All The Tropes:Examples Are Not Recent

""TV Tropes is immortal. TV Tropes does not know time. Terms such as 'recently' are meaningless to TV Tropes.""

- Sonic Lover, from the original YKTTW of this page on TVT

In short, All The Tropes is not static.

A common mistake made by many well-intentioned tropers is to often use the words "recent", "newest", "latest", "current" or something synonymous to describe something within their examples or article (Trope or work pages) descriptions. This is usually after some change that shakes the foundation of the work or character. In their zeal, the troper will excitedly state that this is a very recent development, cluing other tropers that the new status is going on right this very minute.

As a for instance:


 * "In the latest issue of Superman..."
 * "The Five-Man Band has recently gotten a new member..."
 * "The latest law in California has made it illegal for Yuri Genre fans to..."
 * "The Doctor just finished a mission to protect..."
 * "Rumors about the new The Legend of Zelda game are circulating that..."
 * "ABC's current slogan is..."

Unfortunately, this is not a good practice.

A form of Fan Myopia, this practice assumes that everyone who reads this will automatically be aware of how long ago "recently" was. There are still some examples which describe films, episodes, issues, or volumes from over a decade ago as "recent", but if you're not a fan of said work, how will you know whether it's true or not? For all the uninitiated person would know, Captain America "recently" died or Burn Notice is still the "hottest new show on USA Network".

It only creates more trouble for other Tropers when they have to remove mentions of the word "recent" after it isn't recent anymore. Or worse, the next troper will add an indented bullet point adding an even more recent update for the situation. So for everyone's sake, please avoid using the word "recent" or anything synonymous in writing your examples. Although All The Tropes is open for anyone to edit, it should not be required for anyone to come behind another troper and fix their entry.

If it helps, try and pretend that every work, ever, was written all on the same date at some point in the vague past. Don't actually put this in your edits, of course, but use it to help you refrain from slipping in a "recent" without noticing.

A related phenomenon can occur when linking to websites with constantly changing content, such as webcomics, news sites or blogs. Make sure the URL actually points to the specific item you're referring to, not to the site's main page.