All The Tropes:Glossary

Like a lot of things relating to specific fields of knowledge, we have acquired some terms and idioms particular to this site. This page is to give you a quick overview of their meanings.

Compare Tropes of Legend, Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions.

See also New User Introduction, MediaWiki help, Page Templates, What Page Types Mean.

Some definitions:

 * Blue Link: A working link. Bluelinks may be Wiki Words or Potholes. Compare Red Link.
 * CamelCase: The usual way of creating Wiki Words onsite, achieved by removing the spaces between two or more words, e.g. CamelCase
 * 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 system of voting this site uses, usually to decide whether to rename a page and then what the new name will be, but other actions are often voted upon. The crowners work differently than typical voting. Instead of whatever has the most votes, they are decided on whatever has the best ratio of yes to no votes.
 * 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".
 * Cut List: Where tropes are proposed for deletion. It's not automatic though, and opportunity is given to site users to respond to/discuss the reasons given for the cutlisting, either in dispute or support of them.
 * 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.
 * Example: Items listed after a page description. The examples are usually two kinds:
 * 1) 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.
 * 2) If the page is a work/person, the examples are the different tropes that show up in that work. These usually start with "Provides Examples Of:" (or some variation) in a banner at the top of the list.
 * Folder: A system for making examples more easily digestible, so a medium can be easily opened or closed.
 * Known: Basically being logged in here, just that it's not as extensive as making accounts in other sites.
 * 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.
 * Launch: The process of making a new page. Tropes should go through YKTTW before being launched; Works Pages Are a Free Launch.
 * Main Page: The default namespace, where you will find the trope description and examples.
 * Medium: The format a work is presented in (for example: film, comic book, radio, etc.). Examples in trope pages are sorted by medium.
 * Namespace:
 * 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 that have similar names to the described trope, but are in no other way related. Oh, and okay, we'll admit it, sometimes used just for the giggle factor.
 * Pothole: A hyperlink embedded in text. We like potholes here at All The Tropes.
 * Red Link: A link to a page that has not yet been created. Compare Blue Link.
 * Referral Count: The number of times a page has brought new users onto the site. You can view the referral count by clicking the "Related" button at the top of the page.
 * 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.
 * Trope: A common convention or device in media. These are 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.
 * Troper: Anyone who contributes to this site. Those that are Known are listed in Contributors.
 * 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 hitting the "Related to" button at the top of the page.
 * 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.
 * 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).  At this time, All The Tropes does not have a direct counterpart to YKTTW.  If you feel the need to propose/discuss a new trope before you do anything with it, you can always start a thread about it in the Trope Talk forum.
 * 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.