Watch the Footage

So, there was a thread for this, but it is locked, so I'm restarting it.

PixieWitch did a magnificent job of starting us off, but as we were discussing in the chatroom, there is still a long way to go... for one thing, characters are short on tropes. For another, there are still too many unrelated tropes in the Metaguards section.

I'm going to try to get rid of anything that's not rooted in canon. Like Pixie did, I'll copy it to a code section here, so if I'm outvoted you can put it back with the minimum of fuss, or, if you want, you can add the unrelated tropes to your troper page. But I think we should keep it to canon stuff on here.

And yes, I know a lot of this is very subjective. My organizing principle was, anything that was neither actually TWWF canon nor directly influenced canon, I put here. I erred on the side of leaving things in as much as I could, except for my own (as, you know, a show of good faith). I accordingly took out Gratuitous French from mine, since it wasn't relevant, though updating the description to connect to the Poirot translations might make it acceptable.

EDIT: In light of some discussion, I have re-added those tropes which, while not being "canon" by my original standards, have significant... let's call it 'momentum' in terms of forums or chatroom backing. What remains is in the code section below.
Also please note that if it's still down here, that doesn't necessarily mean I didn't think it qualified to be put in... it might just be because I'm tired and am finding it difficult to remember references off the top of my head. Someone else can feel free to reevaluate what remains and reinstate whatever you deem appropriate.

Code: Select all

Adell:
* {{Adorkable}}
* EvenTheGuysWantHim
* StupidSexyFlanders: When he posted a photo of himself, some male Metaguards were heard (seen) calling him sexy.

Agoraoptera:
* {{Adorkable}}: To the point that the term Agorable was coined.

BlackWolfe:
* DeadpanSnarker: His quote, from the thread used by the metaguards to warn when they will stay away for an extended period of time.
* InspectorJavert: Was one of those most strongly against the Cabal, at least until recent events.

Blurred9L:
* [[FacePalm Facepalmer]]

Dryunya:
* [[InSeriesNickname Nickname]]: Most Metaguards call him Dryu.
** Shyunya, after "Everyone is A Girl Day."
* TokenGoodTeammate: He's, perhaps, the the most vehement Metaguard who refuses to compromise on the fact that the Cabal is evil.
** He's also the only known Gryffindor among the Metaguards.

Eli_gone_crazy:
* {{Adorkable}}
* DeadpanSnarker
* FishOutOfWater: At the start, but learns very quickly.
* {{Lurker}}: Was this for a large percentage of the start of the game before joining in.
* SeenItAll

EndlessSea:
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: He usually sets out to do something, only to return without having even started.
* BrilliantButLazy: by his own admission
* CantCatchUp
* {{CloudCuckoolander}}
* ClusterFBomb
* DeadpanSnarker
* TheInsomniac...
* LargeHam: On occasion
* TeasingCreator
* JustJokingJustification

TheFinch:
* LogicalWeakness: Much like JR Pictures, he can only use a school laptop with restrictions on it, no access to Twitter at school or at home and cannot access the forum while at home. He still can go to the library, though, and his restriction is currently moving in the opposite direction.
* ShoutOut: Many of his posts have SOMETHING to do with WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic.
** He often refers to the Cabal as "[[MortalKombat The Kabal]]."

GenndyOdaCOG:
* AffablyEvil: For working with the Cabal.
* ICantDance - Apparrantly, him breakdancing [[http://forum.watchthefootage.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=116&p=23583#p23583 would be an abomination against God]].
* OnlySaneMan - Has decided he is ''slightly'' less weird than everyone else in the forum. This is entirely possible. His siganture is ''"Apparently, slightly less weird than most of you."''
* TheStoic
* NiceGuy
* TokenEvilTeammate: See Affably Evil for the reason.
* LargeHam
* ItsPronouncedTroPAY: Genndy's name has a ''hard'' G sound, but some guardians have pronounced it with a soft one.
* GoshDangItToHeck

Guyshane:
* {{Angrish}}: From chat:
-->'''Guyshane:''' NO MORE BEES
-->'''Eli:''' SHANE IS BEES
-->'''Guyshane:''' I SWEAR TO GOD
-->'''Guyshane:''' ASDFGHJKL
-->'''Guyshane:''' ERTYUJKL;
* BrutalHonesty : GET TO DE CHOPPA! GO! NOAW!.........but srsly eli leave
* DeadpanSnarker

H:
* DeadpanSnarker
* FishOutOfWater: He had no idea what Anime, Minecraft, or :p meant.
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Latin.
* JustJokingJustification
* LogicBomb
* MurderIsTheBestSolution
* SophisticatedAsHell
* TokenEvilTeammate
* YoungerThanTheyLook: A number of people were surprised to learn that he is the youngest Metaguards, at 12 years.

IslaKariese:
* SamusIsAGirl

JackAlsworth:
* [[PluckyComicRelief Funny Guy]]

jacktheriffer:
* NonIndicativeName: We're not sure if he's a riffer or not.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted, there's also @/{{JackAlsworth}}.
* ShrinkingViolet: Most of his post are really short. He's a laconic kind of guy.

Jeroic:
* OpenMouthInsertFoot: Some metaguards claim he has an habit of saying awkward things.
* UnfazedEveryman: He never seems surprised by the events of the ARG... or the weird conversations in the chatroom.

JRPictures:
* CantCatchUp: Since he lives in Australia.
* LogicalWeakness: Can only use a school laptop to check up on the ARG because the school has blocked twitter, the WTF forums and blogs off access from the laptop. And he's sorta blocked off his main computer. Though that ban is now gone.
** Got the "spam" package two weeks after putting in his address due to living in Australia.
* MetaGuy
* TheMovieBuff

Krika:
* TheAntiNihilist
* OnlySaneMan

Narrativedilettante:
* BewareTheNiceOnes

NeverSlender:
* TheBusCameBack: But he still shows up now and again, to comment or offer a hand.
* TheStoic

Qara-Xuan Zenith:
* CutenessProximity: Let's just say she really loves puppies.
* [[EverythingsBetterWithX Everything's Better With Lists]]: She discovered the listing function on the WTF Forums. Cue giant outlines on every subject she could think of.
* GenkiGirl
* GratuitousFrench: Sometimes when talking in the chatroom.
* {{Tsundere}}

RotavatoR:
* DeadpanSnarker - See his first quote.
* FunWithPalindromes

Scarab:
* CutenessProximity: Has a tendency to immediately glomp cute things once she lays eyes on them.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Her first reaction upon learning of her new position was to [[OhCrap freak out]], but once that wore off she just showed up in the Coffee Room and asked for the strongest thing they had.
* {{Malaproper}}
* {{Squee}}: Her response to this page, when it was updated:
 --> ''"I have a quote up!!!! I have a quote up, I have a quote up, I have a quote up!"''

Screenstorming:
* WallOfText: Every. Single. Post.

Sicon112:
* GodzillaThreshold: He is going to leave his room to reach the Witch's second Echo. And The Players Gasped.

SOHCAHTOA:
* AlwaysSecondBest: Complains that he feels like this whenever the tropes list is mentioned.
 --> "But the thing is, I can't get a trope by doing something someone else does better"

SoS:
* MeaningfulName: It's not ''meant'' to be a distress call, but given the way things go on this forum, that would be fitting...
* OnlyKnownByInitials
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial

SpiritfChaos:
* TheGhost: He had almost no presence on the forum or chatrooms until after Gulliver was refictionalized.
* InsistentTerminology: It's "Spirit," not "Chaos." And his name doesn't have an O in the middle.

TheWildWestPyro:
* BeneathTheMask: He would post a picture of himself on the [[http://forum.watchthefootage.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=116&start=3625#p27775 the Coffee Shop Thread.]]
* ButtMonkey
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Mandarin Chinese. And a little German.
* TagalongKid: Although he tends not to fit many of the stereotypes associated with that trope.


Victin:
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny
* TerribleArtist

WackyMeetsPractical:
* ThatCameOutWrong

Zup:
* GenreSavvy: See RightBehindMe below.
* NiceGuy: In the not boring sense.


To strip a trope away for not being "canon" is silly. This is an ARG, it is based on the fact that everything that happens in the story is "canon". Strip that away and all we are left with is a glorified RPG.

While I do think that the trope page for TWWF does need work, I say we need to be building up the page, instead of tearing it down.

So, for me at least, I say put everything back up. and leave that section of the page alone until every other section is perfected. We were players yes, but characters and plot points are more important to me than whether or not "Adorkable" is acceptable in a character page.

... One thing: I took out YMMV and Coffee Room. Not what I thought wasn't supposed to be there. Except for Zup's beard one, as that was not an accurate use of the trope.

I'll say no more for now... But, we'd better get into PM...

eli_gone_crazy wrote:To strip a trope away for not being "canon" is silly. This is an ARG, it is based on the fact that everything that happens in the story is "canon". Strip that away and all we are left with is a glorified RPG.

While I do think that the trope page for TWWF does need work, I say we need to be building up the page, instead of tearing it down.

So, for me at least, I say put everything back up. and leave that section of the page alone until every other section is perfected. We were players yes, but characters and plot points are more important to me than whether or not "Adorkable" is acceptable in a character page.

I agree.

eli_gone_crazy wrote:To strip a trope away for not being "canon" is silly. This is an ARG, it is based on the fact that everything that happens in the story is "canon". Strip that away and all we are left with is a glorified RPG.

While I do think that the trope page for TWWF does need work, I say we need to be building up the page, instead of tearing it down.

So, for me at least, I say put everything back up. and leave that section of the page alone until every other section is perfected. We were players yes, but characters and plot points are more important to me than whether or not "Adorkable" is acceptable in a character page.

Eli, this has my vote. I'm getting offline now before I start cursing more. Goodbye.

However, for future reference: NOT COOL, QARA. Do not just go erasing stuff without telling anyone, especially since we JUST were in the middle of a discussion in the chatbox that made it obvious people were opposed to this.

OK, so I'm cooled off now. I believe we still need someone to go through the rest of the code and get that back, though.

Anyone else gonna take a look for it, or should I?

I believe Pixel is going back through everything.

Yes, Eli is correct.
I re added all of them. Restoring the Status Quo, if you will.

I propose that no one touches the player folder at this point. We have 3 character folders that need fleshing out. And the player one will be controversial no matter what we do. So for now, let's do what does not create a fight. After we're up to par on the three character folders, then we start to mess around with that hornet's nest.

Otherwise, we'll not get anything at all done.

Well, if it helps, we now have descriptions for the fictional metaguards sooo that's one thing helped out. I couldn't think of any tropes to add for them, though

I think that one thing that should be added is that every troper gets a description, to make the entries look and feel a bit more complete.

All right, so in the chat we've been discussing some cleanup for the Timeline, to make it easier to read and search.

Mainly what we've decided is that character names should be present for all entries regarding that character, in their full form. Hence, "Mr. A" should be altered to "Mr. Administrator" wherever it shows up, and "Metaneko" should be changed to "Cheshire Cat" wherever the entry isn't actually ABOUT the nickname (so everywhere except where the nickname was introduced).

narrativedilettante wrote:All right, so in the chat we've been discussing some cleanup for the Timeline, to make it easier to read and search.

Mainly what we've decided is that character names should be present for all entries regarding that character, in their full form. Hence, "Mr. A" should be altered to "Mr. Administrator" wherever it shows up, and "Metaneko" should be changed to "Cheshire Cat" wherever the entry isn't actually ABOUT the nickname (so everywhere except where the nickname was introduced).

Not all names need be modified. We must only ensure that the name appears once per entry. Changing every instance of the names just gets redundant and makes it a chore to read. As long as the full name appears once per entry involving the character, ctl+f will find it without issue.

If the names are in different formats, however, a search for "Mr. Administrator" will not list all of his entries. In one case.

The Timeline is not exactly a narrative format. I think the names should be normalized into each character being represented by only one given string, preferably their canonical name. As for "being a chore" to replace? Search and Replace function from any text editor should get that done easily enough.

Pixelmage wrote:If the names are in different formats, however, a search for "Mr. Administrator" will not list all of his entries. In one case.

The Timeline is not exactly a narrative format. I think the names should be normalized into each character being represented by only one given string, preferably their canonical name. As for "being a chore" to replace? Search and Replace function from any text editor should get that done easily enough.

First off, I said it would be a chore to read. Secondly, finding multiple instances of the same name in the same entry will result in bogging down the ctl+f function with useless results that are all in the same sentence, so optimally, we want EXACTLY one occurrence of the proper character name per entry and nothing more.

mmmm... I think this issue is easily resolved by just subbing in the proper name once per entry.

also, I've never used a search feature on a timeline, but that's just my method.

Sicon112 wrote:so optimally, we want EXACTLY one occurrence of the proper character name per entry and nothing more.

Which is the goal.

Along with linking relevant forum/twitter messages where they should be linked but were not. This will require quite a bit of archive diving though. So normalizing the entries to contain the names, as outlined, should be faster and possible to do first without any bigger issues.

Pixelmage wrote:

Sicon112 wrote:so optimally, we want EXACTLY one occurrence of the proper character name per entry and nothing more.

Which is the goal.

Absolutely. Finding the name listed multiple times per entry actually HAMPERS search. Something I would've noted when I posted earlier if I'd been thinking more clearly.

Well, I just did a sweep for both the Cheshire Cat and Mr. Administrator, editing so that the full name appeared once per entry (it might crop up more than once, but I only ADDED it in once per entry.

We should still see about doing this for other characters-- for example, Peter Pan and the Wicked Witch were both often referred to by shorter forms, which could be confusing. And also some more cleaning-up to do. But it's a start.

Edit: Did the sweeps for Pan and the Witch.

Thanks for doing that Qara.

I'd also like to add a suggestion of my own, since using Ctrl+f still feels a little tacky to me, not to mention Tropers who visit the page.

How about we put the relevant character at the front of the sentence? And always put the characters in the same order? Like:

Mr Administrator: [Mr A is being a jerk]
Cheshire Cat: [Cheshire Cat did this thing]
Don Quixote: [Woo knight shenanigans!]

Would make it look much more professional in my opinion. Thoughts?

After searching for stuff regarding the Phantom, I realize we need to make sure he's called the Phantom of the Opera in entries, because many times he's just referred to as Erik.

I don't have time to do this myself right now so I'm making note of it here.

Done. Also made sure Juan appeared as Don Juan once per entry.

I added the Who Would Want To Watch Us? trope to Joe. This is the first time I've made an edit to TVTropes that wasn't fixing a typo, so, if how I did it is in any way subpar, please feel free to make it better.

narrativedilettante wrote:I added the Who Would Want To Watch Us? trope to Joe. This is the first time I've made an edit to TVTropes that wasn't fixing a typo, so, if how I did it is in any way subpar, please feel free to make it better.

;_; I'm so proud of you

...Err-hem

It looks good The question mark in the trope name looks kind of weird with the : right behind it, and I've put the tropes in alphabetical forum. But the linking works and you even included the moment when Joe talks about the ARG-theory.

Oh, and guys:

RotavatoR wrote:I'd also like to add a suggestion of my own, since using Ctrl+f still feels a little tacky to me, not to mention Tropers who visit the page.

How about we put the relevant character at the front of the sentence? And always put the characters in the same order? Like:

Mr Administrator: [Mr A is being a jerk]
Cheshire Cat: [Cheshire Cat did this thing]
Don Quixote: [Woo knight shenanigans!]

Would make it look much more professional in my opinion. Thoughts?