All The Tropes:Creator Page Guidelines: Difference between revisions

All The Tropes is not just about tropes and the works that use them. Frequently information about an [[Authors|author]], [[Actors|actor]], [[Directors|director]], [[Producers|producer]], [[Mangaka|mangaka]], [[Composers|composer]], [[Animators|animator]], [[Video Game Companies|developer]], or other creator will be relevant to our understanding of the tropes in their works. To that end, we have [[Creator]] pages.

These pages document information about creators pertaining to their works and the tropes they use. [[No Such Thing As Notability|Any creator can have a page if someone is willing to make it.]] However, we want to see pages with substance – please spend the time and effort to tell us something about the creator and his work. If you can't say more than a single sentence about them, it may be deleted as a "Zero-Content" page. (And if the creator and his work inspire you to create a page for them, why ''can't'' you say more than a sentence?)

Creator pages are created with the [[MediaWiki:Creators|Creators Page template]]. This template automatically lays out the proper structure for a creator page, and assigns it to the [[:Category:Creator|Creator]] category. We also have several other templates --– such as <code>{{tl|actorroles}}</code>, <code>{{tl|discography}}</code>, and <code>{{tl|creatortropes}}</code> --– especially designed for use on Creator pages. (For more information on these and other templates, see the page [[All The Tropes:Our Custom Templates]].)

Note that not all pages about people will fall into this category. Some, such as [[The Presidents of the United States of America (politics)|The Presidents of the United States of America]], are [[Useful Notes]] and/or [[Historical Domain Character]]s.<ref>Unless, like [[Ronald Reagan]], they were both creators and politicians... and sometimes not even then.</ref> '''Unlike [[TV Tropes]], though, we count performers of ''all'' stripes --– including [[Musicians|musicians, bands,]] and [[Professional Wrestling|professional wrestlers]] --– as Creators.''' Please note that even though we include professional wrestlers (because of [[Kayfabe]]), professional athletes of other kinds are ''not'' counted as creators. Professional athletes who are ''only'' athletes, who have not also made efforts in a creative field such as acting or writing, are outside the wiki's scope. We are not All The Sports. Being able to hit a baseball, bowl a wicked googly, or score a goal does not make a person a "creator".

* '''An overview of works they've created.''' A simple bulleted list of works they've been involved with is usually a good place to start.<ref>If one or more of their works does not yet have a wiki page associated with it, please list them as [[Red Link]]s to make things easier in case the page gets created in the future.</ref>

** '''An index.''' Some creator pages use their bulleted list of works as an index for those works. This is usually reserved for higher-level creators like [[Video Game Companies]]. Examples include [[Valve SoftwareCorporation]] and [[Dark Horse Comics]].

* '''Tropes that appear frequently in their works.''' If a creator has a [[Signature Style]], their creator page is a good place to talk about it. For example, [[Michael Bay]]'s page lists tropes like [[Stuff Blowing Up]], [[Summer Blockbuster]], and [[Technology Porn]].

* '''Trivia about them.''' We have lots of tropes and trivia that can legitimately apply to creators, like [[Dyeing for Your Art]], [[Trolling Creator]], [[Pen Name]], [[Creator Breakdown]], and [[Author Existence Failure]]. Most of these are okay to include on a creator page, or on their Trivia subpage as appropriate.

* '''[[Conversational Troping]]'''. Normally, we don't trope [[Real Life]] people. But creators often give interviews, or tweet, or other such forms of [[Word Ofof God]], and they often talk about tropes. So if they're [[Discussed Trope|discussing]], [[Conversed Trope|conversing]], [[Lampshaded Trope|lampshading]], or [[Invoked Trope|invoking]] tropes, those tropes are fair game for their page.

* '''Tropes applied to the creator as if they are a fictional character.''' Please resist the urge to apply character tropes to [[Real Life]] people. We've had a lot of [[Square Peg, Round Trope]] issues in the past with this,<ref>And we've had similar issues with Tropers who refused to check what some tropes are actually about - in one case, to the point that the Troper was banned for repeatedly inserting false information into pages. Please don't be that Troper.</ref> so as a general guideline, it's best to apply [[No Real Life Examples, Please]] to creators. If it seems harmless, it might be overlooked [[Just for Fun]], and there is an exception for [[Conversational Troping]] as mentioned above, but on the whole this is something [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|best avoided]].

* '''Tropes that apply to ''individual'' works they've created.''' Any tropes listed should be relevant to their work as a whole, not to just one work. So if a trope only applies to ''one'' work they've made, please list it on that work's page instead. (If that single work doesn't have a page yet, see [[Works Pages Are a Free Launch]].)

* '''Creator Bashing.''' Creator pages should not be used to complain about how much a person sucks. We're not here to hate on people. It's okay to have problems with their works, but that doesn't give you a license to abuse a creator. Please keep it reasonably neutral. If it ''can't'' be kept neutral, and/or descends into an [[Edit War]], All The Tropes may have to lock the page --– or worse, delete it and ''then'' lock it. We don't want to have to do that. Don't make us.

* '''Subjectivity and YMMV.''' We don't list [[YMMV]] items for real-life people. That includes creators. Please don't list [[Audience Reactions]] or [[YMMV]] for a creator.

* '''[[Perverted Drooling|Drooling.]]''' In the past, we've had pages for actresses that consisted primarily of gushing about how hot they are. [[All The Tropes:No Lewdness, No Prudishness|This is not okay.]] It's inappropriate and will not be tolerated.

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