On 5/20/07, David Goodman <dgoodmanny(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Summarizing a plot line from an outside source or re-writing it in
one's own words also affects the meaning, and listing the outside
source it was based on does not necessarily make it any the more
objective. I know we make the distinction, but in practice the
distinction when applied to straightforward description is a little
artificial; even when direct quotes are used, the selection of the
quotes can be used to change the intent.
Well, yes, but that is editorial judgment - any synthesis of secondary
sources is such. Adding extraneous information not found in the sources goes
beyond mere editing and becomes creative writing - which may be beneficial,
but runs foul of [[WP:OR]]. How do we determine what is a spoiler and what
is not? It is purely a subjective judgment call (rather than actual
editorial judgment, which assumes there is a source to base our editing on)
unless there are sources which explicitly consider particular information to
be spoilers.
Johnleemk