Behaviour on the wiki

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DISCLAIMER: I am speaking for myself here, not for the moderation staff or any other group.

There's a growing disconnect in the behaviour that we expect from all Tropers and the behaviour that we're actually getting from some Tropers. It used to be that the disconnect only made itself known in a few cases that fell within the statistical expectation of trolling that any social-media website expects, but it's been getting worse in the first half of the 2020s.

What we expect is that people act like adults, not just grown-ups. People didn't need to be told to follow The Troper's Code because the Code is behaviour that mature adults practice as a matter of course: share your knowledge and take responsibility when you make a mistake, make other people happy or at least not unhappy with your words, enjoy your work, and treat people who disagree with you with the same courtesy that you treat people who agree with you.

What we get is a reflection of the fractured and divisive society that exists in the 2020s United States of America. Rumours, biases, misinformation, and disinformation are being parroted as if they're knowledge and the people who do this never accept responsibility for -- or even acknowledge -- making mistakes. Deliberately making other people unhappy is seen as acceptable. And people who disagree are called "evil".

In this case, Eagleland Osmosis is a bad thing.

If you've read this far and are thinking that my complaints apply to other people, then they apply to you. There are no "other people" on All The Tropes; we're all Tropers here.

If you want to act in a more mature manner here, try doing these things:

• Fact-check before posting. Read the news sites that people outside your social circle read. (For example, almost nobody reads both BBC News and Al Jazeera, so read them both. Just keep in mind that Al Jazeera is a biased source regarding matters related to Israel.)
• Keep your vitriol and fawning to yourself. People who disagree with you are not evil just because they disagree with you. People who you like are not necessarily good.
• Accept that people will disagree with you, and accept that disagreement is not hatred.
• Accept that you do not know everything. Nobody knows everything.
• If you have a legal right to say whatever you want, then so does everyone else. If they don't, then neither do you.
• Accept that the rules here apply to everyone, yourself included. You do not get to pick and choose which rules you have to follow. If you think otherwise, expect to be shown the door, temporarily or permanently.

And if you'd rather find a troping wiki where you can do whatever you want, well... we can help you start your own, but we can't help you find a host for it.

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