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Comments
Troper Tales sucks. What I find worse is the weeabooism (defined as loving Japanese stuff to the exclusion of everything else) and the creepy roleplaying on the forums. Guys (or really anyone) having moe avatars and acting all cute, for instance, creeps a lot of people (by which I mean me) out. Those threads where someone says something sexy and then people start going "lol you are so hot" are also disturbing. Remember Girl On The Internet Syndrome? Yeah, that's what it causes. And it causes unwarranted self-importance in the guys.
Another thing: unnecessary potholes. I saw this one thread on the forum where this kid was complaining about his dad smoking pot, and EVERY OTHER GODDAMN WORD was a pothole, as if he thought that his family was like an unfunny sitcom where he was the main character. I wanted to smack him.
So what's a site to do?
1. Destroy Troper Tales. Set up an autoban system where any non-Mod who says "This Troper" is automatically banned for one day and given a lecture.
2. Set up a limit on potholes per post in the forum.
3. Donations. Put a little progress bar over the page. Have Fast Eddie look all smug in front of a camera. It worked for Jimbo Wales, it'll work for TV Tropes. Also, ads that aren't as intrusive.
4. Drama whoring should be punishable by a ban. I'm not talking about people like Chagen or Rottweiller; they're cool, and despite us having arguments with them, they contribute to discussions. I'm talking about people who either intentionally cause drama or just don't care about the site *AND* cause drama.
5. Everything on the site should be accessible to the average reader. Terms like "nakama" or "Xanatos Gambit" or whatever should be avoided even if they are technically accurate and describe the trope much better than the generic equivalent. While this somewhat takes the flavor out of the site, it's supposed to be an encyclopedia, not a clubhouse.
6. Trope entries - even things we like - should be written in a more sarcastic and sly style. Cracked.com, while inaccurate and immature, provides a good example of how I think descriptions should be written. Not in "listacle" format, you understand, but the same type of idea. We're young nerds who like explosions, boobs and wizards. The site should reflect that. Vorpy and Myrmidon are the kinds of contributors I'd like to see.
7. No real life examples relating to politics, sex or religion. I know, it's harsh, but people start flame wars over how we talk about disease (I saw on High Octane Nightmare Fuel, this one guy started a flame war by deleting an entry about some ossification disease and replacing it with how he was terrified of people who hated gay people. When asked why he put it in the "disease" category, he reasoned that it was scarier than anything else on the list. I think I got dumber just be reading that.)
That would make the site better, I think.
If a site like Wikipedia that is truly pushing for the whole "neutral encyclopedia" vibe has this problem, I don't see where people would expect that an admitted fan-driven site would somehow avoid it.
edit: On topic, I think it was a good thing that you made an effort to go ahead and get all your feelings about this on the table, Myrm. I think that at this point the course is set, unless Fast Eddie decides that his new system is just too much trouble to deal with.
I do admit I'm confused about his stance on Stock Phrases as compared to Troper Tales though. You'd think if he was going to push for the outright deletion of one those, it would be the latter.
I have to admit I've kind of lost interest in actually contributing to TV Tropes or the TV Tropes forum. It used to be fun.
The trouble is, I keep thinking of new tropes, but I put them into YKTTW and with the new rules they're going nowhere fast.
Ugh, I feel reminded why 1. I actually didn't want to participate in discussions about how TV Tropes is run anymore and 2. Why IJBM made me think that even actual criticism is random whining.
I beg to differ good sir.
It's kinda cool that you guys have some ideas for saving what can still be saved, but what makes you sure that Eddie and co will listen?
Personally, if I was in charge, I wouldn't care much what other websites had to say about us. Instead, I'd be working to give the site a more consistent focus and weed out as much of the bullshit as I could.
For starters, instead of YMMV, each page would have two sections: one for tropes as they apply within the work, and another for tropes as they apply outside of the work, like with the creators of the work and how the fans reacted to it.
And I'd cut Troper Tales simply because it takes up unnecessary space.
I agree with the idea that the average troper may not care what people on other sites think about TV Tropes. I also agree that sometimes certain behaviors are tolerated when they probably should not be. Still, I tend to agree with the staff about negativity on the Wiki. I dislike seeing edit wars erupt and I think there are enough places for people to complain and be really snarky elsewhere. In my experience, such remarks tend to make it harder to catalog tropes, not easier.
If I had any power on TV Tropes (which fortunately or unfortunately will never happen), I would either delete Troper Tales or more likely, either send it to another site like FetishFuel was or make it private so you have to get known to read them. I believe that certain changes like cutting the creepier and more disgusting Troper Tales were steps in the right direction, but I feel like even then they do not eliminate the smugness that I believe pervades many of the Troper Tales. That being said, I do not have a very strong opinion on Troper Tales since I tend to avoid them.
I would also give mods specific subforum domains or somehow create ranks in between forum moderator and regular troper, but I suppose that is a bit off-topic here.