# Spoiler boxes: Annoyinger than all get-out **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 30, 2002, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528 "2002-05-30T13:10:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/1 "2002-05-30T13:10:58Z")
Okay, I realize that some people think they’re sexy, and some people are just trying to be polite. But I think the new Spoiler boxes are about the most gol-durned annoying thing I have ever seen. I’m reading through a thread. My mouse is poised over the right-hand scroll button, my eyes are moving smoothly down the page, nicely choreographed with my clicking finger. And then a Spoiler box comes up. Ah, shit. I move the mouse over the box and attempt to highlight the text in the black box. Of course, the wildly overenthusiastic higlighting feature on my POC Windows machine insists on highlighting about half the page. Okay, try again. Oops, missed the first three letters. Try again. What was a smooth, zen-like experience turns immediately into a click-and-drag, oops, click-and-drag again and again exercise in (admitted minor) frustration. I’m a big boy. If I see the “spoilers ahead” warning, I can read or skip the next paragraph as I please. I don’t need a big black box to protect my virgin eyes. The big black box is an answer to a question that nobody was asking. Let’s lose this annoying “feature” before it destroys Western civilization (or at least what’s left of my equanimity.) See, now wasn’t that annoying? Here you had to highlight the damned box, just to see that there was nothing important inside and you wasted your efforts? And here you had to do it again. Oh, and don’t tell me that I can just skip over the boxes. Or that I should get a Mac instead. Or that it isn’t going to kill me to have to click-and-drag. The boxes disrupt the **flow**. ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/2 "2002-05-30T13:16:37Z")
But are they really any worse than the 2-and-a-half miles of blank space people _used_ to leave? I agree with your general thrust though. Save the spoiler boxes for actual spoilers dammit! Don’t use them just because some neutrino flying through the universe happened to hit your brain in just the right place at just the wrong time! pan ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/3 "2002-05-30T13:29:53Z")
_Annoyinger?_ That is so very deeply not a word. Tip: it’s easier to highligh if you highlight from the bottom left corner rather than the top right corner. ---
**Author:** ![flairgun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7c8e57/32.png) [@flairgun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flairgun)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/4 "2002-05-30T13:34:06Z")
It’s more annoying if you use Opera (like me), cos the spoilers just show up blank. So then, you have to open Notepad and cut and paste to read the contents of the spoiler box. Of course, after you do that you realise that it wasn’t worth the effort as you’ve seen this movie already and you knew so… I’ve just taken to skipping them. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/5 "2002-05-30T13:35:57Z")
They aren’t the most annoyingest thing though. ---
**Author:** ![rushtopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47774/32.png) [@rushtopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rushtopher)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/6 "2002-05-30T13:57:35Z")
I don’t know what version of explorer you are using, but with version 5 you can just double click on the text anywhere in the post, and the whole post gets highlighted. That might help. ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/7 "2002-05-30T14:00:27Z")
Also, you can click at the beginning, then hold down the shift key and click at the end and it highlights the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/8 "2002-05-30T14:01:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rushtopher \* > \*\*I don’t know what version of explorer you are using, but with version 5 you can just double click on the text anywhere in the post, and the whole post gets highlighted. > > That might help. \*\* On mine, I need to click one more time for that, but it works. ---
**Author:** ![Xerxes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/d2c977/32.png) [@Xerxes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xerxes)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/9 "2002-05-30T14:11:18Z")
Hey **flairgun** , try this; Hit Ctrl-G, read the spoiler, hit Ctrl-G again. _Much_ easier (imho) than notepad et al… ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/10 "2002-05-30T14:11:20Z")
Good tip - thanks guys! ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/11 "2002-05-30T14:12:33Z")
Um… Ctrl-G does nothing for me, but Ctrl-A wotks just fine. ---
**Author:** ![SpaceDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spacedog/32/9932_2.png) [@SpaceDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceDog)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/12 "2002-05-30T14:13:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Geobabe \* > \*\*On mine, I need to click one more time for that, but it works. \*\* Yeah, triple click with mine too – I think there’s a setting somewhere. If you _really_ can’t be arsed moving your mouse that few inches just hit CNTRL + A to highlight all the text, revealing all the spoilers. Presto, mouse still poised over scroll bar. With the extra time you’ll save over a day who knows what you’ll acomplish … SD ---
**Author:** ![Xerxes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/d2c977/32.png) [@Xerxes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xerxes)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/13 "2002-05-30T14:15:25Z")
Ctrl-G’s only for Opera users (I’m using 6.1, a relatively recent version). Ctrl-A is, I think, a standard windows shortcut to highlight everything. In Opera, you still can’t read the spoiler text. ---
**Author:** ![SpaceDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spacedog/32/9932_2.png) [@SpaceDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceDog)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/14 "2002-05-30T14:15:30Z")
And if my manager hadn’t come up and asked me a question then my CNTRL+A post would’ve went in before all those other ones. Now I just look like a copycat … erm, copydog. Aw, sod it. ---
**Author:** ![Com2Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Com2Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Com2Kid)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/15 "2002-05-30T14:19:16Z")
Another option is to start dragging your mouse from the S in spoiler and drag it on down. Drag selecting is really NOT that hard in windows, yes it can take a LITTLE bit of getting used to, but onc eyou know how it is rather simple. Remember you are NOT trying to highlight the box, you are trying to highlight the TEXT inside of the box. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/16 "2002-05-30T14:48:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Com2Kid \*Drag selecting is really NOT that hard in windows, yes it can take a LITTLE bit of getting used to, but **onc eyou** know how it is rather simple. My advice would be to master use of the keyboard first 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kamandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5daacb/32.png) [@Kamandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamandi)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/17 "2002-05-30T14:51:55Z")
Can we have the boxes in another color than black? The contrast against a light gray background is really messing up my Qi. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/18 "2002-05-30T15:31:16Z")
Here’s another from the triple-click school. IE users can just CTRL-left mouse click anywhere in the spoiler box and voila! Instant highlight! ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/19 "2002-05-30T15:33:20Z")
And Francesca, “annoyinger,” when used in this context, most certainly is a word. Perhaps you’ve heard (or maybe not) of its deeply redneck cousin expression, “fucked-upper than shit.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![flairgun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7c8e57/32.png) [@flairgun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flairgun)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528/20 "2002-05-30T17:44:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Xerxes \* > \*\*Hey **flairgun** , try this; Hit Ctrl-G, read the spoiler, hit Ctrl-G again. _Much_ easier (imho) than notepad et al… \*\* Cool, thanks Xerxes. 🙂 I love Opera’s shortcuts, esp. the right-click page forward/back thingy… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-boxes-annoyinger-than-all-get-out/111528.md?page=2)