TV Tropes

[Aigis]

I have discovered a site more addictive than Wikipedia.

TV Tropes

On Wikipedia, you're able to understand articles because you're not an idiot and you can understand the English language.

On TV Tropes, articles are made up of concepts that are largely made up on the site, so the ideas behind them will likely not be known to a person viewing the site. In addition to this, each article uses another article to explain what the article is trying to articulate. So to understand one article, you're going to have to read another article, and to understand that one, you have to read another, and before you know it it's 3AM and you've spent hours learning about nothing.

Unfortunately, the articles that are on the site are actually interesting and/or funny to read, so you'll be drawn in to begin with.

And it will never end.

[NeverHundred]

That site is about as interesting as it is useless. Good stuff...

[firemaker60]

Let me guess, you found this site from a BBS post last night, and then spent all night reading stuff there?

It was fun, wasn't it? I was up until 5AM this morning, reading something about Elegant Gothic Lolita.

[Aigis]

At 6/29/09 11:22 AM, firemaker60 wrote: Let me guess, you found this site from a BBS post last night, and then spent all night reading stuff there?

You know what? I have absolutely no idea how I came across it.

All I remember is watching an episode of Justice League, and now it's three hours later and my head is filled with useless knowledge.

I think it's an interesting site too. I got into it a few weeks ago, after I remembered that the once-entertaining jumptheshark.com had been sold to a larger company that had removed all the user-created sections. TV Tropes obviously has a section for Jumping The Shark and so I moved in from there.

I like the amount of media that's covered, which is quite an easily attained when you have a site in Wiki format. I've been reading about my favourite films, video games, TV shows, etc. I think it's funny enough anyway. It goes to town on my nostalgia sense too... particularly in the Nightmare Fuel section. It's slightly reassuring to find out I wasn't the only kid creeped out by this Sesame Street bit back when I was little.

That singing broccoli...

[JohnnyWang]

If anyone posting in this thread got there by clicking the link in my sig, I consider my job well done.

I've been going there for almost two years now. I'm also a regular on thier forums, with another username.

[Cybersief]

Wow, great find, I enjoyed it.

[Wyde]

I've already been visiting the site on a regular basis. Rarely is there a page that doesn't interest me, although I despair at some of the holes it has in its archive. Funnily enough, it's this site that introduced me to the term Nightmare Fetishist. I try to describe myself as such at most opportunities I get.

[Idocreating]

No accusations of not using the searchbar here!

TV Tropes is great not because it's useless or irrelevant, but because you suddenly recognize concepts that you'd never given a name to, such as:

Fake Difficulty (Parts in games that use cheap techniques to make it harder, such as a one-sided Rubberband A.I. that will easily catch you but won't slow down when he's infront. Burnout 3 players will know that feeling)
The Computer Is A Cheating Bastard (Computers that build things faster than a player can or don't spend cash when they should for example)

There the two that i immediately recognised, but then you just pick up more and more. Some you know because you remembered them, and others you just pick up and apply to new things!

TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life!

[FaceNine]

At 6/29/09 11:19 AM, Aigis wrote: tl;dr TV Tropes is amazing oh shi-

Yes, what an exciting time I am having on this amazing thrill ride ball busting version of Wikipedia. Now if you will excuse me, I must go partake in an even more INSANELY AWESOME adventure of watching some paint dry.

[KrevZabijak]

This is now an absolute truth.

[Pixmintro]

I stumbled upon the site a few weeks ago and got stuck for 3 days straight. It's like Wikipedia crack.

[SoulMaster71]

Nah, man, I'm not going back there. I once spent a week or so absorbed in that stuff, back in May. It's probably the most addicting thing I've read online, and was the main reason my last report for American Government was both late and extremely sloppy.

Let me give you a timeline of your average TV Tropes Wiki experience:
Day 1, 6:00 PM. Go online, someone gives you a link to TV Tropes or you get it from a Google search. You get interested after reading the first article, and go to see a related article for clarification.
Day 2, 5:00 AM. You have a raging headache, so you go to bed.
Day 2, 4:00 PM. You go back online, and remember TV Tropes. You go back to read more of that delicious Internet crack.
Day 3, 5:00 AM. Once again, a headache drives you to bed.
Days 3-8. Pattern holds without a break, but it gets an hour or two earlier each day until...
Day 9 (if you're lucky). You remember that there's other websites on the Internet, and you get healthily involved in one of them again. Slowly, you forget about TV Tropes, until at last you're pretty much free from the addiction.

[Idocreating]

TV Tropes Ruined Your Life has a pretty good picture that describe what the website can do.

[KrevZabijak]

Day 10: You find this thread, starting the cycle all over again.