On 23/05/07, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
How can a tag be too specific? If it's inappropriate for some particular use, make a different tag. The whole problem with the spoiler tags at the moment is they're not specific enough: are they revealing a massive surprise ending, or are they telling you the plot of Wind in the Willows? Specific tags for specific situations would resolve a lot of the complaints, such as David Gerard's about WWII - there would presumably be no specific tag to cover that situation, because it's an absurd situation that doesn't need a tag.
Usually spoiler tags end up in nonfiction articles because someone puts a bit of irrelevant cruft in with a vague relation to the subject. Then it needs a tag because OMG SPOILER.
WikiProject Film had a policy to spoiler everything. This led to ludicrous cruft sections with TV, book, comic, etc. versions all unspoilered, but the film adaptation in spoiler tags.
The problem is not the idea of spoilers (though that sucks too) - it's that having them at all seems to lead to furiously-defended overuse. Someone seems to have put the {{spoiler}} tag on [[The Three Little Pigs]] as a joke, and then blithering idiots were edit-warring to keep it.
- d.