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All The Tropes:Trope Namer Syndrome: Difference between revisions
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We were thinking of naming this page "The Adam Effect".<ref>However, after being asked "[[Adam Sandler|Sandler]] or [[Adam West|West]]?", we realized [[Small Reference Pools|not everybody remembers]] ''[[The Bible]]'' - specifically the Book of Genesis, where Adam was given the task of naming everything.</ref>
Sometimes editors place a little ''too'' much importance on creating a new [[Trope Namer]].▼
▲Sometimes editors place a little ''too'' much importance on creating a new
Make no mistake: We're perfectly happy to coin terms for literary phenomena when it's clear no one else has done it for us already. We have quite a few [[Trope Namers]] spread across the wiki and, frankly, these witty pop-culture references are one of [[TV Tropes]]'s unique attractions.▼
▲Make no mistake: We're perfectly happy to coin terms for literary phenomena when it's clear no one else has done it for us already. We have quite a few [[Trope Namers]] spread across the wiki and, frankly, these witty pop-culture references are one of
But due to the size and popularity that the wiki has grown to, the old days of sitting around in closely-knit circles of nerds and naming tropes directly from our favorite works of fiction [[Gone Horribly Right|are Over]]. [[Deader Than Disco|With a capital O]]. Sure, we're still a circle of nerds (and proud of it) and we still like to [[Entry Pimp|plug our favorite shows and characters]] here and there, but the goal of this wiki is (still) to document tropes in ways that are actually useful for all the ''other'' people who aren't familiar with the same things we are. Not everyone is familiar with the works/characters we are and "[[Clear Concise Witty]]" (while not strictly enforced) is the trope-naming mantra to live by.▼
▲But due to the size and popularity that the wiki has grown to, the old days of sitting around in closely-knit circles of nerds and naming tropes directly from our favorite works of fiction [[Gone Horribly Right|are Over]]. With [[Deader Than Disco|
So, naming tropes after characters or examples in fiction is a thing to avoid. There are occasional exceptions where a good new [[Trope Namer]] can be created, but this is [[Sturgeon's Law|very rare]] and ''extremely'' difficult to do, as there are very few universally-known works or characters out there and chances are people don't remember them for the same reasons that we do. It's easy to mistake something that ''you'' know and love for something ''everyone'' knows and loves -- we call this [[Fan Myopia]].▼
▲So, naming tropes after characters or examples in fiction is a thing to avoid. There are occasional exceptions where a good new
Trope Namer Syndrome primarily manifests itself in the YKTTW, the workshop where we pound out names and descriptions for new trope articles. It's easy to spot the occasional trope (er, proto-trope) where the editor is trying a little too hard to create a [[Trope Namer]], at the expense of developing a good name and definition that everyone will "get". These tend to get immediate responses of "[[Needs a Better Title]]" and/or "[[Needs a Better Description]]", and may also be criticized as "Bad Trope Namer".▼
▲'''Trope Namer Syndrome''' primarily manifests itself in the
There's a wide range of symptoms to Trope Namer Syndrome -- all of them minor faux-pas by themselves, but on watch for several occurring simultaneously in the same draft:▼
▲There's a wide range of symptoms to Trope Namer Syndrome
* A general insistence that some work of fiction [[Fan Myopia|"deserves to be"]] a [[Trope Namer]];
* A title that conveys ''only'' its connection to some [[Trope Namer]]
* A title that's just a character name, possibly with "The" tacked in front of it. Characters that are sufficiently well-known that people might understand the reference simply from the character name usually end up getting their own pages, such as The [[Red Baron|Red Baron]]. Character who aren't that famous will leave people asking "which one?", such as [[The Cedric]].
* A page image (and/or page quote) that conveys "[[All The Tropes:Just a Face
* Listing the trope-naming example before the actual definition, or ([[
* Less than [[Three Rules of Three|three examples]] beyond "The [[Trope Namer]] is [X]..." (which goes double if the trope-naming example [[Zero Context Example|doesn't even explain itself]] or [[This Index Is Not an Example|isn't actually an example]] of its own trope);
* Being in a hurry to get the trope launched
Fortunately all of these symptoms are curable before launch, just take a moment to listen to suggestions from your fellow tropers, especially if you see several people agreeing on the same point (regardless of whether you agree with said point or not).
[[Sturgeon's Law|Ninety percent]] of attempts to create new [[Trope Namers]] get sent straight to our [[Forum:Trope
For more information about how to come up with a good name for a new trope, see the guidelines listed on [[Naming a Trope]]. To learn more about Trope Namers in general, check out the [[Trope Namer]] page.
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[[Category:Trope Namer Syndrome]]
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