Wikipedia:Spoiler warning/RfC

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

• Wikipedia talk:Warn readers about spoilers Archive 1
• Wikipedia talk:Warn readers about spoilers
• Wikipedia talk:Spoiler warning/Archive
• Wikipedia talk:Spoiler warning/Archive2

Examples of current usage

• Beowulf
• Stargate SG-1
• Iron Chef
• The Breakfast Club
• Citizen Kane
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Jack O'Neill
• The Matrix
• Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Beauty and the Beast

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:

• Useful and helpful to editors and readers; aids in article navigation
• Discourages exclusion of spoilers by editors
• Can be seen as a nutral label such as "Plot" or "Theme"
• Avoids needing to restrict information to specific sections (such as "Plot details")

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
• What is or is not a spoiler can be seen as subjective.
• Organization issue; presents the notion that spoilers must be contained "inside the box" of begin-spoiler and end-spoiler templates
• Is an ideal derived from social networking sites such as Usenet. Such ideals have been strongly opposed by Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales

RfC discussion

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