Ask The Tropers

I think the rules might be a little different on that specific trope since leaked pre-production notes and such are one of the must common ways it comes into play.

We don't trope leaks prior to release. After that, they're fair game if legit.

Yeah, leaks are allowed to be mentioned once the work/episode comes out or is cancelled.

It's a pretty well established principle that we do not trope leaks.

I'm gonna be blunt.

If we're gonna purge all mention of leaks from this particular trope we might as well just delete the entire thing because that's usually how people find this information out.

Taking them down.

There's still a lot of mentions the Season 8 leaks, when this leak debate stated, one (edit with the aired version) is even the page image for NightmareFuel.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Season 8. Said image is featured on a site that is still taking down the current leaks so is there a waiting period? How long is enough for as I believe a lot of Trivia from older works comes up without the creators consent.

Due we remove those S8 leaks now? Or are they somehow old enough not to be an issue and if so when will these leaks be OK?

I know I read somewhere on this wiki, likely the Unreleased Work Page Cleanup thread, that leaks were allowed to be mentioned once the work was released or cancelled. I think we need a bigger discussion on this, since What Could Have Been often (though I wouldn't say "usually") comes from leaks. What about the countless games that had leaked prototypes, like Pokémon Gold and Silver recently?

Or Starfox 2.

For years it was considered canceled (they decided to shift gears and made Starfox 64 to promote the new hardware instead) and the only public version we had was a leaked beta someone polished up and translated until Nintendo decided to officially release it on the SNES Classic to drum up hype.

I also thought of Star Fox 2, but that's a moot point now that it's officially released.

There's also Thrill Kill, which is quite well known and significant despite the fact it never saw official release and the version floating around is a build the developer leaked in protest of the publisher cancelling it and basically making their work for nothing.

Is the difference that Hasbro has taken action against those posting leaks? If/when they stop would it be ok to add them?

Or do we only allow leaks for works so old the creators don't care anymore? How long would that be? 5-10 years?

Thought: maybe after they release G5 which was part of the leaks and likely why they're so cagy about them.

I assume if one of their representatives say it's ok to post the leaks we can go ahead?

I mean, the show is over now. It's just another thing to note among their production information. I'm not sure these really count as like leaking an episode or content, as those are done before the actual release. This is just at best What Could Have Been. The only question at best is if this the source should be even put on here or not. As leaked content can get the original leaker in trouble.

So with that in mind, it's a matter of legal-related issues. If that's not an issue, yeah, it can go up. Maybe waiting a full two weeks from the US release isn't a bad idea, though.

Yeah.

G4 is now officially over and retired so there's no issue with discussing leaked production information in Trivia tropes.

I'd PM'd the mods about this, they still said not to add as Hasbro might take action. I have yet to hear back on what to do about the Season 8 leaks we have up.

As for the discussed president, Star Fox 2 and other games cancelled right before release are Keep Circulating the Tapes, not leaks as they were final products. Pokémon Gold and Silver was from a demo that was shown in a public event, so not a leak.

I'm disappointed at this, but that's the mod stated. Hopefully this discussion will warrant a official decision on a how and when such are allowed.

They're still leaks because they were illegitimately snuck into online circulation by members of the production when they weren't supposed to have seen the light of day.

Our policy on leaks has to do with speculative troping prior to an article's release, not post-release information.

So basically what we all assumed, then?

Troping trivia based on leaked production info or leaked works that were never released in the first place like Thrill Kill is fine. It's troping works that are going to be released but not out yet based on leaks that's against the TOS.

^ - So, restore that What Could Have Been?

Right now we shouldn't restore it because Hasbro could take action on us for posting the leaked production notes. That statement didn't change.

Leaked content in itself doesn't much matter when the actual episodes/etc. are out. But certain kinds of leaks(like the production notes) are not like a leaked episode/trailer/game/etc. It's a different situation.

Looks like mod are at odds with each other over the leaks issue. Thoughts on taking this to a Trope Talks forum as this seems a larger issue?

Had a thought on the issue. How do we separate legit leaked info from rumor/hearsay?

We aren't "at odds". I'd prefer if we not use unverified leaks or rumors that could possibly damage someone's career or reputation as the source for any article content. We are not supposed to trope hot-off-the-press controversies.

This falls more under the ROCEJ than any absolute prohibition against using leaked content. So, to summarize...

• Never use unofficial information (leaks or otherwise) as a source for any examples about unreleased works.
• Unofficial information may be used to support Trivia examples for works that have already been released as long as they are not in violation of the ROCEJ.

If the leak is reliable, I say add the example back without the link.

^^So the original example should be legit as it's about a released work?

• What Could Have Been: According to leaked production notes, it was more explicit that Fluttershy got together with Discord, with the two sharing a kiss after she exits the portal. The final episode changed it to be more ambiguous, so fans could interpret it how they like.

I just remembers the Sony hack pertaining to The Amazing Spider-Man Series. Any reason we didn't have issues on reporting that? Was it because it's about the effects the leaks had on the franchise as opposed to the leaked content?

Here's the info on the latest leak, and here's the info on the 2017 leak, hopefully this will clear things up. That sites mods say not to link it "Because it's illegitimately-acquired material." Though it seems they are allowing discussion of the leaks as long as they follow ROCEJ (though they are spoiling it out). My impression is discussing the leaked content it fine but linking it is not. So can we add them if we don't link to the material?

Know Your Meme has posted info on both leaks, and I think that's close to what we do on this wiki.