I'm pretty sure it's not allowed.
she/her
No, it isn't. If people are interested based on the synopsis, Google can point them in the right direction.
Everyman Philosopher
I see, and I hereby thank you for your answers.
P.S. This isn't really an important question, and I'm just asking out of curiosity and not because it really has any relevance to me, so it's fine if no one even answers this, but I take it the standard would be links to anywhere where they're trying to sell you something aren't allowed, while links to free content are acceptable, correct? My reasoning for this is that it seems to be standard practice to link to webcomics on the wiki pages (to such a degree and for such high-profile pages that there's no way this simply lasts because no one has noticed yet), and in my limited experience (I've only really read three webcomics so far), I don't think I've yet seen links to any webcomics behind any kind of paywall.
P.P.S. I'm not sure where links to free content that's supported by advertising would fit into all of this.
デー、ナイト、そばに。
Lost in Space
The principle is that external links may not be commercial. Specifically, they may not take you to a site at which you must pay to view/read/play content. This explicitly includes store pages, even if the specific content is "free".
External links may only be to free, first-party1 content. Most webcomics are freely published for everyone to view, so they are fine to link to. If the reader wants to buy merch or whatever, that's not our business. Most movies, video games, TV shows, and books, however, are not freely available, so should not be linked to.
This policy has two main purposes. First, it keeps us unbiased and avoids the appearance that we are shilling media for commercial purposes. Second, we aren't paid for those links. I know these can seem contradictory, but if we were to decide at some point to start featuring such links, we wouldn't do it for free, and it would be a lot harder to get paid if we'd established a precedent of doing it for free.
1 Links in examples will often go to third-party content, such as video clips on YouTube. This is allowed only when first-party content is not available, but regardless the content must not be paywalled and should ideally be properly licensed or valid under Fair Use. Linking to rips/scans/pirated content is not allowed.
Edited by Fighteer on Nov 1st 2021 at 7:33:01 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Everyman Philosopher
I see, and actually, the reason I was wondering in the first place was because the page Welcome to TV Tropes says, "Adding commercial links, spamming, or linking to/advocating warez, piracy, hacking/cracking, or any other illegal content will get you banned instantly", and I was unsure of what "commercial links" meant in this context. I was thinking it might have referred to a situation like Acme Corporation starts quietly paying tropers to shoehorn in links to their website in as many places on the wiki as possible, so I hereby thank you for clarifying what it meant and clearing up the confusion.
P.S. I realize that what I said could be interpreted as, "Ah, the rule against commercial links does not mean links you were paid to place, and therefore, such links are acceptable", but that's not what I meant, because I'm pretty sure I read somewhere (But I don't remember where) that it's against the rules to pay someone to edit the wiki, so all I really meant in the end is that commercial links and paid editing are both forbidden, but they're just covered by separate rules.
P.P.S. I also realize my statements might seem slightly nonsensical here, because if I was thinking "commercial links" might have referred to paid links, that would give me no reason to ask what I was asking, but the point is it MIGHT have meant that, or it might have meant something else, so I wanted to be sure.
デー、ナイト、そばに。
Lost in Space
Well, if we find out someone is getting paid to edit the wiki, they get banned regardless of what they were adding, but I feel like it would be very difficult to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt. As I said, a "commercial link" is one that goes to a store page, paywall, donation page, or any other page that gates content for money.
Edited by Fighteer on Nov 1st 2021 at 10:51:10 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
I wrote an ebook, and I wrote a page for it on the TV Tropes wiki, and I want to include a link on the TV Tropes page to an external website where you can buy the book, but is that against the rules?
I looked, and I've seen examples of this already on the wiki (like in The Pardoner's Tale or Kasia, though in the second case I believe it's a link to the author's website which itself has a link to an Amazon page, so it's an indirect link), but that doesn't mean it's actually allowed, but the tropers who included those links might have just been unaware of the rules, so I'd like to ask ahead of time if that's okay before I get banned like, "You're just here using TV Tropes for advertising and promoting your works! You don't have the true troper spirit!"
デー、ナイト、そばに。