[WikiEN-l] {{spoiler}} vs. writing a goddamn encyclopedia

[Ray Saintonge]

Ken Arromdee wrote:

>On Wed, 16 May 2007, Ray Saintonge wrote:
>  
>
>>>This is another case which proves that robotically applying a rule is bad.
>>>But that doesn't mean the rule itself is bad.  It just means that it needs
>>>human judgment to use.
>>>      
>>>
>>Maybe the seven dwarves were responsible for putting the tag at [[Snow 
>>White (1933 cartoon) 
>><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_%281933_cartoon%29>]].
>>    
>>
>It seems disingenuous to say "I want to remove spoiler warnings from Snow White
>and the Three Little Pigs" when those aren't typical.  Sure, you want to
>remove spoiler warnings from them, but you also want to spoil [[Valen]],
>and that's what people are *really* worried about.
>
But for what you write above I might never have heard of Valen.  By 
looking it up I find that it's about a minor character in a TV series 
that went defunct in 1998.  What's being spoiled?  What is there in this 
fictional character to get people so worried?  The show's groupies 
probably already know all that they need or want to know.  The rest of 
us don't give a damn.  Who's left to spoil the experience for?

This article isn't even about a story; it is about a character in the 
series.  Would anyone who is not already familiar with the story have 
any reason to look him up?  It's only relatively recently that producers 
have discovered that there is a market for DVDs of a TV series.  Maybe 
inducing people to want to buy these DVDs is part of the reason for 
spoiler warnings, but that seems awful close to promoting a product.

Ec