[WikiEN-l] Reflections on the end of the spoiler wars

[Anthony]

On Nov 17, 2007 3:46 AM, James Farrar <james.farrar at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 17/11/2007, Ken Arromdee <arromdee at rahul.net> wrote:
> > On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 joshua.zelinsky at yale.edu wrote:
> > > > I'm glad you asked. Among the arguments *in all sincerity* advanced by
> > > > advocates of spoiler warnings:
> > > > 1) Returning spoiler warnings to all plot sections, because it is non-
> > > > obvious that plot sections contain spoilers
> > > Ok, this argument is clearly bad.
> >
> > It *isn't* obvious that plot sections contain spoilers.  A spoiler is not
> > "any plot element".  It's entirely possible for a plot section to contain
> > no spoilers at all.
>
> That would generally make for an inadequate plot section.
>
True, it would generally (*) make for an inadequate plot section,
however that view is neither obvious nor even held by all people.

I disagree with Ken's other two points.  I don't think the calendar
analogy is at all valid; and I don't think spoiler warnings should
ever be placed anywhere other than at the top because determining by
consensus where the spoilers begin and end would be far too difficult
for the benefit.  But I think it's reasonable to believe that a
significant portion of people would find benefit to a prominent notice
that Wikipedia makes no attempt to hide or remove spoilers; and I
don't think there would be any real harm at all to having the notice,
except maybe to the egos of some who have been fighting against
spoiler tags.  Of course, it looks like we're working toward that.
The {{current fiction}} tag says that the article might "focus
primarily on details about the plot".  Isn't that enough to warn
people not to read the article if they don't want to hear the
spoilers?

(*) Actually, I'd say it'd only occasionally make for an inadequate
plot section.  For most fictional works it's probably sufficient for
an encyclopedia to talk about the social aspects of the work without
going into plot details.  I think you'd be hard-pressed to find
spoilers in many Britannica articles (someone with a copy should
confirm or deny this).  However, Wikipedia precedent is very inclusive
of details and it'd be even harder to remove those excessive details
than to remove the spoiler tags.