I am not ready to quit TV Tropes yet

Engrish_Ivy

As many of you no doubt know, the site is rapidly turning into a pit. Problems aren't getting fixed, the mods seem to be taking their cue from Etsy, and so forth. Several longtime members have already left, and no doubt, there will be more in the near future.

I am not ready to join the exodus, not just yet. Because I am a fool, apparently.

To begin, the basic idea of TV Tropes still holds some appeal for me. It's been a while since I last went for a wiki walk, but having it set up so that someone can click a trope, and then find works that are examples of said trope, is quite ingenious. I still have fond memories of the site circa 2007-2009, ones that would almost certainly be tarnished by stumbling across the bloated works pages of things with big fanbases, but I'm not ready to let go of that just yet.

Second, there is still work I could be doing for the wiki. The List Of Shows Needing Summary is a mile long, after all, and some of these I know enough about to make works pages for them. It feels good to be contributing, even under the knowledge that no one would care about your output, since they're too busy rewatching over and over the part in Suburban Knights where The Nostalgia Critic flashes the camera. If I can get even one person to watch Raging Bull or play Flashback, then it will all have been worth it! Maybe I just need to talk to some of the people who did yeoman's work for the site and who left (or who are on the verge of leaving), to see how they dealt with it?

From that, I'm currently making a game. One that would probably only be of interest to friends online, since it's in a JRPG creation engine even more primitive than RPG Maker. When finished, having a works page would make it so much easier to get people to play it. I wouldn't have to go into the whole spiel each time, I'd just need to link them to the page, and it would tell them everything they needed to know.

Finally, and this is the most embarrassing, but... the master list for the Vocaloid thread isn't going to complete itself.

Nobody gives a shit about any of this. Why can't I let go?

MillerCross

I had a draft to make such a thread.

In other words, iknowthatfeel,jpg

RocketDude

Yeah, same here, I won't be jumping ship to easily.

glennmagusharvey

IJAM: I am not quitting TV Tropes.

Noimporta

It's a goddamn site, you don't file in a resignation, you just stop going there if you don't enjoy it/gain anything from it/make something worthwile, and go back if you see a reason to do so.

Elbeem

If those things matter to you, isn't that what's important?

I mean, we all have to find our own means of fulfillment. For you, if that's adding works from the LOSTNS, or updating the Vocaloid list, or whatever else you may do, that's fine.

If you get to a point where those things are no longer fulfilling, and you feel the need to move on, that's fine too.

I primarily lost interest in the forum community over a year ago. I still do editing work here and there, adding work pages, folderizing things, the odd Special Project clean-up, because I enjoy doing those things. Should there be any other reason to keep doing it?

Or do you feel like you should want to leave because it's image has taken a hit recently?

delta534

Iknowthatfeeling.jpg

The only real things that are keeping me from jumping ship is are the minecraft thread,the terraria thread and the lack of money for a SA account. 

Forzare

I've left the forums at this point.  I still lurk the wiki now and then.  I've never really been an editor, but some of the pages are interesting to read.

MillerCross

It's a goddamn site, you don't file in a resignation, you just stop going there if you don't enjoy it/gain anything from it/make something worthwile, and go back if you see a reason to do so.

Well, yes, but it's like still reading that newspaper that has turned into Yellow bullshit out of inertia or what have you.

Sure, lousy comparison, but the point is, you keep doing it, even though you don't really feel like it because you expect that it'll turne better at some point.

The_Edge

Good riddance. Maybe someone who isn't a megalomaniac will come up with something else.

Crimson

I would add something, but the only thing I can say that hasn't been said is that I still think the wiki can be improved. Even by little edits and things like that. That and stubbornness are the things that are keeping me on the site.

Otherwise, iknowthatfeelingbro.jpg

The_Edge

Well, if one major change could be made then it might save TVT, but it's too crazy to actually happen.

ninjaclown

The people who didn't go to the site I liked...started going to the site I liked. That's the only I can describe it.

glennmagusharvey

I admit I don't see why people are thinking so much about jumping ship.

Maybe it's that I haven't participated in that many (read: nearly none) site policy, renaming, image picking, etc. debates lately.

Maybe it's that I rarely actually browse the forum these days.  All I do is load up my watchlist, which contains most of what I want to see.  Occasionally I'll add another thread to the watchlist.  Going into forums, seeing thread titles of threads I've never read before, and then clicking them...yeah, pretty rare these days.  A third of the time I add new threads to my watchlist, it's from doing a forum title search.  A third of the time, it's threads I've created.  And about a fourth of the time, it's threads other people have linked me to.  So that leaves roughly a twelth of the time that I actually add new threads due to browsing.

Maybe it's because I'm not part of most major fandoms, and I rarely go edit-warring or stuff.  No Homestuck, no My Little Pony, no Madoka, no Haruhi, no Avatar, no nothing that people crazily fan over.  The closest I come is with Evangelion, Nanoha, and TF2, and even then, I have a huge backlog on the Evangelion thread, I'm not up-to-date with Nanoha, and I'm a perpetual TF2 noob.  That said, I really oughta check my watchlist more often anyway...as well as those YKTTWs I've started...speaking of which the YKTTW page is STILL annoying to use.  So many YKTTWs.  The best I can do is gloss over the latest ones and add examples, and not much more.

Maybe it's because those things I DO edit tend to be obscure, and have little argument over them.

Maybe it's because I've internalized the MST3K Mantra.  I used to be site policy warrior a few years back.  It got really, really tiring and time-consuming.  Maybe I subconsciously learned not to care that much.

Myrmidon

I'm staying.

It's pointless, and I'll never effect anything, but some people I like are still there, and I'm going to keep trying to improve things as long as I can.

AHR

I don't really get the Etsy comparison.

Engrish_Ivy

@Meeble:

>I primarily lost interest in the forum community over a year ago. I
still do editing work here and there, adding work pages, folderizing
things, the odd Special Project clean-up, because I enjoy doing those
things. Should there be any other reason to keep doing it?

Well, no, but... there's a sense of futility about the entire thing that's only getting more acute.

>Or do you feel like you should want to leave because it's image has taken a hit recently?

Perhaps. I am somewhat spooked about everything that's been going on, if only because it feels like soon, being associated with TV Tropes will be on the same level as being associated with Gaia Online, you know? It's like, get out while you still can, before the contagion marks you.

@GMH:

>Maybe it's that I rarely actually browse the forum these days.  All I do
is load up my watchlist, which contains most of what I want to see. 
Occasionally I'll add another thread to the watchlist.  Going into
forums, seeing thread titles of threads I've never read before, and then
clicking them...yeah, pretty rare these days.

That's more or less what I've been doing for months now.

@Myrmidon: High five, fellow uphill-boulder-roller!

@AHR: It's about how the mods for both sites cover their asses, because talking about resellers/creepy fucks might cause people to get upset. Since both sites actively cultivate said resellers/creepy fucks, because they make them more money in sales/they apparently do more work for the site, even if it's only linking to their favorite fandom everywhere possible.

glennmagusharvey

I don't know what Etsy is.

Myrmidon

It's kind of exaggerated. We aren't popular with the more cynical parts of the internet, but most of it still seems to think we're alright.

ninjaclown

Fuck the cynical parts, we have nothing to prove.

Nyarly

@Juan: Interesting, A while ago, you weren't so fatalistic. Reminds me of Bobby. Well, can't say that I'm surprised.

Well, "TV Tropes sucks" thread #927533. What else is new.

I'll be honest, TV Tropes, at least the forum, isn't as much fun as it once was. And do you know what I will do, if it stops being fun completely? I will leave. I will simply leave.

It's really pretty simple when you think about it. I really don't see where the problem is. Do you have some weird addiction that makes it impossible to simply move on?

And yes, I'm aware that this seems hypocritical of me. My point still stands.

AHR

I do

Of course, so long as I am not kicked out of the EGS thread, and I am writing in the Writer's Block thread, I will always go to TVT.

Elbeem

Eh, I've long since been past the age where opinions on the internet impact what I enjoy doing.

But that's what works for me. If how the site is viewed by some people is important enough to you to ruin your enjoyment, you shouldn't feel obligated to keep on doing it.

Internet communities are not and have never been permanent. People come and go. Everyone eventually gets to the point where they feel like they should move on for one reason or another.

AHR

Well, almost any community is not permanent, more or less.

Nyarly

"Almost"?

Anyway, I don't think that I will stay on TV Tropes forever. Hell, it's impressive that I'm there nearly every day, anyway (considering how I neglect other communities). I don't know when I will leave the forum, but I think that I will at least stay at the wiki itself afterwards. For a while at least.

I don't see a reason to go all emo because of that, though.

Engrish_Ivy

@GMH: Etsy is a site where people buy and sell handmade crafts, and stuff out of their grandmother's attic. At least, that's what it bills itself as, and a lot of what gets sold there is mass-produced in China, with a markup for being "upcycled", "vintage", "steampunk", etc.

AHR

And what does that have to do with tv tropes?

Engrish_Ivy

...

@AHR: It's about how the mods for both sites cover their asses, because
talking about resellers/creepy fucks might cause people to get upset.
Since both sites actively cultivate said resellers/creepy fucks, because
they make them more money in sales/they apparently do more work for the
site, even if it's only linking to their favorite fandom everywhere
possible.

Hatter

I know that feel, bro.

We could always create a competitor to TV Tropes, you know.

AHR

We cultivate creepy fucks? I mean, sure, you have people who want to murder the Nostalgia Critic, but most of those people end up getting banned.

Engrish_Ivy

@Hatter: Wasn't there a site that did just that? What happened to it?

@AHR: If Troper Tales, the Radar namespace, and the remaining fetish tropes are any indication, then yes. We do.