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bwburke94 (Y2: Electric Boogaloo)
2021-03-17 09:00:45

We used to have such lists at FanFiction.Net and Archive of Our Own as well, both of which were deleted for being long and mostly irrelevant. Same should happen here.

2025: the year it all ends?
bwburke94 (Y2: Electric Boogaloo)
2021-03-17 09:04:34

On that note, FanficRecs.Space Battles Dot Com should also be cut for misuse of its namespace.

2025: the year it all ends?
Zuxtron (On A Trope Odyssey)
2021-03-17 09:12:54

I think the best thing to do would be to cut the trope list entirely and turn the page purely into a list of fanfics hosted on the site.

Most of the tropes here look like they're about the users of the site, rather than the site itself. I'm not sure SpaceBattles.com is really a tropable work.

Lermis Since: Nov, 2018
2021-03-17 10:17:31

...Um... We DO trope websites. And even excluding the users, the page has a fair number of legitimate examples, like Long Runner, Hypothetical Fight Debate, and Play-by-Post Game. Here, the three minimum I can find at first glance.

Besides, Spacebattles is primarily a forum that hosts fanfiction in one section, not a site entirely dedicated to fanfiction.

Edited by Lermis Space Battles Dot Com fanworks (now oficial) index in my Sandbox.
Zuxtron (On A Trope Odyssey)
2021-03-17 10:32:17

Okay, but that trope list still needs a major cleanup.

EDIT: I just got rid of a bunch of tropes that sounded more like they were about the site's users than the site itself. I do think that the lengthy Running Gag example that I got rid of might maybe be worth keeping if it was changed to Memetic Mutation (and might deserve its own page due to its length) but I'm not sure.

Edited by Zuxtron
Lermis Since: Nov, 2018
2021-03-17 10:45:51

I also got a Memetic Mutation feeling, but still...

Nobody answered my initial query.

Also, by your edits it is extremely obvious that you have never visited the site. The Vs. Debates and is an actual subsection, and therefore not "user antics".

Edited by Lermis Space Battles Dot Com fanworks (now oficial) index in my Sandbox.
Zuxtron (On A Trope Odyssey)
2021-03-17 10:53:00

Is there anything specific you don't agree with me removing? I'm aware that I may have gone a bit overboard in some deletions due to not being very familiar with the site.

And my answer to your query was turning the page into primarily a fanfic list, with the tropes being secondary.

Edited by Zuxtron
Lermis Since: Nov, 2018
2021-03-17 11:10:32

Except that as I told you, it is not primarily a fanfic site, but a forum. The fanfics are also written in the forums. Here's an example of a random page. There are also several threads that are completely unrelated to fanfiction, such as the Whitehall (politics), or a very recent thread about the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Other examples are actually misuse, and could be listed as something else. For example, many Running Gag examples could be Memetic Mutation as mentioned above, or the Bastard Random Omnipotent Being being Trivia as a Fan Nickname for Alien Space Bats.

Basically, I think you were a bit too gun-ho in your deletion.

Space Battles Dot Com fanworks (now oficial) index in my Sandbox.
Zuxtron (On A Trope Odyssey)
2021-03-17 11:29:49

I know that there's more to the site than fanfics. I just don't like the idea of having trope pages for forums, even if some tropes can be found, because there's a very high risk that it'll devolve into troping the users rather than the forum itself.

Because of that, the part of the site that's most relevant to TV Tropes is the fanfics it hosts, since these are works of fiction that contains lots of tropes, which is what we're primarily about. The fact that the forums have some tropes in them is of secondary interest, since it's kind of a stretch to refer to a forum as a "work" in the way TV Tropes defines it.

crazysamaritan MOD Since: Apr, 2010
2021-03-17 12:18:17

the part of [Spacebattles] that's most relevant to TV Tropes is the fanfics it hosts, since these are works of fiction that contains lots of tropes, which is what we're primarily about.
Correct.

excluding the users, the page has a fair number of legitimate examples, like Long-Runners, Hypothetical Fight Debate, and Play-by-Post Game.
Long-Runners might be legitimate, although we don't include things like countries or people on that list, so that is something to work out on the forums. Hypothetical Fight Debate and Play-by-Post Game are things hosted by the site, by user-generated content. It isn't an example that the website administration creates, so they are misuse. This is like claiming tropes used in And When Did You Last See Your Father? are valid examples of Disney tropes because they distributed the film. It shouldn't need to be said that creators are the people that generate the tropes, and it is the users that are generating the Vs debates and PBP games. The website is a host/distributer, not the work itself.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Zuxtron (On A Trope Odyssey)
2021-03-17 12:47:13

^ To be fair, the site's administration may not necessarily participate in the debates or play-by-post games (well, maybe some of the do sometimes, I don't know), but they did create subsections specifically to cater to these, so that might be worth noting.

Lermis Since: Nov, 2018
2021-03-18 04:46:59

Administrators and Moderators of all levels do participate in the forums, and moderate them simultaneously.

OK, how about I do the clean-uo, since I'm actually familiar with the content, and move the rest to the appropriate sections?

Space Battles Dot Com fanworks (now oficial) index in my Sandbox.
Fighteer MOD (Time Abyss)
2021-03-19 06:13:23

Lermis, there is a significant distinction here that I think you're missing.

A website is not itself a creative work in the sense that we care about. The activities of its users, be they on forums or any other part of the site, are not tropable in any way, shape, or form. This includes any personas they may adopt for purposes of roleplaying.

If the website hosts creative works made by its users, those works may be troped discretely, but the website itself is not the author of the works any more than fanfiction.net is the author of my Rey x Ursula ship fic or Netflix is the author of Armageddon.

The only mention the hosting site would get is a link in the work's description if it is the primary distribution point.

If Spacebattles is something like DEATH BATTLE! in that it creates and hosts works of creative fiction under its own label, then those would be valid subjects for troping, but the users are still off-limits.

Edited by Fighteer "It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
2021-03-19 11:23:39

The only website I can think of that would also qualify as a creative work is Neopets, and that's basically a video game with a website structure.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
crazysamaritan MOD Since: Apr, 2010
2021-04-22 16:27:11

This page still hasn't been cleaned, with Play-by-Post Games and Role-Playing Games listed as if they were tropes.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
2021-04-23 00:08:41

Seems like a task for a Short Term Project, perhaps?

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
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