From: wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Anthony DiPierro
On 5/16/06, Peter Mackay peter.mackay@bigpond.com wrote:
Does it really hurt?
It's annoying, about on the level of those ads some websites place in the middle of their news articles. I wish there was at least a way to turn them off, but then again I usually don't log in so that wouldn't help me all that much.
Believe it or not, there are some folk around who don't know if Hamlet becomes King of Denmark or if Romeo gets the
girl, and
maybe they want to know a bit about the historical and publishing background before they read a novel or see a play. Maybe
they get to
the article through Google and they are really looking for
information
on Ray Bradbury or Julie Christie ***sigh*** ond don't care to have plot details revealed.
Our readers don't always come to our articles by typing in
the title.
Well, using [[Hamlet]] as an example, if they read through the article and stop when it gets to the sections that have the titles "Main characters" or "Plot Summary", then they'd accomplish that perfectly well *without* a warning. I mean, the section is called "Plot Summary". Isn't that warning enough?
Seriously, look at that article. It reads (in pseudo-wikitext):
==Plot summary== Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Go figure, plot details follow a headline which says "Plot summary".
<grin>
Point taken. Personally I see it as a reinforcement. Like having a red STOP sign as well as a broad white stripe across the road surface.
Then again, this isn't an issue that will have me fighting and debating and voting on talk pages (assuming I was able to do so, ahem).
Maybe the real issue is the visibility of the template, and if we toned down the warning to make it less intrusive we could still satisfy everybody. </grin>
--Peter in Canberra