All The Tropes:Glossary

This is a glossary of terms commonly used on All The Tropes. Press Ctrl or ⌘ to search terms on this page.

 ''Note: while the definitions below may be useful for understanding and communicating on project and discussion pages, and with edit summaries, remember to explain jargon in encyclopedic articles, and write them in language which is readily understandable without specific knowledge of the All The Tropes project.

Do not overdo the use of ATT jargon such as shortcuts on talk pages and edit summaries, either, at least not without providing explanatory links to the appropriate pages.

Shortcut links


 * ATT:G
 * ATT:TERM
 * ATT:GLOSSARY

See also:
 * All The Tropes:New User Introduction
 * Tropes of Legend
 * Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions

B

 * Blue Link: A working link. Bluelinks may be Wiki Words or Potholes. Because we have some custom code in place, a Blue Link might appear Green - but many Asians will tell you that Green Is Blue. Compare Red Link.

C

 * Compare: A short list at the end of descriptions to note Sister Tropes to the trope being described.
 * Contrast: A short list at the end of descriptions to note Opposite Tropes to the trope being described.
 * Courtesy Link: A link to a trope you are discussing in the forums, provided so your fellow tropers can easily access the trope you want to talk about.
 * Creator: Someone who participates in the creation of a work. On All The Tropes, these include writers, artists, actors, bands, and companies.
 * Crowner: A shortened version of "Crowning Moments Of". Because TV Tropes wrote a specialized extension for voting on such things that then got repurposed, "crowner" can sometimes be found used in legacy content here in the sense of a poll or other way to assess community consensus.
 * Curly Brackets: A coding style for hyperlinks used by the TV Tropes wiki, but not supported by MediaWiki (the wiki engine on which All The Tropes runs). If you're a refugee from TV Tropes and try to code a hyperlink with curly brackets, you'll end up with a red error message in your text -- MediaWiki uses curly brackets to identify special customizable functions called "templates".

D

 * Description: The part of a page describing what the page is about. Usually it's defining a trope or describing a work. Often comes in different forms, such as Self-Demonstrating Article or Example as a Thesis.
 * Discussion: A mirror page for any page on this site that has the typical editing code. These are for anything about the page that isn't related to the description or examples. It's sort of a forum for these specific pages.

E

 * Example: Items listed after a page description. The examples are usually two kinds:
 * If the page is a trope, the examples are the works where the trope shows up. These usually start with "Examples:" in a banner at the top of the list and are sorted by medium.
 * If the page is a work/person, the examples are the different tropes that show up in that work. These usually start with "(Workname) Provides Examples Of:" (or some variation) in a banner at the top of the list.

F

 * Fair Use: A variety of License which permits our use of copyrighted material under certain circumstances. Commonwealth countries call this Fair Dealing. These circumstances are actually quite broad, and thus this is one of the most common licenses used for images on the wiki.
 * Folder: A system for making examples more easily digestible, so a medium can be easily opened or closed.

G

 * Green Link: A variety of Blue Link; All The Tropes uses green text to indicate a link to a trope. This unfortunately breaks some legacy humor, but that's what Green Is Blue is for.

I

 * Informal Wiki: A term we use to describe the attitude of this site in relation to editors. It means we don't have rules and procedures for editing pages. It doesn't mean this site can be anarchy. We have guidelines.

K

 * Known: Basically being logged in here, just that it's not as extensive as making accounts in other sites.

L

 * Launch: The process of making a new page. Tropes should go through the Trope Workshop before being launched; Works Pages Are a Free Launch.
 * License: A very important part of adding an image to the wiki. All The Tropes is part of a community of wikis which pay strict attention to the ownership and copyrights of the images (and other material) they use.  When you upload an image to us, you must choose a license from a drop-down on the upload page to indicate how we are permitted to use it.

M

 * Main Page: The basic trope/work/creator page, where you will find a description, along with examples (for tropes), tropes (for works), or both/neither/other (other page types). In MediaWiki, subpages "hang off" a main page like subfolders in a directory, instead of living in a completely different section of the wiki.
 * Medium: The format a work is presented in (for example: film, comic book, radio, etc.). Examples in trope pages are sorted by medium, and we distinguish works that share the same name by appending the medium to the their names.

N

 * Namespace: Where certain pages are located on the ATT project
 * Natter: Conversations in the main page. A little is okay, and eventually should be cleaned up by the Wiki Magic, but turning a page into an extended discussion is frowned upon, as it is distracting and unfunny.
 * Notability: An odd one, in that we use the definition used by Wikipedia, but are against it. We don't require a work to meet any standards of notability for that site. As long as the work is published, and the page for it is good, that page stays here.
 * "Not to be confused with": A disclaimer in descriptions to list any tropes or works that have similar names to the current page, but are in no other way related. Oh, and okay, we'll admit it, sometimes used just for the giggle factor.

P

 * Pothole: A hyperlink embedded in text. We like potholes here at All The Tropes (but not quite to the point of an All Blue Entry).

R

 * Red Link: A link to a page that has not yet been created (or used to exist but was deleted). Compare Blue Link.

S

 * Sinkhole: Like a Pothole, but where the linked article is irrelevant or only tangentially relevant to the context in which it occurs. We don't like these.

T

 * Trope: A common convention or device in media. This is not the actual literary definition of a trope, and should not be confused for it. This is just an informal definition we use for this site.
 * Trope Workshop: The All The Tropes counterpart to TVT's YKTTW,.
 * Troper: Anyone who contributes to this site. Those that are Known are listed in Contributors.
 * Troping Under the Influence: Editing pages while in an altered state of consciousness (caused by drugs, extreme exhaustion, and so on). Wiki Magic from sober editors usually removes any sign that it ever happened.

W

 * Wick: A link on this site to another page on this site. This is useful for getting attention for these pages across the site. You can see the number of Wicks by following the "What links here" link under "Tools" in the sidebar.
 * Wiki Word: A CamelCase-format hyperlink. This is the primary way hyperlinks are coded over on The Other Tropes Wiki, but it is not used by MediaWiki, the software that All The Tropes runs on.  If you're a refugee from TV Tropes, you'll need to get out of the habit of using these.
 * Work: Any form of medium. All of them use tropes.
 * Works Page: A page that briefly describes a work and lists all the tropes it uses. Works Pages Are a Free Launch because There Is No Such Thing as Notability.

Y

 * YKTTW: Short for "You Know That Thing Where..." Back on TV Tropes, this was a specialized discussion page, the recommended place to propose tropes (but not works or people).  Here at All The Tropes, the equivalent function is served by the Trope Workshop, which is actually a special namespace where tropes are proposed and whipped into shape before moving them into the main wiki.
 * YMMV: Most tropes are deliberate choices of those making a work. It doesn't matter what we think of them, they are in that work. YMMVs differ in that they are entirely what an individual viewer feels. Also known on a few pages as "Subjectives".