On 16/12/2007, joshua.zelinsky@yale.edu joshua.zelinsky@yale.edu wrote:
Quoting Peter Ansell ansell.peter@gmail.com:
It was a big issue on the mailing list and the wiki, and apart from the one forum link to start this thread, doesn't seem to be a big issue to casual readers.
A solution which requires a user.css action to opt-in to displaying spoilers is focused on wiki users, and leaves casual users who so far haven't said a whole lot, it seems, out of touch, although if they have an account they can utilise the system just as easily.
A few points. First, that thread was actually initiatated by Kizor who is an admin. Second, how would we get any feedback from people about the spoiler warnings? Where do they think they'd go to complain about it?
On a related note, can anyone think of a way to get info from the general public? The best possibility I can think of is to have after the donation drive is over a general poll linked to at the top of the pages. Something like "Wikipedia is doing a poll of its readers about spoiler tags" and then a link.
I don't think, at least at first that you need a public poll. For one, there aren't any articles to test out right now due to the purge. You could start a long-term unpublicised information gathering poll but I don't see the need to change the status quo to making the issue visible again until that reaches a critical mass in favour of spoilers, although it need not be a majority in order to give credence to a hidden opt-in solution.
You would only be getting feedback from people who already knew about the spoiler issue, or from people who went to an FAQ asking about spoilers and were directed to the long-term poll. As you point out, a wiki insider started the only off-wiki/mailing list discussion about the issue that we know about. That should pretty much establish the issue as an insider, not outsider issue.
You can only enable people to do things, you can't force them. Visibility of the "hidden" css spoilers would come as people investigate the spoiler tags which appear when they edit, but not when they view :) They will start asking questions if they want to know why. When they do, you can direct them to the extensive discussions about the issue, with a reference to the ongoing poll and a css workaround while the status quo favours invisible warnings.
Peter