expected to be because it's the Edwardian era, she's well off, and she's expected to do activities like needlepoint and piano and wear skirts. It also explains that another character is very tomboyish. The whole section was removed and replaced with this:
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Samantha isn't exactly as ladylike as Grandmary expects her to be, but she's definitely not a tomboy. She enjoys wearing fancy and flouncy dresses, and she has a huge love for the activities for the lessons her Grandmary teaches her on stitching and other ladylike activities. However, there are times when she is climbing trees and winds up getting messy and ripping up her clothes.
which isn't accurate to the character—she doesn't like the activities she does, she likes the time spent with her grandmother but endures the needlepoint as she's expected to, and she has to wear nice dresses because again, it's the 1900s. She's characterized by the company as preferring climbing trees to doing needlepoint. If I were to go and fix it again, I'm causing an edit war.
I know more about obscure 1990s Middle Grade Literature novels and dolls than most people.
Well, I'll note that the example you wrote has incorrect indentation, which may have been what they were trying to correct.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
It was completely deleted, not corrected. The entire trope was removed.
ETA: I copied from the history log, rather than the page itself.
Edited by Nethilia I know more about obscure 1990s Middle Grade Literature novels and dolls than most people.
If she genuinely doesn't enjoy those activities, it doesn't seem to be a "girly streak" at all. She seems to be a straight up tomboy stuck doing girly things, less so a tomboy with girly interests.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
It would help if we knew which editor this was that's giving you problems.
EDIT: I'm assuming it's VickiVickster22.
Yes, I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to name the direct editor removing items since, while I do a lot of edits here on various media and pages, I'm not often in a situation where I have a conflict.
I know more about obscure 1990s Middle Grade Literature novels and dolls than most people.
It will be helpful if the edit war was pointed out. You sent them several notifiers in the span of two days so I'll still wait and see what they do next. They have examples expanded some of the ZCE correctly so there's that.
Macron's notes
Is it all right to re-add the tropes I put in originally or should I wait?
I know more about obscure 1990s Middle Grade Literature novels and dolls than most people.
I've erred on the side of editing a more applicable trope in where seen: Unwillingly Girly Tomboy.
I know more about obscure 1990s Middle Grade Literature novels and dolls than most people.
Update: I went and moved the data describing Molly from Tomboy with a Girly Streak to the trope Spirited Young Lady rather than removing the section, which is probably the closest one that can be done off the top of my head without getting more data out from the books. She's not a girly girl—that's more her older sister—but she's not a tomboy either. my edit here among others.
VickiVickster22 then put back the whole paragraph, without seeing that it had been moved (history here), once again tied to Tomboy with a Girly Streak.
The editor seems to want to place every character into either TwaGGS or the inverse, Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak. "Girly" is being overly classified as wearing dresses or skirts in eras where there was no other option for older characters. The major or only tomboy trait that is being given to many of these characters by is either in contrast to other characters, or that they're a tomboy because they play outside in an era where that was what a majority of children did because playing wasn't done inside the home historically. Meanwhile the "girly" streak is often that the character wears dresses when they're expected to (which is just what was done before the 1930s at home and pants weren't publicly acceptable wear for girls before the 1970s).
It's now reached edit warring, and I shouldn't take the paragraph out because then it will be.
(edited to fix my busted links and sound more coherent.)
Edited by Nethilia I know more about obscure 1990s Middle Grade Literature novels and dolls than most people.
Yeah, they're either having ownership issues with the page or are clearly not looking at the edit history hard enough. Plus, they are conclusively edit warring at this point.
I sent them a notifier with a link to this ATT.
Suspended Vicki Vickster for edit warring.
Macron's notes
I'm working on cleaning up the somewhat neglected American Girl articles here on TV Tropes, having recently moved the very long character pages to separate pages and writing the pages to fit the expectations here. I'm now removing a lot of empty examples and several tropes that don't fit the characters (and are better moved to the main article.) I've hit a wall with the Historical Character page where multiple edits I've made in good faith are being deleted, removed, and zero context examples being added repeatedly. What should I do next? I don't want to spark an edit war, but I'm getting frustrated. Thanks in advance!