History Administrivia / RealLifeTroping

* Examples for NonFiction works (especially {{Biography}}, {{Documentary}}, or TalkShow) must describe either a staged performance (e.g. a CrimeReconstruction), the setting, artistic elements, or the [[DiscussedTrope commentary]] on other works. '''If a work has none of those''', it does not belong on the wiki. Examples are written ''in the context of the work'', not as if these are undisputed historical facts.

* Examples for NonFiction works (especially {{Biography}}, {{Documentary}}, or TalkShow) must describe either the staged performance, the setting, artistic elements, or the [[DiscussedTrope commentary]] on other works. '''If a work has none of those''', it does not belong on the wiki. Examples are written ''in the context of the work'', not as if these are undisputed historical facts.

Website/TVTropes was made, first and foremost, to document {{trope}}s. By our definition, tropes arise from creative works and are used with narrative intent. They may be inspired by RealLife, and real life may mimic tropes, but real life does not have a narrative to which tropes can apply.

* If something isn't a part of a work and can't be described with a designated [[YMMV/HomePage YMMV]] item or properly written as {{Trivia}}, '''don't add it'''. "Meta examples", like SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, TearJerker or SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments examples for out-of-universe events, are not allowed for works. "Moments" can only occur in-story; if you want to describe the production milestones or events in the community, you have to try using something else or leave it off-wiki.

** If it is demonstrated through experience that people can't be trusted to be responsible about adding real life examples, a trope may be pruned or purged.

* {{Creators}} are the people and organizations that make works. Our articles are '''about the works''', not the people.

** Tropes may not be applied to creators as if they are characters. People often like to use CharacterizationTropes about actors and writers, but this is not allowed.
** {{Trivia}} may only be applied to creators in terms of how it directly affects their work, not generally. We aren't writing their biographies.
** If a real life creator or celebrity appears in a work AsHimself, that's all we can say about them unless they are given a script to read. Even then, we can only trope their performance, not their real identity.
** If a celebrity is imitated or mocked in a work without being named explicitly, it's NoCelebritiesWereHarmed.
** If a well-known individual is used as a character in a work without being played by the actual person, it's HistoricalDomainCharacter.

** [[LetsPlay Let's Players]], {{Virtual YouTuber}}s, [[ReactionVideo reactors]], vloggers, and similar online content creators are usually not putting on performances. They're just being themselves and reacting to or playing things. That is not tropable. Only when they create discrete, transformative, narrative content may tropes be applied, and then only for that content.
*** The playing of a game, in and of itself, is not tropable. Someone reacting to, riffing on, or discussing a game is not tropable. The content of the game itself is not tropable with respect to the Let's Play, regardless of how much freedom it offers players. There must be an original narrative that is distinct from the game being played and the people playing it.

* {{Game Show}}s and {{Reality Show}}s are putting real people in situations where they may act unnaturally and/or using casting decisions and selective editing to create narratives that may not be true to real life. Most of the time, the people on such shows are not tropable. Only in the case where '''there is clearly an intent to portray a fictional narrative''' may tropes be applied, and they may only be applied to that narrative. The technical structure and gameplay elements of the shows are tropable.
* {{Sports}} that are not scripted '''are not tropable''', period. They may be described in UsefulNotes articles that talk about the rules of the game, identify notable players and events, and list tropes frequently found in media featuring those sports, but tropes and AudienceReactions may not be applied to the sports and players themselves.

* Articles about works in the NonFiction category have to describe either the staged performance, the setting, artistic elements, or the [[DiscussedTrope commentary]] on other works. '''If a work has none of those''', it does not belong on the wiki.
* As UsefulNotes states, that namespace is for supplementary material to help users of the site understand real people, places, and concepts that are frequently used in creative works. '''It is not an encyclopedia of real-life facts'''. There's [[https://www.wikipedia.org/ another site]] for that.
* {{Roleplay}} articles must describe the unique, creative, narrative content that comes out of the game(s) being played. What the characters in the game do is tropable; '''what the players do out-of-character is not''', nor are the settings or game systems they use, unless they are homebrewed.

Website/TVTropes was made, first and foremost, to document {{Trope}}s. By our definition, tropes arise from creative works and are used with narrative intent. They may be inspired by RealLife, and real life may mimic tropes, but real life does not have a narrative to which tropes can apply.

** If it's listed on either the SexTropes index or the SexualHarassmentAndRapeTropes index, we don't allow real life examples at all.