Spoiler tags

[Doylez]

I think there should be a function that completely hides the text unless you highlight it with your mouse.
Because even if you do this:


**SPOILERS**
No, I am your father!


it's not enough warning, because you can read that in like 0,5 seconds.

[Tyrianth]

I think there should be a function that completely hides the text unless you highlight it with your mouse.
Because even if you do this:


**SPOILERS**
No, I am your father!


it's not enough warning, because you can read that in like 0,5 seconds.

I don't see why not, it would be extremely easy to implement.

[llDemonll]

The issue discussed before was that people could hide offensive posts, images, etc., etc inside these tags (there's a quote from Sunshine somewhere about this I believe but I'm busy ATM and don't have the time to search for it) making them a pain to moderate

[Arlee]

There's a very good reason we don't use it -- it would be a pain to moderate. There's no way to restrict the tag to one forum, so picture it being used to hide flaming, porn, anything inappropriate. Having to click each spoiler tag would increase the mod workload by a ton.

The best way that I can suggest for now is adding something like [b][color=red]*** SPOILER ***[/color][/b] before the spoiler (which is potentially something that could be implemented as a bbcode, if there's demand for it).

About if spoiler tags worked for everyone except mods:

That one's hiding based on the usergroup of the poster, not the usergroup of the viewer, but yeah, it might be possible. It's something we'll consider, but there are already several things our devs are trying to do for the site, so I'm not sure how high on the priority list it is.

A more recent response:

Huge images are best posted as links or thumbnails. Most nice image hosting sites (like Imgur) will do the thumbnail for you and provide the code (on imgur, use "linked image for message boards").

We might do the spoiler tag now that we have the off-topic forums. Before with just the WoW forums, it was just a headache for moderation (harder to see when skimming posts, fewer people report bad stuff, etc), but now it might be worth the hassle with the cinema/tv forum, etc. We'll see.

Those are the Sunshine quotes I found when searching this forum

[Tyrianth]

The issue discussed before was that people could hide offensive posts, images, etc., etc inside these tags (there's a quote from Sunshine somewhere about this I believe but I'm busy ATM and don't have the time to search for it) making them a pain to moderate

I don't see how it could cause much more trouble for moderation. A simple hover effect is all that's needed for a spoiler tag.

<style type="text/css">
.spoiler {
background-color:black;
}
.spoiler:hover {
background-color:white;
}
</style>
<span class="spoiler">{param}</span>

The only extra work for that would be to hover over the text. Signatures and avatars would be a much bigger pain in the ass to moderate than that.

[-Delko-]

spoiler tags are great. So are NSFW tags.

---------- Post added 2011-11-17 at 12:49 PM ----------

I don't see how it could cause much more trouble for moderation. A simple hover effect is all that's needed for a spoiler tag.

<style type="text/css">
.spoiler {
background-color:black;
}
.spoiler:hover {
color:black;
background-color:white;
}
</style>
<span class="spoiler">{param}</span>

The only extra work for that would be to hover over the text.

I think Sunshine was talking about moderating what people put in spoiler tags.

---------- Post added 2011-11-17 at 12:50 PM ----------

I don't see how it could cause much more trouble for moderation. A simple hover effect is all that's needed for a spoiler tag.

<style type="text/css">
.spoiler {
background-color:black;
}
.spoiler:hover {
color:black;
background-color:white;
}
</style>
<span class="spoiler">{param}</span>

The only extra work for that would be to hover over the text.

Edit - nevermind

[Sunshine]

Yeah, it makes moderation harder because it means mods need to go hover/higlight/click everything to see stuff, rather than just scanning down the thread looking for bad posts. It's a big forum and we rely partially on reports already because it's very difficult for mods to read or even skim every post, so adding that just makes it that more difficult or time-consuming.

Before we had the many off-topic forums, it didn't really make sense to put a spoiler tag because the abuse cases were more numerous than the use cases -- there just aren't that many super spoilers in WoW except in threads which you wouldn't enter in the first place.

Now that we have those, including the game / movie / book sections which may have plot spoilers, we've been talking about adding them, since they're actually more useful there.

[Pendulous]

Somewhat related, but you can use the text color that makes the text invisible.

Problem is, it doesn't show up in the color list. Is there a place that has that info?

[Jdman]

So basically we cant have spoiler tags because a few irresponsible people will use them for bad things?

Im sorry why do we all have to be punished for this?

Mods could just have a remove spoiler tag feature for themselves that allow them to automatically open all of these tabs when they enter a thread.

[Pendulous]

So basically we cant have spoiler tags because a few irresponsible people will use them for bad things?

Im sorry why do we all have to be punished for this?

Mods could just have a remove spoiler tag feature for themselves that allow them to automatically open all of these tabs when they enter a thread.

We still use post reports a lot, and if people aren't reporting things that they can't see, then we have a problem.

[Deleted]

I usually use this post.

[Pendulous]

I usually use this post.

Bookmarked! Thanks!

[Jdman]

We still use post reports a lot, and if people aren't reporting things that they can't see, then we have a problem.

This is also counter intuitive. If less people are reporting in this case, it is because less people are viewing. Therefor if less people are viewing, then even if there is something derogatory the amount of people who are going to see it is going to be significantly less than who do, the only difference is that it might be up longer because it might take longer to get reported. The amount of people who will see it before it becomes reported possibly could not change, but I dont have the numbers, you might so I wont say anything in absolutes.

I doubt the people who are likely to report things are less likely to hit spoiler tags, if anything it would give them a target because they know it can be something reportable, especially if you add a report this button immediately after anything that is put under a spoiler tag.

I still fail to see how I should be punished because someone else uses the forums incorrectly.

[Sunshine]

Like I said before:

Now that we have those, including the game / movie / book sections which may have plot spoilers, we've been talking about adding them, since they're actually more useful there.

Closing this now.