[WikiEN-l] Reflections on the end of the spoiler wars

[Gwern Branwen]

On 2007.11.16 01:53:04 +0000, geni <geniice at gmail.com> scribbled 0 lines:
> On 16/11/2007, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 16/11/2007, George Herbert <george.herbert at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > We have no policy that says that we can't have spoiler warnings.  We have a
> > > "last edit standing" consensus.
> > > Those are by definition unstable and unenforcable.
> >
> > Indeed. If people really wanted spoiler warnings, they'd be back.
>
> No. People may want them but they don't want that level of conflict.
> Victory through fear. Yes it's effective in the short term.
>
> --
> geni

I think his point here is a No True Scotsman point: 'If people *really* wanted spoiler warnings, they'd be back' [emphasis added].

Sure, there may be real costs to trying to restore spoilers but hey - if you let tedious-bot-reverts/edit-warring/warnings/blocks/bans deter you from adding and maintaining spoiler warnings, then you obviously didn't *really* want spoilers. As we've just established that no one actually cares about or wants spoilers, it logically follows from WP:BOLD that it's perfectly alright to do anything in furtherance of removing spoiler tags.

--
gwern
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