Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 23:32, 25 May 2007

WP:SW redirects here. 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).

This page documents an English Misplaced Pages ]. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

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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 reveals plot events or twists.

According to Spoiler (media), "The term spoiler is associated with specialist Internet sites and in newsgroup postings." Spoilers on the Internet are often precluded by a spoiler warning. However, this is not done in scholarly reference works; thus, spoiler warnings are generally avoided on Misplaced Pages.

Concerns about spoilers should play no role in decisions about the structure or content of an article, including the article's lead section. When adding a spoiler in the lead section, remember that Misplaced Pages is written from a real-world perspective; what is exciting in the context of a fictional universe is almost certainly a standard plot device in literary construction.

Spoilers are unnecessary in articles on non-fictional subjects if the spoilers are trivia or used as an example when a non-spoiler example would suffice.

Spoiler warnings

When not to use spoiler warnings

• Spoiler warnings must not interfere with neutral point of view, completeness, encyclopedic tone, or other elements of article quality.
• Spoiler warnings are usually inappropriate in articles discussing classical works of literature, poetry, film, theatre, and other fields. In grey areas, editors placing spoiler templates should use the article's talk page to discuss the matter.
• Spoiler warnings must never be used for non-fictional subjects. If explicit spoilers are mentioned in non-fiction articles (e.g. authors, real-life places that fictional texts are set, and literary concepts like climax), consider if the spoiler improves the encyclopedic quality of the article. It may be better to remove the example.
• Spoiler warnings are redundant when used in ==Plot== or other sections that are clearly going to discuss the plot. Use such a header instead.
• Articles about fictional characters, objects or places can be expected to include significant elements of the story. They should not typically need spoiler warnings.

When and how to use spoiler warnings

• Spoiler warnings may be used in articles whose primary subject is fictional where the editors proposing them can provide compelling reasons to insert one . Such reasons should show that the spoiler tag does not diminish article quality, and that knowledge of the spoiler would substantially diminish many readers' enjoyment of the work.
• A spoiler warning is a courtesy note to readers, such as those who find articles from search engine results. It is a reminder note, and never guaranteed. It must never affect article quality.
• Very rarely, a spoiler warning may appear in the article lead. If this can be justified, the warning should be placed at the top of the article. The presumption should be that the article lead should not need to warn about plot spoilers that are significant enough to appear in the lead.
• The {{Spoiler}} tag can be used to mark spoilers with {{Endspoiler}} to mark the end.

Unacceptable alternatives

The following methods should never be used to obscure spoilers:

• Deleting relevant, neutral and verifiable information about a narrative work from an article about that work "because it's a spoiler".
• Making "spoiler free" parallel versions (content forks) of an article about a fictional work. Since Misplaced Pages content is available under the GNU Free Documentation License, creating parallel versions outside of Misplaced Pages is acceptable.
• Structuring an article around spoilers, confining them to a particular area of the article (e.g. under ==Plot==), when unnecessary or in a way that decreases article quality.
• In 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 the reader 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 offensive material is ROT13 encryption. 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.

Notes

1. An explicit spoiler mentions the work of fiction concerned.

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