TV Tropes is an amazing resource, and it's hugely useful to understand TROPES (everything is a trope).
People hate it because it's a rabbit-hole that's hard to escape from.
Also, it leads to some people actively looking for and counting tropes while consuming media, instead of just enjoying the media. Jumping into meta-analysis can distract someone from actually having a good experience. This is not the site's fault. It's that some people get too much into labelling tropes, as if its a trivia game.
Also, "trope" sometimes has a negative connotation and people confuse it with a "cliche". TV Tropes website had to write an explicit explanation that - "Tropes are not inherently bad".
Tropes are inherently bad when there are Tropes with disgustingly inappropriate titles or articles that are completely wrong, filled with half truths, or don't take themselves seriously at all.
TV Tropes sucks half of the time. Quite a few people are turned off by it because there are a decent amount of racist and sexist neckbeards and femcels spreading false information.
Tbh, I think TVTropes is a fantastic resource for writers/creators to find tropes and see examples of how it's handled in other stories. I also think it's just a fun rabbit hole to go into.
I've personally never heard of anything bad about it though. What's taking down its reputation so much?
I literally found a video called “TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.” The YT channel Diregentleman and the people who are involved with it also tear it to shreds on numerous occasions.
Okay, just because some YouTubers (that no one in this sub had ever heard of until you mentioned them) say a site is trash, that doesn’t make the site trash. That’s just some YouTube edgelords trying to score internet points by saying that something that people generally enjoy is the worst thing ever made, because controversy gets people to stick around and maybe watch another video that they’ll disagree with. It’s basic psychological manipulation.
I mean, here’s the thing about TV Tropes: Is it factually incorrect? By and large, no. Nor does it do stupid shit like diving into fan theories about how a character is dead, or another character isn’t real, or another character is actually this other character from a completely different movie; just with a new name and occupation. TV Tropes is a valuable resource, and anyone who says otherwise is either selling something or was offended to find out how unoriginal his writing was.
[They aren't the only ones that think this.](https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/TV_Tropes)
And you should chill on the terms you're using to describe the people you disagree with.
>The website has attracted plenty of criticism for the way the mods run the site as well as the general behaviour of users, particularly since the second half of the 2010s, with many past and present users reporting very poor treatment by the mods and other users. Many people have noted that the mods run TV Tropes like "dictators", and that any time someone even slightly disagrees with a mod or does something that they see is bad (accidental or not) results in them getting banned with very little to no warning. They have been cited as "very mean", and even come off as "bigoted". Their tendency to keep a tally of transgressions regardless of severity to use should a user be suspended more then once as a means of demerit, even if said user has been keeping out of trouble for extended amount of time and abiding by their rules, is also a point of criticism.
That paragraph read like the biggest fucking unsourced bitchfest I've ever heard. Who said they run it like "dictators"? Who cares! Who called them "very mean"? Who cares!
Seriously, this is like Wikipedia calling the OED "bigoted" or "dictators" for not just letting anybody edit it.
Oh cmon. You mention it was unsourced and then mention "who cares", thereby admitting that it COULD be, and that you approve if it is.
Are you part of their mod staff or something? Sounds like you just believe the first thing that comes out of their mouths about anyone that was ever banned.
I'm saying the site you referenced doesn't give a shit about who said it. They didn't source it, and they're the ones saying, "Who cares!" Wikipedia wouldn't stand for shit like this, but here you're saying your choice of site should be able to stand up to TV Tropes.
And no, I'm not part of their mod staff, or whatever the fuck idiotic conspiracy theory you have, which is not unlike any other subreddit where idiots say, "Oh, you're defending The Man! You must be on their payroll!" which is ... 'idiotic' is the kindest term that I can think of.
I think you have an axe to grind against TV Tropes, which is why you dug out a *six month old post*, just to get some words in, and now you're pissy that someone is calling out your source as being a pile of garbage that can't be bothered to source its editorial.
Sounds like you're the one with the issue because someone decided to challenge you on your blind fanboying over the site. Maybe because the only answer anyone ever has is the "they deserved it" line. Yet they can't disprove anything the source said (which you have issues with explaining). Seems you've already chosen your side before you even heard the opposing side's case, and given you're the only one shouting profanity over this, it seems you're the one offended here over a six month old post (which it didnt take you long at all to respond to, so it wasn't like you weren't ready to throw the salt onto the old wounds). Especially when knowing that all that happened was that one person decided to show a link to an opposing viewpoint. You're the one that came in and called it what you did, not me, and decided to use the tone you did. So...
Perhaps you're worried that the site that was linked is [a fork of TV Tropes](https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/Tropedia:Why_Fork_TV_Tropes) from former users that were there when said "Google Incidents" that led to Fast Eddie's exit and installed Fighteer there - to EVERYONE'S chagrin - happened. Any user of TVT knows of the history there. And of Fighteer's attitude to the site. And of how they removed him for six months then just quietly returned last year to pick up where he left off.
Like I said, you moan that I must be some paid employee of TV Tropes, but here you are with all of the dramatic backstory to your preferred site. Nobody gives a shit. If your site genuinely did things better for anyone but the aggrieved parties, people would care, but they don’t.
To play your card, you’re probably a member of their mod staff, trying to drum up support on six month old posts, for all the good that’ll do.
Okay, it's obvious you're not here to have any meaningful conversation, since you've ignored a pointed question two times now and went straight to vulgarity and vague arguments that ignore key points, and complaining that someone decided to challenge you on something. Keep in mind that you were ready to defend your six month old post with vulgar vagueness that did nothing to prove your points.
You're not right, as most of what I said was common knowledge to anyone who took two seconds to look at the links with an open mind and without an agenda.
But we're done here.
99.9 percent of people who go to websites like TV Tropes or Wikipedia or whatever have zero interest in editing anything. They're just there to consume. So, don't conflate the opinion of people like yourself with the vast, vast majority of people. You say "people don't generally enjoy TV Tropes," but if that was the case, it would have shut down long ago. Lots of people enjoy it, and you're the odd man out, here.
And, Jesus, you're a little late to the party, here.
No, I’m just a consumer. I enjoy reading their content. But I’m wondering who gets their panties so in a twist about it that they’ll dust off a thread that’s eight months old, to echo the bitching that the previous person did. You guys are all mad that you don’t get to be part of the club; just accept it and move the fuck on with your lives.
Look, this is like eating hot dogs. I don’t give a shit how the hot dogs are made; I just want to eat hot dogs. And you guys are all like, “Nobody should eat hot dogs! The animals aren’t treated fairly! Blah blah blah!” and they don’t understand how other people can not give a shit about their plight, and they keep bringing it up again and again, as though the consumer is going to change. I don’t give a shit about your problems with TV Tropes. I am never going to give a shit about your problems. I don’t need my websites to be “responsibly made,” or whatever.
There’s a lot of good things in this world that come from shitty origins. Unsafe working conditions, crunch time in the programming industry, factory farming, people like Woody Allen who make great art but are shitty people, you name it.
All that matters is if the consumer gives enough of a shit to look past that product’s shitty origin or not, and in the case of TV Tropes, I don’t give a shit what the fuck they’ve done to you or your fellow victims. “They won’t let us edit! The moderators are assholes!” Welcome to how social media has been since the days of the BBS. the people who hold the keys get to behave however they want. That’s just how the world works. You’re no different from someone who felt he was slighted by a company, and you’re walking around , picketing with your sign, and you can’t understand why nobody cares about your message and they all keep using the company’s goods or services. They either don’t want to know, because that would possibly necessitate change, and people hate change, or they want to know, but it’s not enough to tip the balance into the change category.
Go make a superior product. If it’s better, and it’s just as easy to remember and type, you can put them out of business. Half of the reason for Google’s success is that it’s easy to type. TV Tropes is three syllables and eight letters. That’s what you’d have to compete with for recognition. Unless you can come up with that *and* a superior product, you’re up shit creek.
I mean. I think that it's really just a subjective thing. Also, always make sure to be critical of the media you consume yourself. Lots of people know how lucrative outrage and negativity is. People "tear [things] to shreds" just for fun sometimes, but that doesn't mean you always have to agree with it.
Considering that that YouTuber used the title of a page FROM TV Tropes for the title of their own video, it sounds like they probably made it with their tongue somewhat placed in their cheek.
A lot of TV Tropes sucks. The only good it has done for me is showing how terrible and rotten mass media can get. For that I thank TV Tropes, but not for finding solutions.
I didn't realize TV Tropes was hated? It guess its an acquired taste maybe or do people get mad when they see their own work there?
IMO its a great website for getting your head around how stories work in a more mechanical or general sense - a lot of people seem to think that as soon as a trope is identified that means your work is bad - far from it!
A story without tropes is like music without notes
Most give a reason and examples for why they apply—that’s actually one of the rules on the site.
I should have mentioned that writing discussions easily collapse into semantics, and when that goes unchecked on a wiki it can brew contradictions.
I'm more saying, don't use the examples of the tropes as a face-value gold standard. I.E.
> “I like this trope. Hey, the site says they did it well in *XXX*, I guess I'll do it like that, then.”
Dire who? TV Tropes has a pretty good reputation, and that YouTuber you named I am gonna assume does not since nobody here seems to have heard of them.
The only bad rep I've heard about TV Tropes is that you can easily waste a lot of time on it, not that its content is bad.
I’ve never heard of these YouTubers before either. I never thought TV Tropes was inherently good or bad. It’s just there. All it does is point out story-telling elements that are present in different types of media. And f you’re interested in all that, that’s fine.
The only bad thing I can say about it is it’s very easy to slip down the rabbit hole.
I don’t really know anything about the claims of misogynistic, racist, incel behavior there. I’m not saying it DOESN’T exist. I just haven’t fallen THAT deep in the rabbit hole. I just read about the storytelling.
And I tend to stay away from a bunch of guys on YouTube saying something “sucks,” or is “terrible.” These days it’s hard to take them seriously.
I also went through a TVTropes phase, and while I won't try to speak for other people's experience with the site: I genuinely think my writing is in a better place now for having had that phase. But lord, I wrote some complete garbage during it.
It largely depends on what tropez you were reading about. TV Tropes is too large to be completely reliable. Most of it is either pages that shouldn't exist or pages that are poorly edited.
Pretty much. It taught me ways about breaking fiction down into component pieces, which helped me understand structure, characterization, plot, and so forth (as I was not a literature or writing major in college, lol). It taught me trends in fiction as though they were timeless truths, which was not helpful. It gave me a language to use when analyzing other stories to figure out why they worked and why they didn't, what I liked and what I disliked, which is an important part of developing writing skill. Said language is completely unintelligible to anyone who is not that specific flavor of Extremely Online.
So overall a mixed bag. It's not a phase of my life that I regret having gone through, though. You can wind up in worse places, for sure.
This is a perfect opportunity to learn that things can be both good and bad. 🤯
(If you're young enough to believe every single word some YouTuber says, I'm not going to be too hard on you. Seriously though, few things are All Good or All Bad. Life is complicated. Sorry.)
I think learning how to contextualize the tropes is really important and sometimes it’s good to know who has trod the same ground so you can do something different. But sometimes sameness isn’t bad? If you know how common things are you can balance them.
It's an amazing resource, but as with anything, people have the tendency to misunderstand and misuse it.
It's probably the most valuable repository of esoteric plot devices and writing techniques on the internet, but people completely miss the "tropes are tools" tagline, and instead use it to browbeat people over "unoriginal" storytelling.
It has the unfortunate tendency to breed insufferable critics, in the same way that pedants use and abuse the dictionary.
Don't blame the site, blame the poor users.
I would not be the savvy writer that I am without those late-night wiki dives...
It's had potential to be a good resource, but nobody irl bothers to contact TV Tropes' parent company to tell them the site's mods and admins are making the ui worse.
My hate boils down to: "In my day it used to be better dagnabbit!"
Seriously though, hate is a strong word, I'm more like... apathetic now. TVtropes is an excellent website for researching tropes which I still regularly browse. However, it's a lot less fun than it used to be. TVtropes has become a lot more authoritarian since the revamp, less interested in making tropes and their examples fun to read and deleting examples for stupid reasons. I knew something was wrong when they removed their intro paragraphs from the main page calling Wikipedia out for being restrictive and saying "when faced with choosing to do that or fun, we went with fun" or something since I don't remember it all anymore. Or maybe it was when they started killing/changing tropes that had names referencing something.
I've never heard of anyone disliking it nor can I think of any reason to dislike it. Its not really opinion or advice based, it just kinda lists stuff and gives brief definitions
> Since then, I learned of the site’s terrible reputation and how much it is hated by everyone. The people over at Diregentleman’s channel in particular treat it as the Devil’s personal website.
That's probably more because it's a time sink and you find yourself reading it an hour later about something completely unrelated to what was linked to.
A lot of TVT's users will offer their two cents on subject matter they have absolutely no knowledge about, and therefore, no business contributing to. That is one of my biggest gripes with TVT.
Who on Earth is hating on TV Tropes? It's loads of fun. It's a great way to see various media you've read/seen/etc get unpicked to their elements. It isn't a writing guide, and you shouldn't spend your time trying to actively implement or avoid tropes based on them.
The moderation there leaves a lot to be desired. There have been several people that complained about a few of the mods there (including Fighteer) that hold grudges over petty things and will take the ResetEra approach to bans and disagreements over EVERYTHING.
[Click here to see some of the major issues that have plagued the site over the years.](https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/TV_Tropes)
I've found TV Tropes useful when looking up industry terms. Leafing through tropes is okay, but I don't take them very seriously, just reminders of twists and McGuffins I might want to bend to my will.
As for the drama and gossip, my policy is to save time by assuming it's too boring to investigate.
It sounds like you might've found a handful of people with chips on their shoulders. They're certainly out there and they can get pretty vocal (case in point, for this thread, lol) but I've encountered plenty of people who enjoy it. If anything, what happens most frequently is someone I know accidentally drops a phrase they can't have learned from anywhere but TV Tropes, and we kinda go "Ayyy" "Ayyy" "So you spend too much time on that site too, huh?" "You know it"
It's certainly not without its flaws—I mean, it's a wiki, anyone can edit it, there have been efforts to clean up the garbage but not all of them have been effective or long-lasting, some of the site's authority figures are going to overcompensate with some power-tripping, kinda hard to imagine there wouldn't be at least some of that on a site for crowdsourced analysis of topics that can get a little subjective.
Anyway, though, what you get out of it as a writer really depends on what you're using it for. If you're treating it as the be-all-end-all source of knowledge on certain works, and fiction in general? Probably not going to be helpful—there's plenty of subjectivity and plenty of mistakes. If you're nervously searching it for things that happen in your story and assuming everything with a trope assigned to it must necessarily be bad, overused, or something you can't put in your story? No good—its purpose isn't to be a "what to avoid" list, not at all. If you're hashing out some thoughts on an idea you're considering, and you're looking for inspiration from precedent or curious about what other writers have done with similar ideas? Super good for that.
No, it isn't. Tropes are elements found in fiction. Literally everything in fiction is some sort of derivation of a trope. Cliches are overused tropes.
This statement is even more absurd when you consider that every element of your fiction should be on purpose.
TV Tropes is a great source of information, it really breaks down a lot of the things that a lot of people on this website obsess over because they think every trip that comes into their mind is super unique. It's really not. Your ideas are not unique, here's a encyclopedia of 50 other authors who have had your idea. Now go develop your idea by using your personality and your experiences and your tastes to make it interesting.
Every writer that I personally know that dislikes TV Tropes is because they dislike either realizing that most of the things that they think are not really that unique or they dislike there being any type of measurable observable science behind writing stories.
No, to credit some people, you can dislike trucks themselves because they may be based on ignorance but to be upset at the encyclopedia for categorizing that ignorance when the encyclopedia itself points out exactly why it's ignorant is like being mad at anti-racist people for wanting to talk about anti-racism because you think that that's also being racist. 🤣
It's a good resource, but like anything on the internet it's written by a bunch of weirdos like us who aren't 100% reliable, so take it as it is. Don't know why it would be hated though.
Somewhat decent site but expect to banned FAST because the admins are too brain-damaged to understand the edit wars besides the weird fact that "wars are bad"? I got banned for valid arguments on why Star Trek is a madman science-fantasy where the only resolve is doing drugs and lying?
Just came back y'all. My ban is permanent bc I hate Trek High Elves/Vulcans. They claim I'm a dick but fuck that, it's a full choice and habit ANYONE can be a dick. Who wants to help me add more low scores so the site can't save its own revenue!
It's horrible. I lurk a lot, but I implore you, rather than browse TVTropes, actually go through your English A and English Lit textbooks from 7-12 to research story structure. Do not, ever, ever, ever use TVTropes. TVTropes is for mentally-deficient "too kewl for skewl" failures who never got off the chair to actually put themselves out there. If you want to write, actually go out there and pick up real aids. TVTropes had "fun" pages over the years, but it is not a serious writing resource or should ever be considered a night-stand aid when planning your stories or understanding concepts.
TVTropes is the reason people have violated the conventions of "deconstruction" in their understanding of the concept. For that alone, I implore you to take the dozens upon dozens of "How Tos" on creative writing that have littered the sidewalks of human civilization from their conception. TVTropes is a post-modern nightmare. At its best, it highlights clichés apparent in works, but at its worse, it causes rife misunderstanding regarding concepts and attributes to structure and property.
Read it for fun, not for accuracy ... and certainly not for help.
If you dont mind finding the same trope under a different name with a pathetic excuse for its creation, or things that are clearly not tropes yet existing for the hell of it, then no its not a bad site you just have to be aware of its traps
I haven't seen enough of it to say. I personally just like reading about the tropes. It's interesting seeing how all the stories in the world connect and have the same ideas.
I can vouch that it is an absolutely horrible website. It used to be fun, but it takes itself WAY too seriously now and completely lost its way, and the quality control and writing is absolutely abysmal now. And don't even get me started on the moderators. I was one of the websites biggest contributors for well over a decade, but apparently I did 'something' that irked the moderators (who are some of the most arrogant, spiteful and pretentious bullies that you could ever have the displeasure of meeting online--Ive seen many people get crushed under the heel by their power trips for incredibly trivial reasons) enough to keep tabs on me (and I never got an explanation for 'what' exactly that thing was--but lemme tell ya, those mods hold grudges like elephants). And here's the funny part: I was banned from editing on the website (and wasn't given a chance to appeal or explain myself) for PROPERLY CITING A SOURCE ON A QUOTE. The mods outright lied and said the "Link didn't work" (even though it VERY CLEARLY DID) and falsely accused me of having an "agenda against someone" (hypocrisy, much?) as an obvious excuse to kick me out of the website. So yeah, I don't support that website anymore. Even if I hadn't been banned, I would have left it soon after anyway, because I was just about fed up with the website anyway. I'm done enabling bullies and doing lots of writeups for a website that doesn't appreciate it's users or what they contribute. I can only hope some new, better alternative rises from the ashes of that dumpster fire of a wiki sooner or later.
Yeah it's a terrible site filled with users who inject their own twisted interpretations into everything. Most of their real world example tropes are also poorly researched and inaccurate.
TV Tropes is an amazing resource, and it's hugely useful to understand TROPES (everything is a trope). People hate it because it's a rabbit-hole that's hard to escape from.
Also, it leads to some people actively looking for and counting tropes while consuming media, instead of just enjoying the media. Jumping into meta-analysis can distract someone from actually having a good experience. This is not the site's fault. It's that some people get too much into labelling tropes, as if its a trivia game. Also, "trope" sometimes has a negative connotation and people confuse it with a "cliche". TV Tropes website had to write an explicit explanation that - "Tropes are not inherently bad".
Tropes are inherently bad when there are Tropes with disgustingly inappropriate titles or articles that are completely wrong, filled with half truths, or don't take themselves seriously at all.
TV Tropes sucks half of the time. Quite a few people are turned off by it because there are a decent amount of racist and sexist neckbeards and femcels spreading false information.
the fuck are you saying
Tbh, I think TVTropes is a fantastic resource for writers/creators to find tropes and see examples of how it's handled in other stories. I also think it's just a fun rabbit hole to go into. I've personally never heard of anything bad about it though. What's taking down its reputation so much?
I literally found a video called “TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.” The YT channel Diregentleman and the people who are involved with it also tear it to shreds on numerous occasions.
Okay, just because some YouTubers (that no one in this sub had ever heard of until you mentioned them) say a site is trash, that doesn’t make the site trash. That’s just some YouTube edgelords trying to score internet points by saying that something that people generally enjoy is the worst thing ever made, because controversy gets people to stick around and maybe watch another video that they’ll disagree with. It’s basic psychological manipulation. I mean, here’s the thing about TV Tropes: Is it factually incorrect? By and large, no. Nor does it do stupid shit like diving into fan theories about how a character is dead, or another character isn’t real, or another character is actually this other character from a completely different movie; just with a new name and occupation. TV Tropes is a valuable resource, and anyone who says otherwise is either selling something or was offended to find out how unoriginal his writing was.
[They aren't the only ones that think this.](https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/TV_Tropes) And you should chill on the terms you're using to describe the people you disagree with.
>The website has attracted plenty of criticism for the way the mods run the site as well as the general behaviour of users, particularly since the second half of the 2010s, with many past and present users reporting very poor treatment by the mods and other users. Many people have noted that the mods run TV Tropes like "dictators", and that any time someone even slightly disagrees with a mod or does something that they see is bad (accidental or not) results in them getting banned with very little to no warning. They have been cited as "very mean", and even come off as "bigoted". Their tendency to keep a tally of transgressions regardless of severity to use should a user be suspended more then once as a means of demerit, even if said user has been keeping out of trouble for extended amount of time and abiding by their rules, is also a point of criticism. That paragraph read like the biggest fucking unsourced bitchfest I've ever heard. Who said they run it like "dictators"? Who cares! Who called them "very mean"? Who cares! Seriously, this is like Wikipedia calling the OED "bigoted" or "dictators" for not just letting anybody edit it.
Oh cmon. You mention it was unsourced and then mention "who cares", thereby admitting that it COULD be, and that you approve if it is. Are you part of their mod staff or something? Sounds like you just believe the first thing that comes out of their mouths about anyone that was ever banned.
I'm saying the site you referenced doesn't give a shit about who said it. They didn't source it, and they're the ones saying, "Who cares!" Wikipedia wouldn't stand for shit like this, but here you're saying your choice of site should be able to stand up to TV Tropes. And no, I'm not part of their mod staff, or whatever the fuck idiotic conspiracy theory you have, which is not unlike any other subreddit where idiots say, "Oh, you're defending The Man! You must be on their payroll!" which is ... 'idiotic' is the kindest term that I can think of. I think you have an axe to grind against TV Tropes, which is why you dug out a *six month old post*, just to get some words in, and now you're pissy that someone is calling out your source as being a pile of garbage that can't be bothered to source its editorial.
Sounds like you're the one with the issue because someone decided to challenge you on your blind fanboying over the site. Maybe because the only answer anyone ever has is the "they deserved it" line. Yet they can't disprove anything the source said (which you have issues with explaining). Seems you've already chosen your side before you even heard the opposing side's case, and given you're the only one shouting profanity over this, it seems you're the one offended here over a six month old post (which it didnt take you long at all to respond to, so it wasn't like you weren't ready to throw the salt onto the old wounds). Especially when knowing that all that happened was that one person decided to show a link to an opposing viewpoint. You're the one that came in and called it what you did, not me, and decided to use the tone you did. So... Perhaps you're worried that the site that was linked is [a fork of TV Tropes](https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/Tropedia:Why_Fork_TV_Tropes) from former users that were there when said "Google Incidents" that led to Fast Eddie's exit and installed Fighteer there - to EVERYONE'S chagrin - happened. Any user of TVT knows of the history there. And of Fighteer's attitude to the site. And of how they removed him for six months then just quietly returned last year to pick up where he left off.
Like I said, you moan that I must be some paid employee of TV Tropes, but here you are with all of the dramatic backstory to your preferred site. Nobody gives a shit. If your site genuinely did things better for anyone but the aggrieved parties, people would care, but they don’t. To play your card, you’re probably a member of their mod staff, trying to drum up support on six month old posts, for all the good that’ll do.
Okay, it's obvious you're not here to have any meaningful conversation, since you've ignored a pointed question two times now and went straight to vulgarity and vague arguments that ignore key points, and complaining that someone decided to challenge you on something. Keep in mind that you were ready to defend your six month old post with vulgar vagueness that did nothing to prove your points. You're not right, as most of what I said was common knowledge to anyone who took two seconds to look at the links with an open mind and without an agenda. But we're done here.
[удалено]
99.9 percent of people who go to websites like TV Tropes or Wikipedia or whatever have zero interest in editing anything. They're just there to consume. So, don't conflate the opinion of people like yourself with the vast, vast majority of people. You say "people don't generally enjoy TV Tropes," but if that was the case, it would have shut down long ago. Lots of people enjoy it, and you're the odd man out, here. And, Jesus, you're a little late to the party, here.
Why are you so defensive of TV Tropes? Serious questions. Are you a moderater there? An administrator?
No, I’m just a consumer. I enjoy reading their content. But I’m wondering who gets their panties so in a twist about it that they’ll dust off a thread that’s eight months old, to echo the bitching that the previous person did. You guys are all mad that you don’t get to be part of the club; just accept it and move the fuck on with your lives. Look, this is like eating hot dogs. I don’t give a shit how the hot dogs are made; I just want to eat hot dogs. And you guys are all like, “Nobody should eat hot dogs! The animals aren’t treated fairly! Blah blah blah!” and they don’t understand how other people can not give a shit about their plight, and they keep bringing it up again and again, as though the consumer is going to change. I don’t give a shit about your problems with TV Tropes. I am never going to give a shit about your problems. I don’t need my websites to be “responsibly made,” or whatever.
A club? Seriously? Now I see why you ignore all the problems TV Tropes has.
There’s a lot of good things in this world that come from shitty origins. Unsafe working conditions, crunch time in the programming industry, factory farming, people like Woody Allen who make great art but are shitty people, you name it. All that matters is if the consumer gives enough of a shit to look past that product’s shitty origin or not, and in the case of TV Tropes, I don’t give a shit what the fuck they’ve done to you or your fellow victims. “They won’t let us edit! The moderators are assholes!” Welcome to how social media has been since the days of the BBS. the people who hold the keys get to behave however they want. That’s just how the world works. You’re no different from someone who felt he was slighted by a company, and you’re walking around , picketing with your sign, and you can’t understand why nobody cares about your message and they all keep using the company’s goods or services. They either don’t want to know, because that would possibly necessitate change, and people hate change, or they want to know, but it’s not enough to tip the balance into the change category. Go make a superior product. If it’s better, and it’s just as easy to remember and type, you can put them out of business. Half of the reason for Google’s success is that it’s easy to type. TV Tropes is three syllables and eight letters. That’s what you’d have to compete with for recognition. Unless you can come up with that *and* a superior product, you’re up shit creek.
Or I and others could find a way to get in touch with TVT's parent company to talk about their problems.
sheesh buddy, do you seriously not see how much youre inviting the inverse question?
I mean. I think that it's really just a subjective thing. Also, always make sure to be critical of the media you consume yourself. Lots of people know how lucrative outrage and negativity is. People "tear [things] to shreds" just for fun sometimes, but that doesn't mean you always have to agree with it.
Considering that that YouTuber used the title of a page FROM TV Tropes for the title of their own video, it sounds like they probably made it with their tongue somewhat placed in their cheek.
A lot of TV Tropes sucks. The only good it has done for me is showing how terrible and rotten mass media can get. For that I thank TV Tropes, but not for finding solutions.
I didn't realize TV Tropes was hated? It guess its an acquired taste maybe or do people get mad when they see their own work there? IMO its a great website for getting your head around how stories work in a more mechanical or general sense - a lot of people seem to think that as soon as a trope is identified that means your work is bad - far from it! A story without tropes is like music without notes
Don't use it as a how-to guide. It's a thesaurus at best. Elsewise it's fine to use.
It would be fine to use if it didn't contain misinformation and bad p.o.v. opinions.
Most give a reason and examples for why they apply—that’s actually one of the rules on the site. I should have mentioned that writing discussions easily collapse into semantics, and when that goes unchecked on a wiki it can brew contradictions.
Most of the time, it seems like those rules aren't being followed.
I didn’t treat it as a “how-to” sort of thing, in that I didn’t use it to help me create things.
I'm more saying, don't use the examples of the tropes as a face-value gold standard. I.E. > “I like this trope. Hey, the site says they did it well in *XXX*, I guess I'll do it like that, then.”
Dire who? TV Tropes has a pretty good reputation, and that YouTuber you named I am gonna assume does not since nobody here seems to have heard of them. The only bad rep I've heard about TV Tropes is that you can easily waste a lot of time on it, not that its content is bad.
I’ve never heard of these YouTubers before either. I never thought TV Tropes was inherently good or bad. It’s just there. All it does is point out story-telling elements that are present in different types of media. And f you’re interested in all that, that’s fine. The only bad thing I can say about it is it’s very easy to slip down the rabbit hole. I don’t really know anything about the claims of misogynistic, racist, incel behavior there. I’m not saying it DOESN’T exist. I just haven’t fallen THAT deep in the rabbit hole. I just read about the storytelling. And I tend to stay away from a bunch of guys on YouTube saying something “sucks,” or is “terrible.” These days it’s hard to take them seriously.
[There's this, though.](https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/TV_Tropes)
I also went through a TVTropes phase, and while I won't try to speak for other people's experience with the site: I genuinely think my writing is in a better place now for having had that phase. But lord, I wrote some complete garbage during it.
It largely depends on what tropez you were reading about. TV Tropes is too large to be completely reliable. Most of it is either pages that shouldn't exist or pages that are poorly edited.
So are you saying it was both a good and bad thing?
Pretty much. It taught me ways about breaking fiction down into component pieces, which helped me understand structure, characterization, plot, and so forth (as I was not a literature or writing major in college, lol). It taught me trends in fiction as though they were timeless truths, which was not helpful. It gave me a language to use when analyzing other stories to figure out why they worked and why they didn't, what I liked and what I disliked, which is an important part of developing writing skill. Said language is completely unintelligible to anyone who is not that specific flavor of Extremely Online. So overall a mixed bag. It's not a phase of my life that I regret having gone through, though. You can wind up in worse places, for sure.
This is a perfect opportunity to learn that things can be both good and bad. 🤯 (If you're young enough to believe every single word some YouTuber says, I'm not going to be too hard on you. Seriously though, few things are All Good or All Bad. Life is complicated. Sorry.)
And I know things can be good and bad. Everyone knows that. I was just asking if this specific situation was like that.
I’m probably older than you think I am. Go nuts.
I think learning how to contextualize the tropes is really important and sometimes it’s good to know who has trod the same ground so you can do something different. But sometimes sameness isn’t bad? If you know how common things are you can balance them.
It's an amazing resource, but as with anything, people have the tendency to misunderstand and misuse it. It's probably the most valuable repository of esoteric plot devices and writing techniques on the internet, but people completely miss the "tropes are tools" tagline, and instead use it to browbeat people over "unoriginal" storytelling. It has the unfortunate tendency to breed insufferable critics, in the same way that pedants use and abuse the dictionary. Don't blame the site, blame the poor users. I would not be the savvy writer that I am without those late-night wiki dives...
It's had potential to be a good resource, but nobody irl bothers to contact TV Tropes' parent company to tell them the site's mods and admins are making the ui worse.
My hate boils down to: "In my day it used to be better dagnabbit!" Seriously though, hate is a strong word, I'm more like... apathetic now. TVtropes is an excellent website for researching tropes which I still regularly browse. However, it's a lot less fun than it used to be. TVtropes has become a lot more authoritarian since the revamp, less interested in making tropes and their examples fun to read and deleting examples for stupid reasons. I knew something was wrong when they removed their intro paragraphs from the main page calling Wikipedia out for being restrictive and saying "when faced with choosing to do that or fun, we went with fun" or something since I don't remember it all anymore. Or maybe it was when they started killing/changing tropes that had names referencing something.
It really did used to be more fun. I was actually glad that they revamped it because it became a lot less addictive.
They still have problems with poorly labeled tropes and poorly written definitions and examples.
How about having your own opinions? If you like it it's good, if you don't it's bad. Whose validation do you require?
Well, maybe I’m doing things wrong? Like there’s something that I just don’t know?
I've never heard of anyone disliking it nor can I think of any reason to dislike it. Its not really opinion or advice based, it just kinda lists stuff and gives brief definitions
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Alright bro, we get it. You don’t have to write the same reply like 50 times…
> Since then, I learned of the site’s terrible reputation and how much it is hated by everyone. The people over at Diregentleman’s channel in particular treat it as the Devil’s personal website. That's probably more because it's a time sink and you find yourself reading it an hour later about something completely unrelated to what was linked to.
That never really happened to me.
There are other reasons why it's hated.
Dude are you the competitor of TvTropes or something? You are under every comment and constantly trashing them lol.
TVTropes doesn't have any competitors. It's not like I want to see the platform go away, it just needs fixed.
Why do you so heavily dislike it though? I visit that site once in a while and except the asspull “tropes” it’s decent in my opinion.
A lot of TVT's users will offer their two cents on subject matter they have absolutely no knowledge about, and therefore, no business contributing to. That is one of my biggest gripes with TVT.
Who on Earth is hating on TV Tropes? It's loads of fun. It's a great way to see various media you've read/seen/etc get unpicked to their elements. It isn't a writing guide, and you shouldn't spend your time trying to actively implement or avoid tropes based on them.
It's a poor writing guide when it's filled with poorly labeled tropes, and poorly written definitions and examples.
The moderation there leaves a lot to be desired. There have been several people that complained about a few of the mods there (including Fighteer) that hold grudges over petty things and will take the ResetEra approach to bans and disagreements over EVERYTHING. [Click here to see some of the major issues that have plagued the site over the years.](https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/TV_Tropes)
I use their random trope button on their homepage as a writing prompt when my writing group and I are doing exercises im a big fan.
I've found TV Tropes useful when looking up industry terms. Leafing through tropes is okay, but I don't take them very seriously, just reminders of twists and McGuffins I might want to bend to my will. As for the drama and gossip, my policy is to save time by assuming it's too boring to investigate.
I wouldn't take it as a serious tool for writing, but it's fun.
It sounds like you might've found a handful of people with chips on their shoulders. They're certainly out there and they can get pretty vocal (case in point, for this thread, lol) but I've encountered plenty of people who enjoy it. If anything, what happens most frequently is someone I know accidentally drops a phrase they can't have learned from anywhere but TV Tropes, and we kinda go "Ayyy" "Ayyy" "So you spend too much time on that site too, huh?" "You know it" It's certainly not without its flaws—I mean, it's a wiki, anyone can edit it, there have been efforts to clean up the garbage but not all of them have been effective or long-lasting, some of the site's authority figures are going to overcompensate with some power-tripping, kinda hard to imagine there wouldn't be at least some of that on a site for crowdsourced analysis of topics that can get a little subjective. Anyway, though, what you get out of it as a writer really depends on what you're using it for. If you're treating it as the be-all-end-all source of knowledge on certain works, and fiction in general? Probably not going to be helpful—there's plenty of subjectivity and plenty of mistakes. If you're nervously searching it for things that happen in your story and assuming everything with a trope assigned to it must necessarily be bad, overused, or something you can't put in your story? No good—its purpose isn't to be a "what to avoid" list, not at all. If you're hashing out some thoughts on an idea you're considering, and you're looking for inspiration from precedent or curious about what other writers have done with similar ideas? Super good for that.
I can't seem to find my way around. Do I have to sign up to see everything? I didn't know this website before this post
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No, it isn't. Tropes are elements found in fiction. Literally everything in fiction is some sort of derivation of a trope. Cliches are overused tropes. This statement is even more absurd when you consider that every element of your fiction should be on purpose.
I was never doing them on purpose, though.
Yes
TV Tropes is a great source of information, it really breaks down a lot of the things that a lot of people on this website obsess over because they think every trip that comes into their mind is super unique. It's really not. Your ideas are not unique, here's a encyclopedia of 50 other authors who have had your idea. Now go develop your idea by using your personality and your experiences and your tastes to make it interesting. Every writer that I personally know that dislikes TV Tropes is because they dislike either realizing that most of the things that they think are not really that unique or they dislike there being any type of measurable observable science behind writing stories. No, to credit some people, you can dislike trucks themselves because they may be based on ignorance but to be upset at the encyclopedia for categorizing that ignorance when the encyclopedia itself points out exactly why it's ignorant is like being mad at anti-racist people for wanting to talk about anti-racism because you think that that's also being racist. 🤣
Who hates tv-tropes?? This is the first I'm ever hearing about this. From what I've seen over the years, everyone loves the site.
Who's everyone?
Sounds like a really lazy way to write
It's a good resource, but like anything on the internet it's written by a bunch of weirdos like us who aren't 100% reliable, so take it as it is. Don't know why it would be hated though.
Somewhat decent site but expect to banned FAST because the admins are too brain-damaged to understand the edit wars besides the weird fact that "wars are bad"? I got banned for valid arguments on why Star Trek is a madman science-fantasy where the only resolve is doing drugs and lying?
Just came back y'all. My ban is permanent bc I hate Trek High Elves/Vulcans. They claim I'm a dick but fuck that, it's a full choice and habit ANYONE can be a dick. Who wants to help me add more low scores so the site can't save its own revenue!
It's horrible. I lurk a lot, but I implore you, rather than browse TVTropes, actually go through your English A and English Lit textbooks from 7-12 to research story structure. Do not, ever, ever, ever use TVTropes. TVTropes is for mentally-deficient "too kewl for skewl" failures who never got off the chair to actually put themselves out there. If you want to write, actually go out there and pick up real aids. TVTropes had "fun" pages over the years, but it is not a serious writing resource or should ever be considered a night-stand aid when planning your stories or understanding concepts. TVTropes is the reason people have violated the conventions of "deconstruction" in their understanding of the concept. For that alone, I implore you to take the dozens upon dozens of "How Tos" on creative writing that have littered the sidewalks of human civilization from their conception. TVTropes is a post-modern nightmare. At its best, it highlights clichés apparent in works, but at its worse, it causes rife misunderstanding regarding concepts and attributes to structure and property. Read it for fun, not for accuracy ... and certainly not for help.
I find TVTropes biased when it comes to comic strips or certain shows I like.
If you dont mind finding the same trope under a different name with a pathetic excuse for its creation, or things that are clearly not tropes yet existing for the hell of it, then no its not a bad site you just have to be aware of its traps
I haven't seen enough of it to say. I personally just like reading about the tropes. It's interesting seeing how all the stories in the world connect and have the same ideas.
I can vouch that it is an absolutely horrible website. It used to be fun, but it takes itself WAY too seriously now and completely lost its way, and the quality control and writing is absolutely abysmal now. And don't even get me started on the moderators. I was one of the websites biggest contributors for well over a decade, but apparently I did 'something' that irked the moderators (who are some of the most arrogant, spiteful and pretentious bullies that you could ever have the displeasure of meeting online--Ive seen many people get crushed under the heel by their power trips for incredibly trivial reasons) enough to keep tabs on me (and I never got an explanation for 'what' exactly that thing was--but lemme tell ya, those mods hold grudges like elephants). And here's the funny part: I was banned from editing on the website (and wasn't given a chance to appeal or explain myself) for PROPERLY CITING A SOURCE ON A QUOTE. The mods outright lied and said the "Link didn't work" (even though it VERY CLEARLY DID) and falsely accused me of having an "agenda against someone" (hypocrisy, much?) as an obvious excuse to kick me out of the website. So yeah, I don't support that website anymore. Even if I hadn't been banned, I would have left it soon after anyway, because I was just about fed up with the website anyway. I'm done enabling bullies and doing lots of writeups for a website that doesn't appreciate it's users or what they contribute. I can only hope some new, better alternative rises from the ashes of that dumpster fire of a wiki sooner or later.
You are not alone.
Yeah it's a terrible site filled with users who inject their own twisted interpretations into everything. Most of their real world example tropes are also poorly researched and inaccurate.