TV Tropes facts for kids
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Screenshot as of July 16, 2020
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Type of site
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Wiki |
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| Available in | 13 languages |
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| Commercial | Ad-supported |
| Registration | Required for all features other than viewing |
| Users | 16.000+ |
| Launched | April 2004 |
| Current status | Active |
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Content license
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CC BY-NC-SA from July 2012 |
| Written in | PmWiki (very heavily modified with no current source code used) |
TV Tropes is a wiki that collects and documents descriptions and examples of plot conventions and devices, which it refers to as tropes, within many creative works. Since its establishment in 2004, the site has shifted focus from covering various tropes to those in general media, toys, writings, and their associated fandoms, as well as some non-media subjects such as history, geography, and politics. The nature of the site as a provider of commentary on pop culture and fiction has attracted attention and criticism from several web personalities and blogs. Users of the site's community are called "Tropers", which primarily consist of 18-34 year olds.
From April 2008 until July 2012, TV Tropes published free content. After that, the site modified its license to allow only non-commercial distribution of its content but continued to host the prior submissions under a new distribution license.
The TV Tropes website runs on its own wiki engine software, an extremely modified version of PmWiki to the point where the PmWiki website lists that it "no longer uses PmWiki in any way; the only trace that remains is in the URL" and that "no code is in use" but is not open source. Before October 2010, it was possible to edit anonymously; however, registration is now mandatory for all other activities besides viewing the website. It has two subwikis meant to categorize the more informal tropes and is held to less rigorous standards.
History
TV Tropes was founded in 2004 by a programmer under the pseudonym "Fast Eddie." He described himself as having become interested in the conventions of genre fiction while studying at MIT in the 1970s and after browsing Internet forums in the 1990s. He sold the site in 2014 to Drew Schoentrup and Chris Richmond, who then launched a Kickstarter to overhaul the codebase and design.
Initially focused on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV Tropes has since expanded its coverage of many forms of media, including fan fiction, and many other subjects, including Internet works such as Wikipedia (often referred to in a tongue-in-cheek way as "The Other Wiki"). Articles on the site often relate to real life or point out real situations where certain tropes are applied. It has used its informal style to describe topics such as science, philosophy, politics, and history under its Useful Notes section. TV Tropes does not have notability standards for the works it covers.
See also
In Spanish: TV Tropes para niños
