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

[Philippe Beaudette]

  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



  "It's entirely unclear how a fear of knowledge suits editing an
  encyclopedia.
  The whole thing is a spoiler"

  Nicely said.  But it is the way of the web, or so it seems.

  "WARNING: May contain information."

  Even better.  I'm going to post this one on my lab partner's textbook--he
  recently discovered that by reading the text he scores very high on all of
  our tests, the tests being based mostly upon the text.  He was a bit
  surprised by this....

  --------------------

  Philippe sez:

  Had I known that, I might have done oh - so-much better in college.  I wish you'd been there to enlighten me.

  Philippe