[WikiEN-l] Actual data on spoiler warning uses by the public

[Peter Ansell]

On 16/12/2007, John Lee <johnleemk at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Dec 15, 2007 8:18 PM, Peter Ansell <ansell.peter at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 16/12/2007, joshua.zelinsky at yale.edu <joshua.zelinsky at yale.edu> wrote:
> > > Quoting Andrew Gray <shimgray at gmail.com>:
> > >
> > > > On 16/12/2007, joshua.zelinsky at yale.edu <joshua.zelinsky at yale.edu> wrote:
> > > >> See http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6424&p=147306#p147306
> > > >>
> > > >> In retrospect I'm not sure why no one did this before. The sample isn't
> > > >> exactly
> > > >> representative (since it is xkcd fora). But one interesting thing
> > > >> seems clear;
> > > >> the public prefers spoiler warnings on Wikipedia and uses them.
> > > >
> > > > Well... thirty people on an internet forum prefer spoiler warnings and
> > > > use them. I'm not entirely sure we can generalise from that to "the
> > > > public" with any degree of confidence.
> > >
> > > That's true. The sample size is very small. But considering that one argument
> > > made in favor of spoiler removal was that the spoiler-removal was favored by
> > > the public this preliminary data doesn't seem to back that up at all and if
> > > anything shows the other direction.
> > >
> >
> > Is there anyway to avoid having always visible spoiler warnings, while
> > allowing users who care about such things to either set a preference
> > to collapse spoiler sections or to be able to set a user.css or
> > user.js function to hide those sections?
> >
> > There does seem to be a few compromise positions available.
>
> Yes, there is. I was one of the few (perhaps the only one) advocating
> them at the time of the debate on spoiler warnings. For some reason
> it's a compromise palatable to neither side. I guess that's why they
> call it a compromise.

user.css:

.wikiSpoilerStart, .wikiSpoilerEnd {
    display: block;
}

That is about the long and short of a clean solution for those who
care as far as I see it.

Peter