All The Tropes:Style Guide: Difference between revisions

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All The Tropes aims to present a casual but reliable image. Please write in the third person, without using [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]] or being formal. (This is a wiki, not a classroom.)

If there isn't a section for the particular kind of media your example comes from, feel free to add it! (We have a [[Template:Media Headers|standard list of media types]] we're trying to make sure is used everywhere, consult it if you need help.) Oh, and if you do add a new section, do make sure it's in proper alphabetical order ''vis-à-vis'' the other sections on the page. ("Other Media" and "Real Life" go at the end of the list, however, out of alphabetical order. Some tropes may have a "General" or "Meta" section; this will go at the top ''before'' the other sections. Occasionally a [[Trope Namer]] or [[Trope Codifier]] will be so substantial and/or influential that it, too, will get its own section at the top.)

If you're adding an entirely new example to an existing section, put it at the end of the section. (This is to make it easier for readers to find new material.) If you just drop it in at the top (or worse, at random in the middle for no good reason), an admin will probably move it to the end of the section within a day or so, so it'll end up there anyway, so why not start with it in the right place?

Make sure your example is properly marked up -- the work name should be a link and emphasized as is proper for the kind of work it is (see the other sections on this page for what you need to do if you don't already know). ''Do'' make sure you're linking to the right page, not a redirect, a disambiguation page, or a page for a different version of the work (or a different work entirely that has the same name). ''Don't'' bury the link to the work in a pothole on a character name or phrase that will not be obvious to the casual reader or viewer who might not know the work, or which will fall out of common knowledge in five or ten years.<ref>The wiki's content is old enough that this is a ''constant'' problem -- few people these days remember the main character or key catch phrase of the hot new show of 2005, for example. Or even what that hot new show ''was''.</ref>

First, there's an asterisk. This creates the bullet point that sets the new trope off from its neighbors. It's followed by a space to improve the readability of the page source.

Second, the trope name, surrounded by double square brackets. The brackets turn the name into a link as noted elsewhere. If when you save the page this is a [[Red Link]], you've done something wrong -- either you've used a trope that doesn't exist on this site<ref>Not uncommon when the editor is a recent refugee from [[TV Tropes]]</ref>, you misspelled something, or you got the capitalization wrong. We have a hints system that pops up a progressive list of possible links for you in the upper right corner of the edit window; make use of that to avoid problems. It's also a good idea to make sure the link you're using is the actual name of the trope you want,<ref>Which is another thing that sometimes trips up recent refugees from TV Tropes. For example, our page about [[sobriquet]]s is called "Sobriquet", not "Red Baron". Our page Red Baron is about the [[Red Baron]]. Similarly, our page [[Mata Hari]] is about the woman who used that name, while the character type can be found under [[Seductive Spy]].</ref> and not a redirect, a disambiguation page, or a work. (We have more than a few works whose titles ''sound'' like trope names; every once in a while a mod has to remove a trope entry that points to one of them.)

Immediately after the trope link is a colon (":"). Don't forget it, or you may get a little note from a mod or another user who's had to go in and add them to your work. Don't use dashes or long dashes or anything else here. And it, too, gets followed by a space -- that's a general punctuation rule, not just for readability here.

Finally, the explanation of how the trope applies to the work. This is ''mandatory''. [[Zero Context Example]]s are subject to deletion. Work pages with nothing but Zero Context Examples are themselves subject to deletion if no one chooses to rescue them.<ref>Assuming we have time. Usually they just get tagged with {{tl|trope list needs context}}, which puts them onto [[:Category:Trope list needs context|this "cleanup" list]].</ref> One of the most valid criticisms of troping is that what we do is nothing but mindless cataloguing. If you don't explain how the trope functions (and why) in this work, then you're confirming that criticism. Put thought into writing a description that not only explains where in a work the trope is found, but how it works as a part of the story, and what makes it important.

Finally, your trope should be inserted in proper alphabetical order. Most of the time this should be obvious if you're a frequent user of the Latin alphabet, but there are edge situtationssituations and unclear cases. If you need help, see "Alphabetization", below, or our page [[All The Tropes:How to Alphabetize Things|How to Alphabetize Things]].

* Conjunctions (and/, but, or/, nor), articles (a, an, the), and short prepositions (on, in, to, by, for, at, of, as, etc.) should be lowercased.

* Longer prepositions (4four or more letters) should be capitalized (with, from, whereas, etc.).

We have a [[All The Tropes:Page Templates|large selection of boilerplates]] that you canshould use to make a new page look like other pages on All The Tropes.

Typically, you'll find something appropriate in the dropdown menu that appears above the edit window when you create a page, or it will preload when you select something from the Add Page menu. But if that doesn't work, you'll find something on [[All The Tropes:Creating a Page by Hand]] that you can use to do things the hard way.

* [https://www.example.com] or [https://www.example.com here] isare bad and exclude people with accessibility issues;

The only real style requirements exist for work names. Wherever possible, the first occurrence of a work name in an example or a description should also be a link. This requires that you use the name of a work as it appears on the work page, matching punctuation and capitalization exactly. That's usually not to hard to determine -- if you don't already know it off the top of your head, you can use the wiki's search function to find it. (However, always click through a search result. You may have found a disambiguation or franchise page or a redirect and not the actual work page; clicking through will make sure you get to the right name, eventually.)

Once you have the right name, insert it into your edit with the appropriate markup. Right off the bat, of course, it should be in link markup, (<code><nowiki>[[</nowiki></code>as anddescribed <code><nowiki>]]</nowiki></code>)above. Of course, we don't have a page for every existing work on the wiki. But even if there isn't a page for it here, we still want the work name to be a link -- it might inspire another troper to write that page. So even if you can't find a page, mark up the work name as a link anyway.

Sometimes you might think it's necessary (or more attractive) to use a pothole with a work name. For instance, the ''[[HarryThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the PotterGalaxy]]'' novels are all described on subpages under [[HarryThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the PotterGalaxy]], like ''[[HarryThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the PotterGalaxy/HarrySo PotterLong, andAnd TheThanks Philosopher'sFor All The StoneFish]]''; potholing that link to ''[[HarryThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the PotterGalaxy/HarrySo PotterLong, andAnd TheThanks Philosopher'sFor StoneAll The Fish|HarrySo PotterLong, andAnd TheThanks Philosopher'sFor All The StoneFish]]'' just looks better. Go ahead and do that. Just be careful not to misspell or otherwise mangle the work name in the pothole. And once more, if you're not sure how to code a pothole, the markup is <code><nowiki>[[link|pothole text]]</nowiki></code> -- the link, a vertical bar, and then the text you want to have go to that link.

MediaWiki is capable of displaying five levels of headers, analogous to HTML's "H2" through "H6". (The equivalent to H1 is reserved for page titles.) To mark text as a section header of a given level, put that many equals signs in a row before and after the text, with a single space before and after the header text. Also, there should be nothing else on a line that has header text.

* It should go without saying, but the order is ''not'' case-sensitive. "AA" comes before "ab"; "aa" comes before "AB".<ref>The Windows application "Notepad++" will ignore this rule if you choose the wrong sort operation. If you copy text to Notepad++ and sort it there, make sure you use one of the "Ignoring Case" options; otherwise you'll need to fix the sort before copying it back to the wiki.</ref>

Also, please don't use '''boldface''' (generated with three single quotes) for emphasis. Bold text should be reserved for emphasis within block-quotes that are already in italics and for minor subheads in the main text. Also, the first time a work page mentions the work's name in its description text, the name should be marked up in bold ''and'' italics (unless it's a short story or a single song, in which case it should be in boldface and quotes).<ref>If you can't find the page's title in the description, add a [[Title Drop]]. Do not boldface the page's name in the tropelist or the example list.</ref> There are almost no other cases when boldface is an appropriate style choice, and boldface plus italics should ''never'' be used for emphasis because it's nearly as bad as ALL CAPS.<ref>Okay, there are a few rare instances where it could be used, such as an escalating series of emphasis (like, "Bad. ''Bad.'' '''''Bad!'''''"). But just because you don't think italics by themselves cut it? No. Don't.</ref>

We follow the [https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html Chicago Manual of Style] when it comes to numerals and numbers. The default Chicago style for numbers one through one hundred is to spell them out. Use numerals for 101 and larger numbers. Also use numerals for years, times and percentages.

However, when referring to seasons or episodes of a show -- "[[Star Trek: The Original Series/Recap/S3|Season 3]] of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]''", "[[RWBY/Recap/V02/E12 Breach|V2E12]] of ''[[RWBY]]''" -- numerals should be used.

In all cases if the title of a work employs a usage that conflicts with these style rules (for instance, ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four (Literature)|Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' by George Orwell, the film ''[[42nd Street]]'', or the manga ''[[Ranma ½]]''), we do ''not'' correct the title.