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When would we ever need to say "we" outside of Administrivia?
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallAs they say referring to the tvtropes website itself. A specific example that I know of is on the Tropic Thunder page:
Only Sane Man: Compared to the others, Kevin is a perfectly normal individual. A bit of a geek, maybe, but we, of all people, have no room to criticize.
Edited by jjjj2 You can only write so much in your forum signature. It's not fair that I want to write a piece of writing yet it will cut me off in the mid^ That's basically a ZCE... not quite, but it's still a poorly written example, "we" or no "we".
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallPoint of pedantry: "we" is still first person, it's just first person plural (as opposed to "I" which is first person singular).
I'm sure there are probably rare cases where it's appropriate, but in most cases I'd consider it suspect. In the Tropic Thunder entry above, for example, it's Word Cruft. Removing it and the bit that contains it renders the entry:
- Only Sane Man: Compared to the others, Kevin is a perfectly normal individual. A bit of a geek, maybe.
That's already better, although I agree with WarJay that it's a little context-light.
Edited by HighCrateSo in other words, "we" and other first person plural pronouns are only okay on Administrivia pages?
Also, I would say comment that example out for someone to eventually find it and add context.
Edited by FridgeGuy2016 Limpin' with the bizkit.^ I'd say only "We" should be allowed, and only on Administrivia. Administrivia is talking about the wiki as a whole, so it makes sense to use it in that context.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall^^^^I'd say "we" is fine in the sense "we, the viewers." For example: "Bob is actually the Big Bad Doctor Nefaro, but we don't see this until the third act because in the first part of the film we only see Doctor Nefaro from the back." Or something like that.
^ Okay, that does make sense. I wasn't considering examples like that.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall^^ I mean, that can be written without the "we's."
"The Big Bad Doctor Nefaro, who's only been seen from the back in the first part of the film, is revealed to be Bob in the third act."
"I squirm, I struggle, ergo I am. Faced with death, I am finally, truly alive."I hadn't considered the use of "we" as shorthand for "we, the audience." While it is possible to rephrase such uses, that tends to involve the passive voice ("we see Alice" becomes "Alice is seen" or "Alice can be seen") and doesn't really improve things. It could also be unclear, in cases where Alice is seen by other characters, but not by the audience, or vice versa.
Of course you can always say "the audience sees Alice" or "the viewer sees Alice," but that can become cumbersome if you have to make mention of the viewer several times.
I concur that "we" is fine in cases like that.
Edited by HighCrate

I know that first person writing is not allowed on the wiki (because the articles are not about you), but what does that say for pronouns such as "we" (usually referring to TVTropes itself)?