# Can we have a ruling on spoilers?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [February 9, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997 "2009-02-09T02:54:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/81 "2009-02-13T16:24:30Z")

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> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#):
>
> so I suppose it’s arguably a temptress in a teapot.

I’d just like to say that this is the first time I’ve come across this phrase. Assuming that it’s not a typo by the inestimable C K, I’d like to know how I can go about getting a temptress in my teapot.

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/82 "2009-02-13T23:55:05Z")

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> [@LurkMeister](#):
>
> I’d just like to say that this is the first time I’ve come across this phrase. Assuming that it’s not a typo by the inestimable C K, I’d like to know how I can go about getting a temptress in my teapot.

The original phrase is “a tempest in a teapot” meaning roughly the same as making a mountain out of a molehill. I simply Walt Kelly’d the phrase.

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**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/83 "2009-02-14T02:29:51Z")

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> [@Justin\_Bailey](#):
>
> Discussing an episode _as it airs_ in a thread specifically created for discussion of that episode cannot be a spoiler.

And yet it took years of arguing to convince the west-coasters of this inarguable fact in the Survivor threads.

As I have many times before, I’d like to point out that spoiler boxes are not the perfect bastions of goodness that everyone seems to assume they are. They interupt the natural mousewheel-scroll reading of a thread, and they also cause eyestrain.

I can’t read more than several lines inside a spoiler box without suffering significant burn-in, and the ghost image of light text on dark background will stay with me for several minutes thereafter. In short, spoiler boxes make me physically uncomfortable. So erring on the side of caution by using more spoiler boxes than necessary is a cruddy solution, IMO.

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**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/84 "2009-02-14T08:43:55Z")

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> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#):
>
> When you see someone in the middle of reading an Agatha Christie novel, it would be incredibly bad manners to blurt out, “Oooh, I read that one, it’s great, you’ll never guess that the doctor did it.”

Hah! He couldn’t have. I’m already through most of it, and he’s dead, too! 😃

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