Welcome to the nitty gritty. This is an index of all the guidelines on TV Tropes as well as helpful hints on how to perform basic tasks and explanations of wiki terminology. We know this stuff can be a bit intimidating, so we've broken it down for you.
Remember, if you really get lost and can't find what you're looking for, relax and Ask The Tropers. You can also check the FAQ for some helpful pages.
The Basic Stuff
It's always hard to figure out where to start on a new website. If you're looking for the very basics, see below.
- Welcome to TV Tropes: This article describes the layout and basic operations of the site.
- The Goals of TV Tropes: Here you can see the reasons that we put this site together.
- TV Tropes Customs: This page lists the general customs and guidelines for the wiki.
- The Troping Code: The ultimate summation of the rules.
- Get Known (you'll need to do this to edit at all)
- FAQ: A directory of some frequently asked questions.
Discussion Areas
There are a few places around the wiki that might aid you in your journey. Here are some links to serve as your initial roadmap.
- Ask The Tropers: Here you can ask fellow tropers any questions you have about the wiki. Also to report problems with other tropers.
- Query Bugs: The place where software bugs are squashed and disposed of.
- Query Wishlist: If you have a spiffy new idea for our tech, put it here!
- TV Tropes Forum: The social hub of the wiki and where decisions are made on fixing pages and site policy.
- Trope Launch Pad (aka TLP, YKTTW, You Know That Thing Where): This is the place to propose a new trope article. You may also use it for works.
- Trope Finder: Here's the place to ask "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?"
- You Know That Show: The place to ask for help identifying a work, when you only remember one or a few things about it.
People of the Wiki
These are the strange beings known as tropers that you may encounter in your wiki wanderings.
- The Contributors: You the tropers! The very backbone of the wiki.
- Know the Staff: The cool guys hard at work making sure that things run smoothly.
Editing Basics
Think of this as a quick start guide for editing. These are the links that can help you delve into the arcane art of troping.
- How to Write an Example: Ever want to know how we make the examples so fun to read? Just follow these simple steps.
- Notifiers: Automated messages you can send to other tropers in order to remind them of our editing rules.
- Text-Formatting Rules: Use this page to make sure that your examples are clear, readable, and fun.
- Tips for Editing: Things to keep in mind for your first foray into editing.
- Video Guidelines: The rules and practice of video uploading.
- What Goes Where on the Wiki: A basic outline of the types of wiki pages.
TV Tropes Terminology
Yes, we know tropers seem to have our own vocabulary. A lot of it is based on the tropes that we catalog, but we understand the need for a lexicon. To help with this, we have created the TV Tropes Glossary, but here are a few basic terms to keep in mind.
- Blue Link: A link that is blue and leads to another page.
- Red Link: A true door to nowhere. These links are red and lead to blank pages.
- WikiWord: Writing the words of a page title in such a way that they become a Blue Link.
- CamelCase: The basic way to make a wiki word by writing words that run together and all start with capital letters.
- Trope: A narrative device or convention used in media.
- Works: Media such as a series, or a discrete item like a movie or novel.
- Creators: The people who make media.
- Known Troper: A troper who is signed in with a username.
- Pothole: A trope linked from text other than its title.
- Namespace: The part of a wiki URL between "pmwiki.php" and the article's name.
Basic Page Building
Ever wanted to know how a page gets put together? We're here to tell you.
- How Indexing Works: A basic overview of how to get pages to show up on indexes.
- Creating New Pages: Everything you wanted to know about making a new page but were afraid to ask.
- Creating New Redirects: Want to make sure that you can find a trope from the British spelling? Have a clever name that can add clarity to an existing trope? Here's how to make it a reality.
- Crosswicking: Making sure that all the links on work and trope pages correspond with each other.
- Naming a Trope: Find out how to be clear, concise, and witty while naming your tropes.
Advanced Editing
Here there be dragons. It can be a bit intimidating at first, but there are some more advanced guidelines for page editing, sorted alphabetically within their sections. While you don't need to learn all of these to edit, they can come in handy.
Technical Help
- How Crowners Work
- How to Alphabetize Things
- How to Create a Work Page
- How to Make a Custom Title
- How to Move a Page
- How to Split a Page
- How to Subscribe
- Images in Wiki Pages
- Notes and Labelnotes
- Page Templates
- What Page Types Mean
Manual of Style
"Do"s
- Brevity Is Wit
- Edit Reasons and Why You Should Use Them
- Example Indentation in Trope Lists
- How to Collect Tropes
- How to Create a Character Page
- How to Pick a Good Image
- How to Write an Example
- Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Language
- Repair, Don't Respond
- Three-Day Rule
- Three Rules of Three
- Tips on Grammar
- Tips Worksheet
- TLP Guidelines
- What to Put at the Top of a Page
"Don't"s
- All-Blue Entry
- Auto-Erotic Troping
- Conversation in the Main Page
- Edit War
- Everything's Worse with Snowclones
- Examples Are Not Arguable
- Examples Are Not Recent
- The Fic May Be Yours, but the Trope Page Is Ours
- Flame Bait
- First-Person Writing
- Just a Face and a Caption
- Justifying Edit
- Linking to an Article Within the Article
- No Lewdness, No Prudishness
- No New Stock Phrases
- Not a Deconstruction
- Not a Subversion
- Righting Great Wrongs
- Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment
- The Same, but More
- Signal To Noise Trainwreck
- Sinkhole
- Speculative Troping
- Square Peg, Round Trope
- Thread Mode
- Trope-Namer Syndrome
- Type Labels Are Not Examples
- Wall of Text
- Weblinks Are Not Examples
- Word Cruft
- Zero-Context Example
General Guides
- About Images and Copyright
- About Rhetorical Questions
- American and Commonwealth Spellings
- The Content Policy
- Creator Page Guidelines
- Example as a Thesis
- The Great Character Alignment Debate
- Handling Spoilers
- In-Universe
- Media Categories (not to be confused with namespaces)
- Media Categories FAQ
- Namespace (not to be confused with media categories)
- Our Super-Strict Language Policy (aka the Family Friendly policy)
- Predefined Messages
- Private Message
- Programme Note (WMG)
- Real Life Troping
- Trope Renaming Guidelines
Trope Maintenance
- Ambiguity Index
- Analyzing Inbounds
- Creating a Work Page for an Upcoming Work
- Cut List
- Dead Link
- Example Sectionectomy
- Frequent Redlinks
- How to Do a Wick Check
- Image Pickin'
- Itty Bitty Wiki Tools
- Keep Real Life Examples
- Launch Displacement
- Locked Pages
- Permanent Red Link Club
- Media Uploader
- Missing Supertrope
- No Real Life Examples, Please!
- No Recent Examples, Please!
- Renamed Tropes
- Split Tropes
- Trope Decay
- Trope Repair Shop
- Work Pages Are a Free Launch
- YMMV Redirects
Specific Projects
See also the Long Term Projects subforum.
- 2.0
- Hyphenated Titles
- Image Pickin' Special Cases
- Images Without a Source
- Inbound Watch
- List of Shows That Need Summary
- Pages Needing Transparent Images
- Pages Needing Wiki Magic
- TV Tropes Translation Project
- Trope Depiction Guidelines
- Videos Without a Source
- Wick Cleaning Projects
- Wick Namespace Migration
Wiki
- Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions
- Laconical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions
- Acronym Trope Names
- Data Vampires
- Edit Stomp
- Entry Pimp
- Example Sectionectomy
- Finding a Trope
- Home Pages By Language
- How to Cite TV Tropes
- Image Source
- Index-Index
- Loaded Trope Word
- Multi-Part Picture
- Pitch Generator
- Quote Source
- Short Titles
- Story Generator
- Sub Wiki
- Trope Namers
- TV Tropes Glossary
- Video Source
- Welcome to TV Tropes
- Wiki Archives (natch)
- Wiki Sandboxes
Historical Pages
- April Fools Day 2013
- Confirmed YKTS
- Contributor Announcements
- Egregious
- Fan Speak
- The Great Crash (2008/01/12)
- Great Crash Contributors
- The Google Incident (2010/10/27 Google Ads)
- Headscratchers.Tropes
- It Just Bugs Me!
- Live Bloginations
- The Second Google Incident (2012/04 Google Ads)
- The Ptitle Replacement System
- Punctuated Titles
- Search Wiki
- Subjective Tropes
- Synopsis
- Trope Report
- Troper Tales
- Weirdest Inbound Link of the Day
- Wiki Tech Wish List
Other
- The Badge Shop
- Bibble Bobble
- Complete Monster
- Magnificent Bastard
- Please Trope Responsibly
- Trope Talk
- What to Do If You Are Suspended
- Wiki Talk