Wikipedia:Spoiler warning/RfC

• 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)

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

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• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harry_Potter_and_the_Half-Blood_Prince&oldid=63830780 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince] (contemporary book and upcoming film)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beowulf&oldid=64121773 Beowulf] (epic poem)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stargate_SG-1&oldid=64086351 Stargate SG-1] (contemporary TV series)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Iron_Chef&oldid=64139318 Iron Chef] (TV series)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Breakfast_Club&oldid=63966802 The Breakfast Club] (classic film)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Citizen_Kane&oldid=64149763 Citizen Kane] (classic film)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jack_O%27Neill&oldid=63781357 Jack O'Neill] (fictional character)

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• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Matrix&oldid=64115397 The Matrix] (contemporary film)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Three_Billy_Goats_Gruff&oldid=64147124 Three Billy Goats Gruff] (fairy tale)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beauty_and_the_Beast&oldid=63689807 Beauty and the Beast] (folktale)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sawing_a_woman_in_half&oldid=62382043 Sawing a woman in half] (magic trick)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Final_Fantasy_VII&oldid=61189486 Final Fantasy VII] (game)
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Codename_47&oldid=67988170 Codename 47] (game, usage of both {{tl|spoiler}} and {{tl|Solution}})

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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.

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For:

• Useful and helpful to some editors and readers; can aid in article navigation
• A convention/practice that readers (and prospective future editors) would expect
• Discourages exclusion of spoilers by some editors
• Can be seen as a neutral label such as "Theme" or "Genre"
• Avoids needing to restrict information to specific sections (such as "Plot details")
• Choosing to add the tag or not is similar to other decisions in the editorial process
• Are consistent with Wikipedia's mission and policy of being informative

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Against:

• An informative section header and Wikipedia's content disclaimer are enough
• Violation of Wikipedia's "Neutral point of view policy", or "NPOV" which should cover content exclusion and inclusion
• What is or is not a spoiler is subjective
• Violation of Wikipedia's "Wikipedia is not censored" policy
• Unprofessional and unencyclopedic
• Organization issue; presents the notion that spoilers must be contained "inside the box" of begin-spoiler and end-spoiler templates

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All new discussion should be directed to this page's discussion page, where arguments and suggested solutions are discussed. Discussion should not be added below.