Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 01:41, 19 May 2007

For software, see Misplaced Pages:Software (WP:SOFT); for Spoken Misplaced Pages, see Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Spoken Misplaced Pages (WP:WSW). For Misplaced Pages guidelines regarding non-spoiler warnings, see Misplaced Pages:No disclaimer templates (WP:NDT).

The following is a proposed Misplaced Pages policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption.

Shortcuts ] WP:SPOIL WP:SW

A spoiler is a piece of information in an article about a narrative work (such as a book, feature film, television show or video game) that may reduce one's enjoyment of reading, viewing, or playing the work by revealing certain plot events or twists. If someone hasn't read, watched or played the material to which the warning refers, they might wish to avoid reading the spoiler before fully experiencing the work.

When discussing creative works, e.g. books, music, computer games, TV series or films, then an encyclopedia's task is to give a summary of the work and its place in the overall field. Thus, it is natural that the action of a book or a film will be described and discussed in full.

Many books or films lose their attraction, however, if too many details or the ending are revealed before they are read or seen. So it became common on the Internet to put before such descriptions a spoiler warning.

In encyclopedias, however, this is rare, and are generally avoided.

When to use a spoiler warning

• Spoiler warnings may be used where the editors proposing them can provide an extremely compelling and justifiable reason to insert one. Restrict such warnings to areas where a reader wouldn't reasonably expect to read a spoiler. No tags in ==Plot== or other such sections.

• A spoiler warning is to benefit the reader who doesn't understand the nature of Misplaced Pages, isn't expecting to read a spoiler, is unfamiliar with the site, etc. As such it's more of a reminder note and not a label to be used for every spoiler. Such tags should only be used once in an article.

• Spoiler warnings should never be used on ancient texts, literary classics, classic films, or works whose plot is 'common knowledge'. There is some support for use in more recent works. While this is often obvious, grey-area situations should avoid the use of spoiler templates.

• {{spoiler}} should not be used where they interfere with NPOV. NPOV, completeness, encyclopedic tone, and accuracy take priority.

• {{spoiler}} should only be used where the spoiler is not integral to the understanding of the work, and that knowledge of the spoiler would likely substantially diminish the readers enjoyment of the work.

• Use creative labeling and text leads. Instead of a spoiler tag for a second season of a TV show, simply label that section as the plot summary for the second season, or note it in text, such as "In the second season..." This gives the reader a "fair warning" by simply noting which part of the plot is being discussed. Such a method should be used with caution, and should not disrupt the flow of text or.. well.. sound stupid.

• Use only {{Spoiler}}, redirect all other templates to it, and remove {{endspoiler}}. For articles on magic simply use better section labels.

• Spoilers should not be unnecessarily disclosed in the lead, and avoided only when reasonable.

• Tagging an article should only be done for extremely recent works of fiction. Maybe on this one?

Examples

In mid to late 2006, a spoiler template before the fact that Snape Kills Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince would be warranted. Due to the wide dissemination of this information, however, a spoiler tag would not currently be appropriate. The same reasoning can be used for major spoilers in Enders Game, The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense

Unacceptable alternatives

The following methods should never be used to obscure spoilers:

• Making "spoiler free" parallel versions (content forks) of an article. (Since Misplaced Pages content is available under the text of the GNU Free Documentation License, creating parallel versions outside of Misplaced Pages is generally acceptable.)

• Deleting relevant, neutral and verifiable information about a narrative work from Misplaced Pages "because it's a spoiler".

• In various Internet discussion forums, a widespread convention is the insertion of blank (or virtually blank) lines before a spoiler (which removes the offending text from the reader's view, until he/she scrolls to the next page). Obviously, this is unacceptable in a general-purpose encyclopedia.

• On the Usenet computer network, a popular method of concealing spoilers (and sometimes, offensive material) is ROT13 encryption. Again, this is unacceptable in a general-purpose encyclopedia.

• Another common method of hiding spoilers from readers is to change the color of the text to match that of the page background, thus rendering the text unreadable until highlighted by the reader in a selection. Hiding text in this manner is unacceptable here because it requires explanation to readers unfamiliar with the practice, and because it may be incompatible with computer accessibility devices such as screen readers. Also, some web browsers highlight text by inverting the colors of the text and background. In these browsers, for white text on a white background, highlighting produces black text on a black background. Also, it is possible for a user to set their browser to refuse to change text color (just as they can refuse to display images); text-only browsers (such as Lynx) may likewise disregard requests to change text color. In addition, it renders the text unprintable.

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