All The Tropes:Three Rules of Three

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

So, you've got a really great idea for a Trope. The description--let's call it a "thesis"--is brief, punchy, and wonderfully common. Something you're sure we don't have, either because you Did The Research or because you asked around. So, you did the smart thing: you posted your Trope idea at the Trope Workshop, our official page space for composing idea drafts. You know, brainstorming. It isn't essential, but it sure is encouraged.

How do you know if what you have, though, really is something that you should spend time adding to the site? For those guidelines, after some debate in the community, we established the Three Rules Of Three. Let's make one thing clear right now: There Is No Such Thing as Notability. We'll call them "rules", but you can think of them more as "rules of thumb." You can break them, if you want, but remember that the community may alter your creation later. Them, as they say, is the breaks.

Three Shall Be the Number of Rules, and the Number of Rules Shall Be Three:

Three Examples

  • The burden of proof is upon the person proposing the Trope. To prove that your concept is a Trope, it's a good idea to have at least three solid examples that clearly illustrate your Trope's Thesis. It's better if you can find examples that are not subversions or inversions. This shows that you're actually proposing a Trope, and not just a happenstance occurrence. In some cases, such as a Dead Horse Trope, it may not be possible to find three examples where it is played straight. There's good news though: you don't have to come up with these yourself. Use the Forums. Other Tropers will help you.

Three Agree

  • What good's a Trope without a name? An ideal Trope name, it's generally agreed, should be punchy but not too opaque, understandable but witty. (And a good name can be both at the same time: see Politeness Judo, for example.) Now, different people will have different opinions on what's too clever for its own good. How do you know when you have a winning title? The guideline is this: when three Tropers can agree on a single name, it's pretty solid. Sometimes, three Tropers may agree on more than one name; it's usually better to go with the majority in this case. (And the other names can always be set up as redirects after the trope is launched.)

Three Votes

Note: This is the major difference between how TV Tropes caps off the trope creation process and how All The Tropes does the same thing.

  • Most Trope theses are born rough. They need sanding on the edges, polish for the surface, and a good dose of that lighthearted tongue-in-cheek humor we so love 'round these parts. As such, a Trope must get at least three votes to be launched into the main namespace without anyone saying it still needs work. A candidate's tenure in the Workshop can be measured in weeks or months, while the community requests clarification, adds their own insight, and maybe points out that, yes, we already DO Have That One.

(This avoids the biggest issue with trope creation at TV Tropes. There, even if Tropers are jumping on their metaphorical desks and yelling, "How Did We Miss This One?" or "Just Launch It Already", they have to wait three days to pull the trigger. Here, if the trope really is ready after one or two days, we can swing the champagne bottle and launch the trope if nobody objects.)


Each of the rules comes with caveats, of course. Easily 90% of edits are example-adds, so you may not need three examples. Not every name is completely transparent or witty: we love our in-jokes, and some titles are dull as dishwater.

The bare minimum, though, remains three examples and a name: a snazzy name and three examples is a good place to start. Wiki Magic can always take over from there.

This helps prevent a flood of duplicate Trope Workshop entries being launched prematurely; there can be only so many iterations of a given trope. Sometimes, the description and examples for a given subtrope will find a better home on an existing page. It also gives others a chance to weigh in; it may not be until the 15th response to a popular new trope proposal that someone recalls the existing trope.

In case you were asking, Why Three?

(mumbles) actually nine, since there are three of each... but tropability is a noncommutative operation, as demonstrated by the fact that People Sit on Chairs, but not the reverse.

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