Tardis talk:Spoiler policy

As currently worded, the spoiler policy suggests that we can refer only to stories that have been broadcast or published in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Since US and Australia don't even have a broadcast date for the new series, I suggest we change the policy to "UK, Australia, Canada or the United States" -- unless I'm missing something here. --Josiah Rowe 22:25, 25 Mar 2005 (EST)

On this point can we just clarify what the position is. I am planning on putting all of the info up from Rose (which I thought was brilliant in case anyone is bothered) just want to check no one objects to this. It may not be fair that it isnt being broadcast yet in the US and Austrailia but I still think we should put up entries for these new stories. --Amxitsa 09:14, 27 Mar 2005 (EST)

As far as I'm concerned, once it's aired in the UK it's fair game. Nice work on Rose (TV story), by the way. --Josiah Rowe 17:03, 28 Mar 2005 (EST)

Spoiler policy

It would be a good idea to put the spoiler policy on the front page.

There is a warning, on the front page. "Warning: This wiki contains spoilers. Read at your own risk." --Tangerineduel 17:07, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Online media

What is the spoiler policy with online media (particularly Web of Lies)? The policy says, "not yet officially released in its entirety." While WoL is a whole story, it is being released in segments. Should we consider it to be spoilers until the last segment of the story is released for download? --Lenonn 04:19, September 6, 2011 (UTC)

The policy goes on to give a few examples, including:

• "Next Time" trailers, teaser trailers, or anything similar
• Information from an official website about a future episode

Now, you're basically asking what is meant by the phrase, "not yet officially released in its entirety", and these two points help us answer that question. Information from trailers is forbidden, because they are just bits and pieces of an episode that has not yet been broadcast. Sometimes, as was notoriously true of The Waters of Mars trailers, information was displayed which never actually made it to the episode. Equally, official websites are primarily advertisements. They aren't necessarily giving accurate information about topics, but ones which will entice you to watch whatever they're selling. This series of DW, we've already seen how Steven Moffat has used the official website to deliberately push the lie that the Silence is a species. This helped him wrong foot his audience in Let's Kill Hitler. So basically, we don't trust trailers or online content about series currently in transmission.

As for Web of Lies, well, it's a narrative oddity that the policy doesn't specifically contemplate. It's a multi part story, much in the vein of the old Doctor Who serials — or, if you prefer, The Infinite Quest or Dreamland. I guess there would've been nothing wrong with adding to the Web of Lies page each time a new episode was made available, as long as you stuck to just what was revealed in the most current episode. At this point, though, the story is nearly complete, and there might be some wisdom in waiting for the final instalment before doing a write-up. If you want to get a head start on things, though, I certainly don't think it would offend the spoiler policy to write up the "story so far".

After all, the poilicy isn't saying that you have to wait until an entire series of Doctor Who is over before you can write up individual episodes. It's just saying that you can only write about an episode when it has been fully broadcast by the BBC, and that you must confine yourself to only what's in that week's instalment.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  <span style="">05:26:48 Tue 06 Sep 2011 

Suggest addition

Under the prohibition on actor articles prior to broadcast, suggest specifying "including actors officially confirmed as playing companions" at some point, otherwise you'll have people wondering what we have against Jenna-Louise Coleman. 70.72.215.252^{talk to me} 23:30, July 19, 2012 (UTC)