I’d like to get input from y’all. Most of you know that when you’re on the forum page (with the list of all the threads) and the mouse-clicker moves over a thread title, you can see the first few lines of the first post.
This has sometimes caused a “spoiler” problem, since any spoiler in those first few lines becomes visible, potentially to someone who doesn’t want to see spoilers.
When the Moderator comes in to edit, we usually push the text down to the bottom, but using a series of dots/enter, thus:
.
.
.
However, it occurs to me that we could ask you to post twice when starting a thread with open spoilers. First post describes what the thread is about but no spoilers; second post has the spoilers (since that’s immune to the mouse-over, it’s only the first post that’s revealed.)
Granted, when someone goofs up, Mods will still intervene, but it might create fewer revealed spoilers.
Just get rid of the tooltips (or whatever). They’re annoying and I constantly have to keep moving my mouse to the right side of the screen so I can see an unobstructed list of thread titles.
I have heard about the spoiler issue before, but it has never been a problem for me personally. That said, I would cheerfully go along with such a new rule if it were established. Already, it seems to me that the actual spoiler content is more often than not further down in the post than appears in the roll over … for example, if someone said "The other day some friends and I were watching The Empire Strikes Back, which led to a discussion about the first time we saw the film, and whether or not we were surprised by (spoiler). In my browser, I get about “The other day some friends and I were watching The Empire Strikes” in the roll over.
I do like the roll overs, please don’t get rid of them. I find them very helpful in cases when the thread title perhaps is not as descriptive as I would like.
I think he’s saying that should the new two post spoiler system be adopted and a poster forgot to observe it, then the mods would use the dot system as described in the OP. That’s how I read it, at least.
Would there be any way to include in the software an automatic gap of five lines (or whatever it takes) inserted before a spoiler tag? Some of these BB’s have software that can be customized that way, some don’t.
How about a sticky in Cafe Society that says “Think before you mouseover a thread title, spoilers may be revealed.” The text of the thread could suggest that readers too stupid, subject to akrasia or clumsy to benefit from this advice should browse Cafe Society with a bag over their head until they have fully Quaffled any item they feel Pending. Any reader for whom this warning was insufficent to preserve the joys of popular culture might be advised to purchase a second, thicker bag.
Of course, ideally vB should treat spoilers like quotes, i.e., they don’t appear in the tooltip. Anybody know if they’re considering this?
As has been demonstrated before, putting the spoiler within a quote works. I know that isn’t elegant, but is it completely undesirable? One hitch is that quoted text doesn’t get indexed.
I have to say that I am going to advocate a stance of personal responsibility here. In other words, if the thread title has no spoilers and is also clear as to what the thread is about, then people should be smart enough to not read the thread and to keep their mouse away from it if they don’t want spoilers.
While I do respect the motive that I perceive for a new rule, at the end of the day I just don’t see it as needed.
Why not just ask for a poster to add the dots/enter sequence themselves? It is easier for them, if they forget they’d also forget the extra post, and if they preview and suddenly remember they forgot they can fix it, not the case with the first post method. (Except by redoing their entire post.)
It hasn’t been an issue for me, either - like binarydrone said, if the thread title says spoilers that I don’t want to see, I stay away from the thread. I also suggest everyone switch to the Firefox browser - you only get one line in mouseover. It would have to be one hell of a succinct OP to fit a spoiler into that.
Yup, it’s easier and faster to type dot, dot, dot than it is to compose two posts. It’s probably easier on the server too, isn’t it? There are times when getting one post through is a struggle.
Storm in a teacup, dude. I like the system the way it is now. Spoilage is both uncommon and avoidable – just put spoiler in the thread title or first sentence the way folks often do now in threads with spoilers. Posting twice? Fine, but a little excessive.