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

[Matthew Brown]

On 5/21/07, Skyring <skyring at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

Skyring makes a good point here, which is that spoiler warnings exist
in forums where spoilers are not /de rigeur/ - internet discussion
forums on Harry Potter, for instance, aren't going to give away the
ending to the new book in every thread.

In such forums, the readers don't expect every thread to be in the
business of spoilers, so a post that breaks the default assumption
should carry warnings.

Note that even in these forums, not every post that gives away
anything is marked 'spoiler' - only those that give away major plot
twists etc.

This situation DOES NOT EXIST on Wikipedia.  One doesn't go to our
article on a fictional topic expecting light banter about the
characters or a discussion of their relative hotness.  One expects the
whole deal, all important information.

As Skyring also mentions, is there any logical reason why fiction
articles should have spoiler warnings but e.g. sports articles should
not? If I haven't seen the game yet, it's my responsibility not to go
reading things that might tell me the score; if I haven't read the
book, likewise.

-Matt