All The Tropes:Troping is Fun
Troping is Fun. Or it should be, anyway. This, more than anything else, is the reason that Tropes Will Ruin Your Life. The site is about digging deeper into the works that make a difference in our lives, and in the end entertainment is about enjoyment.
Troping is fun not in a Happiness Is Mandatory sort of way. Feel free to have opinions on the main page and offer snarky fan commentary. That's kind of our oeuvre. But at the same time, don't trample someone else's good time either -- There is No One True Way.
If you'd like, participate in the community here. If you see an exceptionally good edit, post it on Made of Win, or offer some Wiki Love on their homepage. You might be able to find someone interested in the same stuff you are, and strike an online friendship. Life is more fun when shared with your Nakama -- though being a loner is okay too!
Edit Boldly
A troper's mission is to boldly edit[1] and explore new tropes. Just like WP:BOLD on The Other Wiki, we here at All The Tropes encourage editors to do their best to improve the site. If you think a change should be made, just make it! You don't need to ask for permission to do something here, as long as you don't break any of the rules that we have to protect the wiki for everybody. Every edit you make to improve the wiki helps us all, and there isn't much that somebody can do here that would break the wiki[2] -- we'd rather you spent more time editing and less time asking. (Alas, spammers have made it necessary for us to put Moderation in place on new users' edits... but that's just a matter of delaying when your edits will appear, nineteen times out of twenty.)
You should ask in The Forums with more controversial actions, like page renames -- but if a page is clearly misspelled, needs punctuation or is in the wrong namespace, just do a page move to fix the typo or misplacement.
If you do encounter criticism for a bold edit, that's the time to sit back and talk. More than likely, can resolve things quickly and amicably. If not, contact the staff or post in the forums. If the staff questions your edits, pay close attention. They are just trying to do what's best for the wiki, as they assume you are, but might have a bit more awareness of larger issues. But the staff is not always right either -- feel free to try to convince the staff to Heel Face Turn.
No matter what, it's always a good idea to leave a good edit reason -- especially so if you feel the edit might be accidentally controversial. Good edit descriptions prevent problems before they start.
One exception to the "Edit Boldly" rule is other Tropers' User pages. Those are the places where Tropers get to talk about themselves, and other Tropers shouldn't edit them without permission. Even the admins don't edit User pages except to protect the wiki as a whole.[3]
What to do if you're not having fun
We've all experienced the phenomenon of someone being wrong on the Internet! But for some, the occasional online argument is actually fun.
But there are a few things you can try if you actually get angry:
- Take a Wiki Chill Pill -- Walk away from the screen for an hour, or a night, or whatever it takes you to calm down. The page will still be there when you come back (and if not, we can always restore it).
- Take time to plan your argument -- Repeating the same points over and over is unlikely to convince anyone. Aim for the Gettysburg Address.
- Contact the Staff for help -- We're called moderators for a reason, and we'll try to help resolve any disputes you have. Listening to you is in our Policy for Wiki Staff.
- If you do lose, accept your loss gracefully -- In any endeavor, you win some and you lose some. This doesn't mean you're a bad person. Or even that your ideas are wrong. It just means that people chose a different way, and There is No One True Way.
This page is part of the The Troper's Code, and a core policy of the site.