All The Tropes Wiki Project, Part XXXI

[robkelk]

Right... I get to do the first draft because of course I do all the first drafts. Posting here before posting to the wiki in order to get mod-team buy-in.

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Proposal: Update the Style Guide

We've had a couple of issues with new Tropers (or drive-by editors from other wikis hosted by the wiki farm) makinng changes that are of sub-par quality but aren't specifically mentioned in the Style Guide. In order to close this [[Loophole Abuse]], I propose making these changes:


Add to "Proper English Grammar and Usage" before the line that begins with "Illiterate contributions will be rejected."

Two specific cases:
* Avoid [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/neologism neologisms]. Using words that people do not know is unclear. (Please note that [https://www.oed.com/discover/a-brief-his...ular-they/ "they" as a singular gender-neutral pronoun dates back to at least 1375], and thus is not a neologism.)
* Speaking of the singular "they", this actual word is preferred in cases where a Troper would prefer to avoid gender-specific third-person pronouns. (In this case, we disagree with the Chicago Manual of Style.) This doesn't apply to [[:Category:Always Female|Always Female]] tropes which should continue to use "she" and [[:Category:Always Male|Always Male]] tropes which should continue to use "he", since in these cases the gender is already known.


Add to "Italics, Boldface, and Other Emphasis" after the line that begins with "Similarly, we are not email."

We are also not a web site. Do not use HTML codes to emphasize text, either.