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The currently go-to link for stance is this link, where all dupes redirect to: Of spoilers, plot twists and our mission. The sources from there all date back to 2013 with no update.

Currently I have a debate going on within one of my own questions. A user has engaged in a rollback war and insists that spoiler markdown is an unnecessary addition to a post. However, the highest voted answer on the source linked above indicates that having spoiler markdown on a question's body (and subsequently avoiding a spoiler in the title) prevents users from accidentally seeing it from the question excerpt in the Questions page.

What is our currently held stance on spoiler markdown? Does the old source hold true or are we attempting to do away with spoiler markdown?

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  • Link to the problem post?
    – Robotnik Mod
    Oct 28, 2015 at 8:48
  • @Robotnik gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/241176/…, Revision history gaming.stackexchange.com/posts/241176/revisions
    – childe
    Oct 28, 2015 at 8:49
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    The fact that 80% of the question is spoiled makes it pretty obvious most of it shouldn't be.
    – Frank
    Oct 28, 2015 at 11:56
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    I found the question to be ok as it is.
    – Jonathan Drapeau
    Oct 28, 2015 at 13:15
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    @Jonathan If the question doesn't make sense without reading the spoilers, it shouldn't be in spoiler tags.
    – Frank
    Oct 28, 2015 at 14:42
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    Here's another meta post about the same topic of spoilers., where the most upvoted answer runs (maybe kinda sorta) contrary to the most-upvoted answer on the meta linked in the OP. Hooray for consistency!
    – Sterno
    Oct 28, 2015 at 18:41
  • @Sterno, this is how the whole thing started. That was the text I was quoting, as it specifically talks about question body. The other seems to concern titles and answers. Really should have a clean up in regards to spoiler usage.. I run into this problem every time, no matter what stance Im taking.
    – user106385
    Oct 29, 2015 at 2:43

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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The question is clearly and unambiguously about the ending of the game, and this is obvious from the title of the question. So anyone actually opening it should except open spoilers in there. Unnecessary spoiler markup just makes the post more annoying to read.

I don't know the game, but the ending is generally considered a pretty major spoiler for any game, so we should avoid spoiling it accidentally. This concerns the title and the excerpt that is visible in the question list and one-boxed in chat. Those should be free of spoilers, if possible.

So I'd leave the first spoiler tag in your question, but I'd remove all the later ones as they won't appear in the excerpt and anyone opening the question should expect open spoilers.

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    But that's terribly inconsistent. You're saying I need to have just enough spoiler markdown just so the preview hides just enough, then just leave the rest exposed?
    – childe
    Oct 28, 2015 at 8:45
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    Even if the title states that it is about the end of the game, it ain't bad to markdown the spoiling part of the question so that someone that wanna see the question but not be spoiled could still do it. If they then proceed to over and read the spoiling text, they deserve it. Not totally idiot-proof but it goes as far as possible.
    – Jonathan Drapeau
    Oct 28, 2015 at 13:17
  • @JonathanDrapeau That is exactly my sentiment. Nobody's going to click on a spoiler link unless they've either clicked on accident which is quite infrequent, but most likely they actually want a spoiler. In which case, I believe having no spoiler markdown in an answer is fine, since nobody will see it, but having it in the question is most important to avoid pissing off people browsing the questions list.
    – childe
    Oct 28, 2015 at 17:56
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    If users are clicking on questions, they should be expecting to be spoiled. Beating around the bush about asking a question to avoid hurting feelings defeats our entire purpose: asking questions, and getting answers.
    – Frank
    Oct 28, 2015 at 21:35
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    To quote the meta I referenced when rolling back the spoilers, >The question and the answers must make sense and be complete without using spoiler tags. Even if the spoiler is a major one, it should not be protected if that's the very piece of spoiler the question is about. ... I encourage people to edit posts that go astray of this golden rule. If you get bit by spoilers due to carelessly browsing through questions then please be more careful in your browsing :)
    – user106385
    Oct 28, 2015 at 21:41
  • @oamlyya: If you strongly disagree with this answer, you can write your own. There's nothing wrong with answering your own question, especially for discussion questions like this one. It allows people to separately vote on the discussion as a whole and your position in particular.
    – Kevin
    Nov 3, 2015 at 21:14

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