Wikipedia:Spoiler warning/RfC: Difference between revisions

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This is a request for comment (RfC) on the use of spoiler tags. This RFC aims to gather community opinion on the Wikipedia:Spoiler warning guidelines and it's companion templates: {{spoiler}}, {{endspoiler}}, {{spoiler-about}}, {{spoiler-other}}, {{magic-spoiler}}, {{Solution}}, and {{Spoiler-solicitation}}.

Previous discussions

Wikipedia:Templates for deletion/Log/2006 May 4#Template:Spoiler
Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject Computer and video_games#Spoiler tags
Wikipedia talk:Spoiler warning/Guideline status — (discussion of guideline status in June 2006)
Wikipedia talk:Spoiler warning/Guideline status2 — (discussion of guideline status in July 2006)
Wikipedia talk:Spoiler warning — (present discussion and establishment of this RfC)

Older discussions

Examples of current usage

Arguments for and against

This is a very brief summary of the major arguments for and against the use of spoiler tags. Note that this is only intended to be an extremely brief summary, and all substantive reasoning of arguments can be found on this page's discussion page.

For:

Believed to be useful and helpful to editors and readers; aids in article navigation
Believed to discourage exclusion of spoilers by editors
Can be seen as a natural label such as "Plot" or "Theme"

Against:

Believed that an informative section header and Wikipedia's content disclaimer are enough
Possible violation of Wikipedia's "Neutral point of view policy", or "NPOV"
Possible violation of Wikipedia's "Wikipedia is not censored" policy
Believed to be unprofessional and unencyclopedic
Doen't present clarity in determining what constitutes a spoiler; for example Beauty and the Beast and Three Billy Goats Gruff
Confusion amoung editors and readers on what constitutes a "spoiler", or whether it is actually part of the manual of style, policies, etc.
Organization issue; presents the notion that spoilers must be contained "inside the box" of begin-spoiler and end-spoiler templates
Presents the misleading notion that spoilers are always going to be marked, which cannot be guaranteed in the first place given that anyone can edit Wikipedia at any time; in other words, they give those readers who look for them a false sense of security and fail to serve their purpose anyway

RfC discussion

All new discussion should be directed to this page's discussion page. Discussion should not be added below.

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 *Organization issue; presents the notion that spoilers must be contained "inside the box" of begin-spoiler and end-spoiler templates
 *Presents the misleading notion that spoilers are always going to be marked, which cannot be guaranteed in the first place given that anyone can edit Wikipedia at any time; in other words, they give those readers who look for them a false sense of security and fail to serve their purpose anyway
-*Gives the misleading impression that spoiler tags are a pillar of encyclopedia construction
-*Is an ideal derived from social networking sites such as ''Usenet''. Such ideals have been strongly opposed by Wikipedia founder [[Jimbo Wales]]
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