d. wrote:
(As one of those whose phone number seems to have
become Wikipedia's
phone number, I get people calling and complaining about their *login
not working* (wtf) as well as every *other* content issue under the
sun. I have *never* had a complaint that we spoilt a work of fiction
for someone. I await a single piece of evidence, not conjecture.)
That's a good point, but it's not the sort of thing I can imagine
people complaining about. (And in any case: we *do* generally
have the warnings! "See how good it works?" This isn't a case
of elephants in cherry trees.)
Conjecture isn't necessarily fallacious. We are all, most of us,
readers as well as editors. The people who like spoiler warnings
and argue for their retention are all, presumably, people who
appreciate spoiler warnings in the text they read. The set of
people who appreciate them (and would mourn their passing) is
clearly not empty.