TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

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)

Discar Since: Jun, 2009
2013-08-01 08:57:07

This Troper is not allowed anywhere, ever, under any circumstances.

Using first person on WMG and Headscratchers pages is a bit more up in the air. I personally think it works fine, but I know at least one mod has said we shouldn't.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
Misuki (Long Runner)
2013-08-01 09:16:58

I didn't realized that just because it was red-linked, This Troper was actually a banned phrase. Things are changing, and I didn't even know it.

Anyway, I suppose if I absolutely cannot find another way to word it, I'll just use first-person. If someone edits and finds a way to re-word it without that, they're welcome to do so.

"The three rules of the librarians of time and space: silence; books must be returned on time; no interfering with the nature of causality."
Terrie Since: Apr, 2011
2013-08-01 10:01:41

In my experience, it's very rare that you can't avoid first person. If it's so subjective that the "I" is required, it's probably so subjective that it doesn't belong on the wiki.

Discar Since: Jun, 2009
2013-08-01 19:06:51

Headscratchers just works much more smoothly as basically a poor-man's forum, though. "No first person" is designed for the parts that are explicitly not supposed to have any discussion.

I'd really like a mod's opinion here, even if that opinion is just "Make a wiki talk thread."

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
2013-08-02 00:46:08

WMG doesn't look like a forum to me. A list of theories isn't a forum.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Fighteer MOD (Time Abyss)
2013-08-02 06:39:05

Don't use first person in wiki articles, including WMG and Headscratchers. That's pretty much it.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Terrie Since: Apr, 2011
2013-08-02 08:46:58

I do a fair amount of clean up on the crowning pages. A quick tip on how to avoid first person in some common cases:

I think that [theory] = It appears that [theory] I thought that X was [the funniest/the scariest/etc] = X was very funny/scary/etc.

In my experience, if you can't make a change like those above, it's really a troper tale masquerading as an example.

Discar Since: Jun, 2009
2013-08-02 09:08:46

^^^ That's why I was talking about Headscratchers, not WMG.

^^ I disagree on the point about Headscratchers, but this isn't the place to discuss it, and we have more important things to worry about right now, with all the hottip, ZCE, natter, and other cleanup. Someone will revive that "should we get rid of headscratchers in favor of a forum" thread at some point, and we can talk it over then.

^ An excellent point, but the OP was asking about Headscratchers and WMG, not the moments.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
Terrie Since: Apr, 2011
2013-08-02 11:03:42

^Yes, but the same concept applies. There is very little, in terms of elgit entries, that can not be phrased in a neutral manner.

Misuki (Long Runner)
2013-08-05 10:20:00

I've seen first person used in both subpages (WMG and Headscratchers) of various works though. If I see it, should I edit it?

"The three rules of the librarians of time and space: silence; books must be returned on time; no interfering with the nature of causality."
Fighteer MOD (Time Abyss)
2013-08-05 12:47:07

Ideally, yes. In practice, it's going to be a bit tricky, but feel free to tackle it.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Discar Since: Jun, 2009
2013-08-05 13:08:28

Just remember to fix it, not delete it outright (I think someone doing the latter is what brought this up).

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
Kuruni (Long Runner)
2013-08-05 22:19:51

Well, sometime it's really just personal rant about editor themself, and you can't really save it (and I found that using first person, especially This Troper, make the statement sound much more like personal's opinion).

Fighteer MOD (Time Abyss)
2013-08-06 06:05:41

That sort of thing can almost certainly be removed, as can anything replying to it.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Discar Since: Jun, 2009
2013-08-06 08:12:24

Eh, most of the ones I see are just a casual bit of first person; "As I recall..." and so on. But yeah, rants can be deleted as complaining, never mind if they're first person or not.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
Top