On 6/21/07, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Only a purge was acceptable in those circumstances. The consensus for the purge can be measured by the fact that 45,000 spoiler tags died almost unmourned, and the former proliferation of spoiler tags can now be kept under control with ease under the new guideline, which does permit them to be placed where it is reasonable to do so.
The notices do remain in a number of places outside the article namespace. Notably, a lot of user pages use a tool box which includes the spoiler warning templates. Removing it from that tool box could avoid encouraging newbies from starting to add it all over again.
That's good thinking. I know it's been removed from some article templates, too, but I hadn't thought of general toolboxes.
The rate of spoiler placing however, is very low. Those still placing them often seem to be occasional editors who presumably do so out of habit. The very active Doctor Who project, as a whole, simply seems to have regarded the affair as a non issue, although about half a dozen of the more recent articles are full of information about the season three plot arc. I think the latest episode article has a new "current fiction" tag, and the 2006 Christmas special has a spoiler tag because it contains information that only crops up in the latest episode.
Finally we *are* an encyclopedia. These trappings of the Usenet origins of many of our early editors are unfit for an encyclopedia and badly needed to be pensioned off. Good riddance to them and, to those who did it, warm thanks for a job well done.
Thanks. The ones that I removed were all done the old-fashioned way, but I never felt inspired to read through the endless cruft of old TV episode plots. Tolerant as I may be of others' cruft, I balk at the thought that it may be required reading.
I have removed quite a lot of them, again all by hand. All Doctor Who episodes from 1963 to May 2005. Somebody else removed the remainder using AWB.