User blog comment:Felicitations/Structure proposal/@comment-24775284-20140404202229/@comment-4023106-20140405001248

I do like the idea of categorization by tropes, but I'm just not sure how we could implement it. All of our organization relies on wikia categories, and so categorizing a page is just a matter of how we get it into its category. So basically, the options are to manually add each story to a trope category by using the "add to category" function, doing it automatically through the ficbox template, or doing it automatically through some other template. As I said, the ficbox is already pretty full, and it would be redundant to have users add stories to both "themed lists" and to a dedicated category of "trope lists"... so besides adding themed lists of tropes (ex. Category:Theme: Mary Sue), the only other thing I can think to do is create a trope template and stick it on each fic page. But then it's back to what I said -- hard to keep track of! Without any kind of drop-down auto functionality in the editing window (which would be super convenient, but haven't ever seen -- so I don't think it's possible), we'd have to rely on each user to know the exact trope category already in existence. For example, a user could simply write "Gary Stu" when the correct trope list would be "Mary Sue," and someone else would have to go through and fix those errors. That's the issue we have now for genres, pairings, character names, etc.; users can just write "Harry" or "Harry P" rather than "Harry Potter," and so one the things I make sure to do every so often is to check new stories and edits and change all of those character names to the correct naming convention. That's simple enough with characters and such, since I can easily tell what character/genre/etc. is meant and fix accordingly, but tropes... there's just so many, and I don't feel properly equipped to make judgement calls on which tropes should be included and what they should be called, which would be useful to readers and which are just tropes for tropes' sake, when a trope list should really be a themed list (or vice versa), how to deal with tropes I've never heard of, etc.

And the other issue I'm stuck on is that identifying the tropes present in a story often requires familiarity with the story itself. Themes are so general that they can typically be identified with a quick glance at a story summary and perhaps a skim through a chapter or two, but many tropes would necessitate an actual read-through to verify that the trope is actually present. I feel like that would be a lot to ask of submitters in cases where the tropes aren't already listed on TV Tropes -- but then if they're already listed there, why copy them here?

I'm not trying to shoot your idea down at all -- I would like to see tropes worked into this wiki! It's just that I'm not sure how best to do it, and there aren't enough users here to make anything big happen without a lot of effort on my part. I'm reluctant to take on any big projects, since it seems as though everyone who was around when we started this wiki has dropped off the map, and I don't have the time or dedication to be in charge of a whole lot more than the maintenance that I'm covering now. But if you want to take this on yourself and tinker around and try to set something up, then please feel free! :) If you want, you can go ahead and experiment on test pages with templates and lists and things, and see if you can come up with something that would work. You could even get started implementing a trope categorization system if you feel confident -- this is a wiki, after all, and you don't need permission to modify things! I'll only object if you start messing with the systems we've already got in place :D but I trust you not to do that, of course! Let me know if there's anything I can do, or if you have any other ideas you'd like to share!