If you wish to discuss or ask a question about a story, and you are unable to do so without revealing a vital piece of information which might ruin a surprise for those experiencing it anew, please consider using a spoiler warning. Although there is no official board policy on this matter, it is considered courteous to do so.
When starting a new thread, the easiest way to warn for spoilers is simply putting the word “spoilers” in the title of your thread, like so:
Question about “Smarmy Tucklas” (warning: Spoilers!)
We have also implemented a spoiler tag, which allows you to put spoilers within boxes that must be manually highlighted to be read. To use it, enclose the spoiler text between a tag, and a tag. Here is an example of how to do this:
Here’s what I want to know about “Smarmy Tucklas”:
It’s all Ganoush.
This will appear like this:
Here’s what I want to know about “Smarmy Tucklas”:
It’s all Ganoush.
It’s also recommended that although a work may have been well known for quite a while, some may still be unaware of particular plot points of various works. There are new film students and literary critics being born every day and some may still be unaware that
Rosebud was his sled
or
Heathcliff does not return
or even that
Abner Doubleday invented baseball and the layout of the field is a recreation of the compass and square of Masonic symbolism.
You get the idea. We will thank you, your fellow posters will thank you, life will be beautiful.
Thanks.
P. S. Thanks to Achernar for his idea for this post.
When posting spoilers, either using the spoiler tag or otherwise, it’s helpful to identify what artwork you are discussing. This helps the reader decide whether or not to read the spoiler. For example, this:
In The Velveteen Rabbit
The rabbit comes to life at the end.
is much more helpful than this:
The rabbit in The Velveteen Rabbit comes to life at the end.
Er, I know it was just an example and maybe I’m being swooshed but since we are supposedly fighting ignorance here and all that I feel the need to point out that your final example
Abner Doubleday invented baseball and the layout of the field is a recreation of the compass and square of Masonic symbolism.
is incorrect. (Well, at least the first part of it is. I can’t comment on the last part.) See:
What **Number Six ** said. I’m always curious what’s inside the spoiler boxes, so I read most of them, but I wouldn’t read one for something I haven’t seen or read yet.
Believe it or not, “rosebud” was spoiled for me when it was used as an example in a similar thread, without any hint that the box contained a spoiler for Citizen Kane, just like in the OP.
Of course, one solution would be not to read any spoiler boxes without knowing what they are about, but that way I would miss out on many things I would have liked to read.
There is another way to uncover spoilers that readers may not know:
Rather than click and drag the cursor and miss some words, put the cursor inside the black area of the spoiler text box, then triple-click the mouse button and all the text will be selected and highlighted then.
Now, did you know that…