From: "David Gerard" dgerard@gmail.com
The current stage of the Great Spoiler Shift is a rough guideline on [[Wikipedia:Spoiler]] and discussion on the talk page. Phil Sandifer has asked one very apposite question: Where is the evidence our readers even care? None has been presented
(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.)
Do spoiler warnings in Wikipedia actually serve the public at all?
- d.
I doubt it.
If people actually cared about spoilers they'd demand a much more effective mechanism... like a disclosure system that actually _hides_ the material until you positively affirm that you want to see it.
As it is, I can't vouch for how other people's eyes scan pages, but by the time _I_ see the spoiler notice, it's too late to stop myself from flicking my eye ahead and glimpsing the forbidden material.
The present system is about as effective as those restroom practical jokes--the pictures with a hinged wooden fig leaf that says "do not lift," which, when lifted (uh, um, yeah, a _friend_ told me about this) sounds a loud buzzer out in the bar.