Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Wikipedia policies and guidelines/Wikipedia:Spoiler warning/Proposals to put a disclaimer on all articles

*Ahem*
An issue that, in my quick skim through, seemed to come up was that of patronizing "casual users", or those that come in from a search engine. The solution that I see is an obvious one: tell users that we expect them to have enough reason to know about spoilers, profanity, and the like ahead of time. The oh-so controversial spoiler warnings can be used where spoilers aren't expected, such as in a trivia section of an article on mathematics. I hope that my creation of this humble new section isn't objectionable. - AMP&#39;d 02:53, 22 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Moving the disclaimer links to the top of the page rather than the bottom would be a great way to do this. All we have to do is... Eh, I don't know beyond that. I proposed something similar up above and also at the bottom of Wikipedia talk:No disclaimer templates‎.You Can't See Me! 02:58, 22 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Not just the spoilers, but maybe the "About" page should be more prominent. We might as well kill as many birds of policy with the stone of consensus as we can. At the Reference Desks, where I frequent, we have issues with the medical and legal disclaimer. And I can't imagine what the people over at fuck have to deal with. - AMP&#39;d 03:10, 22 May 2007 (UTC)


 * That's what I mean. Those three links at the very bottom of the page should really be at the top. It's too late to read the disclaimer that says "You might run into depictions of nudity," after seeing a full frontal while researching issues in public nudity. The disclaimers link, along with the Private policy and About Wikipedia links need to be made more prominent. The best - and probably the only - way to do that is to put them on a spot on every page that makes them more noticeable: the top. You Can't See Me! 03:27, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Medical and legal disclaimers are fundamentally different. As the "No disclaimer templates" page read until very recently: ''[...] The only disclaimer on wikipedia should be the spoiler warnings, because you don't know where they are, and they ruin things for you. You can choose to ignore medical-related content on Wikipedia, but once you've read a spoiler, you can't just pretend you never read it. -Frazzydee|&#9997; 12:45, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)''
 * from Templates for deletion/Log/Deleted/April 2005

--Kizor 03:19, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

The disclaimer links are at the top in my skin, so presumably its just a matter of messing with the standard CSS. I find it utterly unbelievable that at one time Wikipedia had a policy that said okay no medical disclaimers but heaven help us if some sensitive soul found out without warning that Julius Caesar is assassinated in the Senate. I wonder what planet the people who wrote that policy thought they were living on. --Tony Sidaway 03:37, 22 May 2007 (UTC)


 * The skin that I'm currently using is MonoBook, the default skin; this skin displays those links at the bottom. That means that everyone without an account (which is more-or-less the majority of readers, not even counting those who do have an account and do not change the skin) will not see the disclaimer links until they get to the bottom. That also applies to users who use anything other than Classic or Cologne Blue skin. But as you noted, it's just a matter of messing with the standard CSS.  You Can '  t See Me!  04:05, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

A more radical approach
Note: This comment was not originally immediately below the previous section, but because I am sorting some of the archives by topic, it is now.—greenrd 16:55, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

Here's a more radical approach to things: rather than making a template that "might offend readers" through some extravagant manner which I still cannot comprehend, we simply make it more obvious that Wikipedia is uncensored. Believe it or not, the average passerby and newcomer will not click on the Disclaimer link at the bottom of the page. Frankly, I didn't even know it was there until a few months after I signed up.

So, rather than a template saying that an article may contain spoilers, offensive content, depictions of nudity, and so forth, we put it on every page. But not through a template. Instead, we (and this is where the "radical" part fits in) propose to whoever up there has the power to do so to add a little line at the top of the article. Essentially...

Page Name --- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Disclaimer: To attain maximum encyclopedic efficiency, articles may contain spoilers or potentially offensive content where deemed necessary.

Again, probably not in those exact words, and maybe not even in that exact spot. This note can go on the main page as well. This isn't so much about "protecting" people from spoilers any more. This is now along the lines of making Wikipedia's censorship policy better known. You can't really miss what's at the top of the page. As noted several times, this is a more radical approach, and I can imagine that even those who argued pro-spoiler warning might attack this idea. I'll welcome all arguments, but please do not argue solely from resistance to change. Regards,  You Can '  t See Me!  04:27, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * While this might be going a bit too far, I wouldn't mind seeing Wikipedia's disclaimers displayed a little more prominently. Perhaps a link to the disclaimers page near the top of the Main Page? Axem Titanium 04:35, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I like this idea a lot, actually. --Masamage ♫ 04:41, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * The point of the spoiler warning is not just to tell people there are spoilers, but to tell them that while still letting them read as much of the article as possible. Otherwise we could put a single spoiler warning on all of Wikipedia saying "Wikipedia contains spoilers", which some people are suggesting, but which defies the purpose of spoiler warnings.


 * A spoiler warning shouldn't go at the very top of the article unless the spoilers actually are near the top. The Crying Game, therefore, might need a spoiler warning at the top, since it's hard to meaningfully discuss it without giving the spoiler immediately; however, if an episode of a TV series has a surprise death near the end, and the spoiler is only mentioned in the plot section, the spoiler warning should be given further down--either just before the plot section, or even inside the plot section and just before the end.


 * I'm a little bit fearful that making spoiler warnings less useful by always putting them at the top can be one step towards removing them entirely--once they're made less useful, it's harder to justify keeping them. Ken Arromdee 14:50, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

I've added this topic to Wikipedia talk:No disclaimer templates‎, for future reference.  You Can '  t See Me!  02:38, 22 May 2007 (UTC)