User:El Sandifer/Box of sand

Discussion about this page is currently going on at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Policies/Wikipedia:Spoiler warning.

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

A spoiler is a piece of information in an article about a narrative work that reveals aspects of the plot or ending that some users may wish to remain ignorant about, preferring to read, watch, or play the work in question first. Although Wikipedia sometimes marks such information with spoiler warnings, the practice is controversial and should be kept to an absolute minimum.

Concern about spoilers should never be a reason for any decisions about the structure, content, or formatting of an article. If a piece of information that could be considered a spoiler is one of the most essential aspects of a topic (remembering that fictional topics should be considered from the perspective of the real world, not fictional worlds) it should be present in the article lead. To do otherwise is, at its best, bad encyclopedia writing, and at its worse, a violation of Wikipedia:Neutral point of view.

Note that in cases where plot details genuinely are not widely known (such as when writing about an unreleased work) care must be taken not to violate Wikipedia's policies on original research.

Problems with spoiler warnings

The term "spoiler," when used in this sense, is a neologism that is inappropriate for Wikipedia. (See Wikipedia: Manual of Style (neologisms) Furthermore, as Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, it is assumed that it will contain information - in fact, it is stated explicitly in the general content disclaimer that "WIKIPEDIA CONTAINS SPOILERS AND CONTENT YOU MAY FIND OBJECTIONABLE". To warn about such content is redundant, and, as we don't warn about other objectionable content, including, in cases such as Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, content that people have been killed over, silly.

Potentially appropriate uses

Spoiler tags, and their use, are controversial. However, there may be cases where their use is appropriate. For recent works, particularly those at the height of their popularity, it may be sensible to warn users about any plot revelations that are outside of the actual plot summary section. In such cases, the onus is on the editor adding the spoiler warning to justify its use.

Wholly inappropriate uses

• Spoiler warnings are generally redundant in sections covering plot summaries or synopses; it is expected that such sections will include details of the plot.

• Spoiler warnings should never be used with regards to factual works, including religious texts.

• Spoiler warnings should never be used on classic works of fiction, particularly as the neologism is especially jarring in these contexts.

Warning of spoilers

If a spoiler warning is appropriate, it can be made by insertning {{spoiler}} before the revealing text. On the article, that will appear as:

{{spoiler}}

Unacceptable alternatives

The following methods should never be used to obscure spoilers:

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

• Deleting relevant, neutral and verifiable information about a narrative work from Wikipedia "because it's a spoiler" instead of properly applying spoiler templates.

• 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.

Turning spoiler tags off

Those who wish to not see spoiler warnings could use the following Cascading Style Sheets rule:

.spoiler { display: none; }

Any web browser which supports CSS (as almost all do) will then hide the spoiler warnings. (You will still see them in the Wikitext when editing.)

There are lots of ways of doing this, especially for users of Firefox or Opera. Doing it locally on the computer you are using will work both for anonymous and logged-in users.

An alternative method is available to users with a Wikipedia user account; this will work without changing browser settings:

1. Go to your monobook.css page

   (This is the default skin/style. If you are using another skin, substitute the name of your preferred style for monobook, for example nostalgia.css.)

2. Click on the link to create the page, or click edit this page.
3. Enter .spoiler { display: none; }
4. Save the page.
5. Follow the instructions in Wikipedia:Bypass your cache.

Spoiler warnings are now hidden as long as you are logged in, no matter what computer you are using. (Applies to CSS compliant browsers.)