...Has anyone ever thought of BUYING TVTropes?

Saigyouji

You explicitly said Goatse. :P

MillerCross

yeah, but that's because it's a good example of something trollish! 

glennmagusharvey

@Juan_Carlos: I didn't mean to be elitist.  I was just stating the conclusion based on the correlation between people having disposable income to spend specifically on an internet community for their entertainment/amusement and having enough free time due to being reasonably well-off financially.

This actually explains why they've got the time and opportunity to create lots of cool things like Let's Plays.

FrodoGoofballCoTV

I think we'd probably be better off just creating our own copycat site with the cash it would take to buy TV Tropes.  Besides, we're probably the group of tropers FE would be least inclined to sell to.

I recall a Star Wars - themed forum where the admin just gave people whatever titles he wanted.  So one user's title was "Bush - lover".

MillerCross

@glennmagusharvey: I meant them and not you.

Also, facetious.

Icalasari

^^ Issue with that is competeing with TVTropes, which although it may crash and burn, we don't know when, so the competitor site would have to stay alive long enough for TVTropes to finally collapse

glennmagusharvey

^^ Yeah, sometimes I get the feeling that the community there is the kind of place that uses humiliation (albeit not necessarily organized humiliation) as a rite of passage.  I've never really liked the vibe of those sorts of communities anyway, so needless to say I won't be spending ten bucks for it.

captainbrass

The problem with competing with TV Tropes is thinking up some USP that would clearly distinguish the site from TVT and attract people in. They have the advantage of having had the idea of recording patterns in media first. What could we do that's different?

Good luck with buying SA. Unlike TVT, it's probably worth money because it makes money - the price would be of the Serious Business kind.

glennmagusharvey

FWIW, I just Googled "estimated value of somethingawful.com" and "estimated value of tvtropes.org".

somethingawful.com: $998586 according to neatstat.com
tvtropes.org: $600680.5 according to findwebstats.com, $414210 according to whois-domain-find.com

In other words, be prepared to pony up if you're actually serious.

captainbrass

I'll see if my parents can lend me that...Seriously, though, I'd like to know how they calculate that. I don't see how something that apparently doesn't make money like TV Tropes can be worth anything.

I can believe SA is worth that much.

MillerCross

TvT is a site recognized by many across the internet. Its servers and the use of them cost money. Also, the domain's money charges up as the site is recognized and known. And it's liked by far many more people than their detractors.

Crimson

>And it's liked by far many more people than their detractors.

For now, anyway.

Elbeem

TVTropes also gets more traffic than Something Awful, so their hosting costs are probably going to be higher. The estimated value probably takes into account the advertising revenue that is used to cover those costs.

MillerCross

For now, anyway.

Most of the people who like the wiki evade the forum due to lack of interest and barely, if ever, stumble upon the fetishy pages as well as the sexual works because of the obvious lack of interest. 

ninjaclown

True, I only stumbled upon the forums while seriously bored, which means if I hadn't been bored I would never have been a part of the TvT forums, and by extension coming here either.

captainbrass

^ I'd been visiting the site for years before bothering to join the forum. Of course, one of the downsides for those who edit without going to the forum is that messages about how to edit can be much more effectively when you pick them up from other people you know.

You can have as many warnings as you like not to (e.g.) use "This Troper" but nothing gets the message across better than people on the forum saying what a jerk you are if you do.

glennmagusharvey

I discovered the site from word-of-mouth in around early 2008 or late 2007.  Shortly thereafter, I think, I joined the forum...the old one, just before it got hacked then went down.

RedEyedAbyss

I was initially an editor that decided to check out the forums just for administrative purposes. At first, it kind of helped because I then saw specific problems that were to be dealt with such as scrubbing all the pages in Tvtropes of Two Words Obvious Trope (still a terrible name, by the way). Then It Just Bugs Me I and Post Your Random Thoughts sucked me away and my contributions went down significantly. Of course, after IJBM I bit the dust, I felt no reason to be on the forum any more. I never realized how awful the forum community could be since I rarely ventured outside the aforementioned places (but even then, I did see warning signs).

In any case, I do believe what ultimately sunk the site was people treating it like their own personal playground rather than a useful information resource. It's disheartening to read the accounts of people like Some Guy who dearly believed the wiki could be something that would be taken seriously and had their efforts foiled by a conflict of interests. And now it's a cautionary tale of what happens when you give too much leeway to your users.

Also, maybe charging for avatars isn't such a bad idea. Maybe that would quash the pointless avatar obsession on Tvtropes.

Vivi

I don't like Tv Tropes gets more traffic than something awful, at all.

ClockworkUniverse

Of course it gets more traffic. It's free.

gentlemanorcus

^ The main SA site is free. The forums aren't.

Overly detailed account of my TVTropes history:

I started browsing TVTropes about three years ago from Linkara's mention, which is kind of ironic since I dislike Linkara and most of TGWTG nowadays. I joined two summer ago. 

I mostly went to IJBM, but I hadn't really refined my arguing skills and still hadn't really set many of my veiwpoints in stone. So I migrated to Forum Games. I didn't really enjoy the games as much as some of the cool people I met there. I posted a lot on the Shipping thread with Midnight Velvet (Bob on here) and the like, back when I was more crude, and when that thread wasn't full of the kind of people it has now. I occasionally went to Yack Fest but never stayed on any thread for long. I took place in an RP once.

I took a long hiatus near Christmas because my grades were dropping. I went back in the middle of last summer. I found I didn't really identify with most of the people that had joined since I had left, and it seemed many of my old friends weren't posting as much. I started posting mostly in the Trash Heap and Team Fortress 2 topics, after I got into that game. I don't go on the Trash Heap anymore, mostly because of lack of time, so for now I mostly go to TVTropes for video game stuff.

MillerCross

However, the forums are the part that makes SA...well, SA.

IanExMachina

I'll give 'em a fiver for both.

Can't say fairer than that.

MillerCross

>Giving money to a forum for anything

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/44745957/Image reactions/Constanza Hope.jpg">

IanExMachina

^

I don't even know who that is.

MillerCross

George Constanza from Seinfeld. Or 4Chan. Whichever was later.

IanExMachina

So no-one important then.

MillerCross

Just as important as Gene Hunt, then.

IanExMachina

Pretty much.

MillerCross

no fair, you're supposed to be mad >