All The Tropes:Trope Workshop Guidelines
Here are the rules for starting trope pages on All The Tropes, as well as how to use the Trope Workshop.
Are you starting a work page instead? You can skip this entirely because Work Pages Are a Free Launch. (Unpublished works by you go in your own userpage namespace.) If you think you'll need help with the write-up, you can continue on this page.
New Trope Checklist
- Look around to see if it already exists first. Looking at indices is a good way to help find trope pages. (Topical Tropes, which is an index of trope categories, is a great place to start.)
- Think up 3 examples of the trope. Statisticians need at least 3 data points to establish anything, and we do too.
- Write a brief summary of the trope. Try to include related tropes in the description, which you should have found from step #
- Take our write up and examples, and post it into Trope Workshop:, using any appropriate templates. (The shortcut for Trope Workshop is YKTTW:)
- Let the proposed trope pick up responses for the next couple of weeks, and let people try to refine the description.
- While you're waiting, look at other Trope Workshop entries, and let other people know if it's a good trope. Add any works using the trope you can think of. Let people do the same for your entry.
- If other tropers have major issues, try to address them.
- If enough tropers agree and enough time passes, go ahead and launch the trope by moving it into the main namespace. If you see Just Launch It Already a couple of times on any trope, feel free to move that one into the main namespace, too.
- Add backlinks from the examples so people can find the new entry, and be sure to add to appropriate categories and indices.
- Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.