[WikiEN-l] Have we ever had a reader complaint of a lack of spoiler tags?

[Gabe Johnson]

On 5/21/07, Skyring <skyring at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/20/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Surely one would expect ==Plot summary== to contain plot elements in
> an encyclopedic manner.
>
> It's entirely unclear how a fear of knowledge suits editing an encyclopedia.
> The whole thing is a spoiler. If I turn to an article on a World Series
> game just concluded, I will see the result because some enthusiastic
> editor/fan has just put it there, even if I have it recorded the game for my
> later consumption and delight, and merely turned to the article to get the
> lineup.
>
> Cliff's Notes, texts on Shakespeare, even reviews of current films and
> novels, all contain plot details, with never a spoiler warning in sight.
> Reviews in newspapers and magazines might OMIT key items and outcomes so as
> not to ruin plot twists, but they never put up spoiler warnings for the
> details they give away.
>
> On my own head be it if I look up a film and find out that the butler did
> it, or that Hamlet dies in the final scene.
>
> I have encountered spoiler warnings in online discussion groups about
> current television series of the opus of an author, but in such groups, many
> participants have not seen or read all the material, and (more to the point)
> a warning is placed so that they don't open or read a post, when they might
> read many others from the same source.
>
> What person, I ask, what thinking person is going to go to an article on
> Harry Potter and the Order of the Boot and be surprised to find plot details
> freely given away? Surely they would expect the plot to be described and
> would be righteously indignant if we didn't describe it. Are we writing an
> encyclopaedia for cretins?
>
> --
> Peter in Canberra


That's not the point. We still have the spoiler information. We just
provide a convienient template (which you can hide) so that the reader
can be warned. It is a minor service provide. If it seriously
sacrifices the integrity of the article (as is apparently the case in
[[The Crying Game]],) we can choose to omit it, or provide a warning
for the entire article. I would not be against editing of the
guidelines to reflect this, but don't simply discard them entirely.
~~~~