Forum:Auto-hide plot descriptions

Index → The Panopticon → Auto-hide plot descriptions

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Proposal

A simple one for you today. The Fandom wiki for Bluey uses a similar format for its episode pages with synopsis - then plot - then characters - then behind the scenes etc. But they do something I had not seen before (I try not to browse Fandom but this was an emergency). See here https://blueypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Sleepytime they use this code to automatically hide the detailed plot summary

<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:100%" data-expandtext="Spoilers ahead">

the result looks like this. Click to view the rest of my post:

I suggest that we turn this into a template and use for all our story pages with detailed plot summaries since it allow fans to research a story they haven't watched without being fully spoiled. It would also make pages like Newtons Sleep (novel) much more navigable.

WarDocFan12 ☎ 13:46, 12 June 2024 (UTC)

Discussion

Obviously as the creator of this proposal I vote in favor. WarDocFan12 ☎ 13:46, 12 June 2024 (UTC)

Count me as neutral for now but willing to be convinced. (In practical terms this seems easily feasible by bot if we went forward with it, so there's that.)

It seems slightly problematic to me that "Spoilers ahead" would be using a very different meaning of "spoilers" than we typically use on the Wiki; could we find a better term? Also, would this only be for the full plot synopsis, or also for the shorter "Summary" which might, also, reveal "the ending" in broader terms?

Also, as another meaningless quibble, I think the text should be centred, not skewed to the right. --Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 14:19, 12 June 2024 (UTC)

Bluey wiki only uses it for the full plot summary not the synopsis and I think that is about right. A good synopsis should tease but not spoil the ending. See Heaven Sent (TV story) for a good synopsis for instance. I agree it might be better to find alternative to the word spoiler but others would do a better job of this than me. WarDocFan12 ☎ 14:32, 12 June 2024 (UTC)

No, we decided by policy that for long-form stories we would have short summaries that do include the ending and all major plot beats, just not the scene-by-scene blow-by-blow — in addition to both the "teasing" synopsis and the full plot of breakdown. A lot of pages still don't have them, but they should. --Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 14:45, 12 June 2024 (UTC)

I'm very much against this.

We've had (admittedly an ongoing) issue of not having plots descriptions for some stories, and now this proposal is hiding the work that people have been doing to actually fill in then "to be added" sections?! I kinda think that would be a bit of a kick in the teeth to the people who have been working to fill in stuff we're missing. --Tangerineduel / talk 07:24, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Eh. I don't find it that offensive, personally. Some of my summaries do get quite long. I don't think it's a good idea though. We've been pretty heavily criticized for not having some plot summaries, so hiding ones we do have just seems like it would make the issue worse. I also just... Don't see the point? Aside from length considerations, I mean. If people know they haven't read the work, and know they're trying to avoid spoilers, they're just going to scroll past the plot summary, not reading it. Or use the table of contents to skip it entirely. Najawin ☎ 16:11, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Given that infoboxes already give away twist villains, settings and recurring characters at the top of the page, I don't really see the point in hiding the plot. Jack ☎ 16:32, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Believe it or not, there can be spoilers other than characters and settings. See Heaven Sent (TV story). WarDocFan12 ☎ 13:51, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

I think Tangerineduel has a point. It might also disincentivise actually writing out these plot summaries, as users might feel their work will be skipped over anyway. Couldn't we just have a little box, similar to {{Discontinuity}}, that warns that this section includes detailed plot points and links to the following section, allowing the minority of users who'd want this to skip ahead without seeing said details?

I do struggle to imagine someone reading through Story notes, or Worldbuilding and Continuity, while trying to keep the plot a secret, though. And it's not as if we don't already have a table of contents!
× SOTO (☎/✍/↯) 06:13, 26 November 2024 (UTC)