I assume allthetropes.org was created due to some drama with tvtropes.org? Do you have the scoop?
Yes — your assumption is basically right. All The Tropes (ALLTHETROPES.org) was born as a direct response to what many users saw as overreaching changes at TV Tropes.
⚠️ What Happened?
1. The Google Incidents & Content Removal
- In 2010 and again in 2012, Google flagged TV Tropes for hosting adult or sensitive tropes (like rape- or sexism-related content).
- TV Tropes responded by restricting or deleting entries automatically to comply with AdSense policies — leading to visible censorship and user frustration (Wikipedia, Wikipedia).
2. License & Contributor Policy Changes
- TV Tropes shifted its content license in July 2012, switching to the CC BY‑NC‑SA model.
- Later in 2013–2015, the site attempted to require contributors to grant exclusive ownership of their edits — a policy that was eventually revoked.
- This sparked clear discontent among volunteer editors (Wikipedia).
3. Forking with the Original License
- In response, a group of contributors scraped the entire TV Tropes database (back when it was under the more permissive CC BY‑SA license) and launched All The Tropes around mid‑2012 to mid‑2013.
- This fork was meant to preserve the original community content and to continue using the license under terms they felt were more equitable (Wikipedia).
🧲 Community Voices
On Reddit, longtime fans summarize the split succinctly:
“All the tropes was formed by a group that broke from TV Tropes after the second google incident led to TV Tropes scrubbing pretty much all …” (Reddit)
“Don’t feel bad, there are several ‘no censorship’ forks out there. … A wikia, a .org and a spinoff of that org…” — referring to All The Tropes, Tropedia (the Wikia fork), and others (Reddit)
📌 Quick Timeline
| Year | TV Tropes Event | Fork Response |
|---|---|---|
| ~2010–2012 | Google's AdSense crackdown → content removal | Censorship frustrations grow |
| July 2012 | License moves to CC BY‑NC‑SA (non-commercial) | Raises legal and freedom concerns |
| ≈2013 | Contributors asked for exclusive rights to contributions | Many disapprove and look to fork |
| 2013–2015 | ALLTHETROPES launched as CC BY‑SA clone of TV Tropes | Community re-establishes a parallel wiki |
✅ So, Was It Drama?
It was a blend of legal/copyright and policy conflicts, not necessarily personal drama. Contributors felt that TV Tropes’ editorial changes and licensing moves undermined the open spirit of the original wiki. All The Tropes was their way of preserving the prior ethos — no censorship, community-centered, and fully compatible with CC BY‑SA.
If you're interested in differences in UI, moderation style, or examples of tropes that were removed at TV Tropes but preserved on All The Tropes, I can dig into that too.
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