As your friendly neighborhood Admin Team, the gang here at TVTropes HQ is always working to improve the site.
Many of those improvements begin with suggestions posted right here, on the Community Wishlist. Is there a feature you really want on TVTropes? Post it.
Is there something we could be doing better? We want to know. Do you think we look fat in these pants? We were totally afraid of that. See a bug? Report it.
Important things to know:
- We're all about that content-creation life! The top contenders for our attention are ideas that'll create more content, like the video uploading feature, or speed up launching new pages. On the flip side, design or layout tweaks won't be our top priority.
- Help us dig through the goldmine of old wishlist items! If you have an old request gathering dust or spot one you're totally on board with, give it a bump and a like. There's a treasure trove of 6+ years' worth of ideas just waiting to be rediscovered. Items without enough love may not make the cut and will be closed.
- Was your wishlist item locked up without an explanation? It was most likely disapproved or just too big of a task versus the benefit it would ultimately have. Time is precious, and we want to focus on updates with the biggest bang for the buck. Don't be discouraged though! We appreciate every idea and we're always listening.
Meowdy, purrdner :3
workingBookmark button when viewing individual TLP drafts
Currently the bookmark button on TLP drafts can only be viewed from the draft list and not from the draft page. Since the TLP search can be kind of bad, being able to bookmark the draft you found without having to find it in the list may be very helpful.
closed Make the difference between ! and !! more noticeable.
Header One
Header Two
Maybe it's just me, but it's hard to notice the differences between the two when they're used on works. It sometimes leaves me wondering if it's even needed.
Edited by Retloclive
Meowdy, purrdner :3
openMove liveblogs back to the forums
It came up in an unrelated discussion
that the reason the Live Blogs system exists separately from the forums is an old and no-longer-relevant issue with storage space.
This liveblog system being separate from the forums is unnecessary fragmentation that leads to liveblogs barely getting any use, so we suggest archiving it and reopening the old Live Blogginations forum — or opening a new liveblogs forum if that would be preferable, but moving liveblogs back to the forums one way or the other.
Edited by wingedcatgirl
he / him
openDisplay custom wikiwords in Crowners
Bluelinks in Crowners (e.g. work and trope names) currently pull the default page name, not the custom version.
Generally this is just an annoyance, but sometimes it causes more significant confusion.
Can we expand custom WikiWord support to present that version of the page name in crowner options?
closed Automate page renames/moves
The way page moves occur is through a simple sequence:
- Create a new page, with the same content as the original page
- Do the same for any subpages (if performing a rename, and not a move)
- Search related pages for the appropriate wicks and update them
- Ask mods to move relevant discussion pages (if applicable)
- Replace original page contents with redirect to new page
- Put old subpages on cutlist (if applicable)
This seems like a process that could be automated. Since the mods are able to move the discussion pages without manually recreating them, that would suggest that a utility of some sort already exists, and it's just a matter of altering the connected/parent page.
As there is not much complicated editing, automating the process should be relatively easy, and the proposed utility might do the following:
- Create a new page, with the content of the old page
- A direct move could also be performed, without needing to create/blank old pages
- Move subpages (if applicable)
- Cache a list of relevant pages/wicks
- Process the pages on the cached list, performing a search and replace for the relevant links
- Move discussion page
- Set up redirect at the old page, pointing to the new one (if applicable).
The site already has the ability to do a good many of these functions, since it is able to determine related pages/links, and the page moves are relatively simple functions using editing, which is already performed by the SYSTEM user.
It also already grabs the wicks, and is able to determine which corresponds to which new page. Since updating wicks is the most time-consuming aspects of page changes, even just automating it would significantly speed up page renames.
To prevent abuse, the utility could be either limited to mods, or operate on a similar page to the cut-list, where users propose a page move/change, the changes is reviewed, and if approved, the move takes place.
He/Him
openBe able to sort/filter follow pages
The current follow pages is fine, but I would like to able to sort through the list by selecting "Sort by page type" or "Sort by namespace"
The options can be like:
- Discussions
- Creator
- Indices
- Trope
- Disambig
And more
Also sort by "last updated" and "least updated"
BerserkButton: misusing NightmareFuel
working"Engineer" role for certain users
As discussed in the Hiring mods (now locked) and Appeal to the moderation threads in the forums, it would be a great relief to our hard-working moderators if certain users were entrusted with limited versions of the mod team's tools.
This would spread out the grunt work among a larger portion of the site's users, lightening the mods' hefty workload.
The following powers come to mind when it comes to things engineers could do:
- Editing locked pages
- Hooking crowners to forum threads
- Locking and unlocking forum threads and ATT queries.
- Clocking/unclocking forum threads.
- Moving pages to a different name while preserving their editing history.
- Managing video examples (accepting, rejecting, or deleting them)
Not every engineer would necessarily have all of these powers. And of course, such powers would only be granted to active, trustworthy, long-time users who have proven themselves to hold the wiki's best interests at heart. Abusing these privileges would lead to them being immediately revoked.
Edited by Zuxtron
the Retromancer
workingDisable new crowner option
Speaking of, how about letting mods toggle the accessibility of the "Add New" button between "available" and "mods-only"?
openLoad templates when creating new pages
A lot of problems of work pages from new editors (missing descriptions, messed up formatting, bad indentation, incorrect alphabetizing) seem to stem from people not taking the time to familiarize themselves with how the site works/what is expected before diving into it. While templates to demonstrate what they should do exist, most new users don't seem to know about them (probably because they're located behind two separate menu options and aren't linked anywhere on How to Create a Work Page).
New Main/ namespace pages used to automatically load "Describe Trope Name here" upon creation, and while that was removed for being pretty pointless, maybe we could do something similar with Program Entry Template and Character Sheet Template (with some edits) when creating a new page in certain namespaces in order to provide an outline for new editors that's easier for them to understand. If it'd be really annoying for experienced editors to select-all and delete each time they create a new page, maybe it could be a togglable option for an account to load them when creating new work pages.
closed Add a "search by trope" function to the search engine.
Let's say you're looking to start a TRS or image Picking thread for a specific trope, but you need to make sure you aren't covering redundant ground/want to see why certain things are the way they are. The search engine famously sucks, so it's common knowledge that you should instead google something like "TV Tropes blah blah blah forum." However, not only is this something a newer troper isn't as likely to understand, it's not a perfect solution anyway cause it doesn't account for stuff like Pot Holes.
One thing the search engine is good for is the "search by user" function, which at least in my usage seemed to work fine, so how about similar functionality for tropes? You input the Wiki Word for a trope/article/whatever, and the search engine will only output results that link to that page. I understand that this would be redundant for trope searching considering that related pages exist, but I don't see why it couldn't just be a forum exclusive search funtion.
openPut newest work/featured work on the homepage
We've got a daily featured trope and automatically display the newest created trope on the homepage, so why not have the same thing for work pages? It'll help get traffic onto newly created pages that might otherwise fall by the wayside, and if there's a place that work pages are vetted before qualifying to be a daily featured one (a forum thread maybe?), it might encourage people to clean up pages they've made that have issues so they can be featured. Maybe each day could have a different medium, like movie mondays, theater thursdays, etc.
openLock down namespace creation.
Could we make it so that any namespace can be drafted in TLP, but if someone tries to make a namespace that's not one of the usuals, it blocks it and sends the person to TLP so there's forewarning in case people make another Synopsis or something?
I was going to use the future TLP feature of drafting non-Mains to draft a ReferencedBy.Zork for all the Grues out there, but Referenced by... isn't on the list of TLP namespaces.
openDiscussion page-like formatting for headscratchers
Reposting from this thread eleven years ago: During this discussion, the idea was mentioned that Headscratchers would benefit from having a discussion page-like formatting akin to Lost And Found, You Know That Show and Ask The Tropers. Salient points:
- A discussion-like formatting system is more streamlined and easier to read than the current bullet point/Thread Mode system.
- Headscratchers is for questions and answers akin to Ask The Tropers and other pages mentioned above and should have the same skin as these.
- It is easier to reply in a discussion page instead of slogging through many bullet points in an edit page.
- Attaching the name of the posters to their questions could make them more responsible and avoid several common issues there, including Complaining About Shows You Dont Like.
- Converting it to a forum-like formatting would discourage certain forum-like behaviours (e.g Justifying Edits and Conversation In The Main Page) from actual wiki pages.
closed Is it possible to standardize headscratcher threads?
Some, like the Futurama thread, are really confusing
he / him
openAdd a preview button to cutlist
As it stands, there's no way to preview a cut justification before it's submitted - and it's one of the few things that can't be edited once posted.
It'd be great to get a preview icon for this so that tropers can check formatting before submitting it.
This would help reduce the work (and decline rate) for mods, as well as helping to ensure we leave a useful, well-written note for future tropers once the page is cut.
(All of this is also aggravated by the current bug which prevents red links showing for cut list submissions - previews would at least slightly improve the chance of spotting typos in linked page names)
he / him
openAdd comment numbers to ATT/Bugs/Trope Finder/YKTS replies
Visible comment numbers have been really useful on the forums - can we get the same style on queries? Probably most relevant to ATT, where a dozen or more comments on a query aren't unusual, but if the other query types share the framework it'd be good to have them on all.
closed Section that shows off big Just-For-Fun projects and other notable fun trope related things
I heard that apparently the owners what tropers to think big about suggestions, so I'll try. I couldn't think of any additions to the more work side of things that weren't just minor fixes and weren't already mentioned.
Y'know that part of the sidebar that showed fanmade content about TVT like that webcomic which explored tropes in the form of comic strips, or that TV show? How about that, but instead for projects within the site? CM, MB, Trope Pantheons, Self Demonstration for both characters and tropes, maybe even Encounters if that starts up again!
Other things included could be popular forum games about tropes, like the one where you guess which trope page an image belongs to or the more well known Crappy Image Pickin' where tropers pick out joke images for tropes. In terms of pages, there are many Just-For-Fun pages out there that are filled with many jokes.
In a nutshell, basically a place that shows off the more fun side of TVT.
Yeah, she's cute, just don't tell her that.
openOption to replace an avatar in your gallery/rearrange the gallery
The hi res avatar thing gives a nice thought, to be able to replace an avatar in your gallery without having to delete it from it's spot, or even to re-arrange your gallery. That's it. I feel this is hard from a coding perspective for some reason, but I hope it sure isn't.
Edited by ZuggaluggalocoroG
closed Pop-up Preview
I wish, when hovering over a link, rather than merely the link as we have now, a pop-up preview of the first (shall we say) 300 characters of the linked article would appear, granting a quick summary to what the commenter is referring, as is done on Wikipedia.
Based off of this discussion here
it seems like sending people links to ATT reports is going to become a standard part of the process. However, I know that me and other people get anxious when it comes to unscripted confrontation, and it's part of why I have trouble sending such links to people. My thought is that if there was some way to send people pre-written notifiers directing them to such threads, it would take a lot of the pressure off.
I don't know if this is possible coding-wise, however I believe it would help a lot to make the new rules easier for people to follow. So, if it is possible for this to be set up, I think it would be a good idea.