[WikiEN-l] Template:spoiler

[Peter Mackay]

> From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org 
> [mailto:wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Anthony DiPierro
> 
> On 5/16/06, Peter Mackay <peter.mackay at 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