[WikiEN-l] So what was the outcome of the spoilerwar?

[John Lee]

On 6/2/07, Daniel P. B. Smith <wikipedia2006 at dpbsmith.com> wrote:
>
> > From: "Steve Bennett" <stevagewp at gmail.com>
> >
> > This is so simple. Read the back of a DVD cover. Read a movie review
> > in the paper. Read the blurb of a book. All contain a rough outline of
> > the plot. They don't mention:
> >
> > a) What the outcome of the major plot climax is.
> > b) Any secrets that change your understanding of the story, but that
> > are only revealed at the end.
> > c) The deaths of any major characters that take place late in the
> > story.
> >
> > What's hard to get about that?
> >
> > Now, I'm not even suggesting that Wikipedia avoid mentioning these.
> > But it's so incredibly easy to use spoiler tags judiciously. This
> > wilful ignorance to understand is quite annoying.
> >
> > Example:
> >
> > ==Plot summary==
> > In the story, John marries Susan, but they are separated as he is sent
> > to war.<more plot describing his antics in the war, the adventures he
> > gets up to etc >
> >
> > {{spoiler}}
> > Ultimately, John's leg is blown off and he returns an amputee, only to
> > find that Susan has married his  brother.
> > {{end-spoiler}}
> >
> > ==Some other section==
> >
> > It's not complicated. It's not a slippery slope. Can we drop the
> > childish attitude please?
>
> Very well said. Hear, hear!
>
> I have two things to add. First, spoiler warnings are only
> appropriate in the case of storylines that are reasonably _current,_
> so that there is a reasonable probability that the plot twist is not
> already well known. It would be absurd to have
>
> Della sells her hair to buy a watch chain for Jim.
>
> {{spoiler}}
> But, meanwhile, unknown to Della, Jim has already sold his watch to
> buy jewelled combs for Della's hair!!!!!!
> {{end-spoiler}}
>
> Second, if something is so surprising, so current, and would be such
> a spoiler that a warning is actually needed, some mechanism for
> hiding the text is needed as well. It's just absurd to suppose that
> readers who does _not_ want to have the story spoiled will be able to
> avoid glancing at perfectly visible text.
>

This is why I suggested we mark spoiler content with some form of semantic
markup, just as I once suggested marking images containing nudity with some
semantic markup to identify them as such. Users who don't like spoilers or
nudity could then just set their clients to apply the appropriate CSS to
hide such content. Of course, the "QMG WIKIPEDIA FREE SPEECH WE CANNOT LET
OUR USERS DECIDE WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE HUR HUR" group nixed the idea.

Johnleemk