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All The Tropes:Handling Spoilers: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"The secret of being a bore is to tell everything."''
|'''[[Voltaire (philosopher)|Voltaire]]'''}}
:''For advice and instructions on how to mark up spoilers, see [[All The Tropes:Style Guide/Spoilers|Style Guide/Spoilers]].''
▲{{quote|''"The secret of being a bore is to tell everything."''|'''[[Voltaire (philosopher)|Voltaire]]'''}}
[[Spoiler|Spoilers]] are our stock-in-trade here at All The Tropes -- you can't talk about stories and plots without revealing the details of said stories and plots, which might ruin the experience for people who haven't yet had the chance to view that work. To combat this, we have the spoiler tag, markup <nowiki>
However, this in itself presents a problem. Virtually all examples are going to be spoilers to some extent, and we can't blank the entire wiki on the off chance that someone will be offended. One of the big draws of a site like this is simply browsing from one page to the next and absorbing the information therein, and that appeal is lessened if every interesting fact is lost to the fog of a spoiler tag. An example that reads something like this...
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Therefore, you need to think for a bit before you slap something behind that wall. To that end, we offer the spoiler policy guidelines:
* No spoilers in the main body of the text, above the "Examples" line. '''''Just don't do it.'''''
* There are degrees of spoilage, from [[Twist Ending]] to [[It Was His Sled]]. You don't have to worry about every little plot point. If you don't want to read any spoilers ''at all'', and want to go into every work as pure and unsullied as a virgin to her wedding bed, then it is strongly suggested you steer clear of a work's trope page ''until you have actually seen/read/heard the work'', and read trope example pages while carefully skipping past works you are intending on enjoying in the future.
** It is also ''strongly suggested'' that you avoid all subpages for a specific work you don't want to be spoiled for you, such as [[Wild Mass Guessing]], [[Headscratchers]], [[Trivia Trope]], Crowning Moment pages, etc. These pages often assume familiarity with the work.
* Think about how the spoiler tag affects the reading of the example in particular and the entry in general. This varies, of course, but the rule of thumb is usually this: "If I dropped the spoilered part entirely, would the example have any value?" If not, you might want to reword it so that the spoiler-ific content is no longer present (thereby removing the need to use the tag), or delete the example entirely. If it's really needed, it's probably going into a surprise-oriented trope, which can be so noted and caveat emptor applies; otherwise, there's a good chance the spoiler details are ''not'' needed.
* On that subject, there are some tropes, particularly [[Death Tropes]], [[Love Tropes]], [[Betrayal Tropes]], and [[Twist Ending|Twist Endings]] ([[Tomato Surprise]], [[All Just a Dream]], etc.), in which all the examples are going to be spoilers just by their very nature. They're ''about'' surprises. On a ''work page'' it would obviously be fine to hide them, but doing so on the trope page doesn't help much. Just stick a general warning above the examples
* Links to external stuff (such as plot-critical [[Web Comic]] pages, or a criticism by another site) shouldn't go directly to sensitive information without a warning.
* Qualified spoilers are also possible, especially for [[Long Runners]] and multiple-media franchises: '''"Spoilers for season two of Show X!"''' or '''"Spoilers for the manga of Anime Y!"'''
* Spoiling new stuff is generally frowned upon, but sticking an entire example behind a spoiler isn't much better. For internationally
* On the other hand, there's a definite [[It Was His Sled|statute of limitations]] on spoilers. There's no need to tag the [[Twist Ending]] to a [[Shakespeare]] play or a fifty-year-old film because Joe Average might not have gotten around to seeing it yet. A list of things officially free for spoiling is in [[Spoilers Off]].
* If what you're covering in spoilers is four letters or less, bear in mind that people will probably be able to guess what you're talking about, especially in context. For example, saying that so-and-so {{spoiler|dies}} -- what else could go in there? Frequently, the name of a main character, whom the audience isn't supposed to associate with the trope until [[The Reveal]], will be too short for spoiler markup to conceal; writing out their full name or a whole half-sentence under the spoiler tag may work better.
* Make sure it's worth putting in spoiler tags. This is a spoiler: {{spoiler|Bob kills Alice}}. This is not: {{spoiler|Bob likes pie}}.
* Spoiler
* Some trope titles can be spoilers on their own, so they should be tagged as such. If there are so many of these that the all-white lines hurt the page's appearance, just collect them at the bottom of the page, under a new header. This also helps in further obscuring their content, that could be otherwise guessed from their alphabetic position between other, untagged trope titles.
* Spoiler tagging a pronoun is bad form. Yes, you want to hide the gender of the person in question, or it otherwise would be obvious, but do you really think it's impossible to see the difference between {{spoiler|he}} and {{spoiler|she}}? English language has a genderless pronoun: it's "they". There's debate as to whether it's grammatically correct, but it is still widely used, so you might as well use it, or rephrase.
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* Do not put a [[Pothole]] on the spoilered text if it would help to guess what the spoiler is about; hiding the fact that John Doe {{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real|dies]]}} won't help much if the reader sees the URL address for [[Killed Off for Real]] at the bottom of the screen when casually mousing over the spoilered text.
* Don't tempt the reader, or leave clues in the specific thing spoiled. If you're saying "But it turns out the killer was Alice", don't put down "But it turns out the killer was {{spoiler|Alice}}" Sometimes (for example) "Alice" is the only person with that short a name in the cast - thus making it obvious. Sometimes you're better off just covering up the whole sentence.
* Don't use spoiler text as the equivalent of putting something in parentheses or in a footnote.
But above all, use your own judgment. Spoilers are a touchy subject, but not all spoilers are created equal -- does the meat of your example ''really'' need to be concealed? Think about it. If it doesn't, it's probably annoying more people than it helps. Try to err on the side of more information: Incidental spoilage is an occupational hazard on a wiki like this one, and it's not going to kill anyone. Sticks and stones, right?
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[[Category:Administrivia]]
[[Category:Handling Spoilers]]
[[Category:Spoilered Rotten]]
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