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Zurich15306 Posts
Zatic's Strat Forum Rant #36
Introduction
+ Show Spoiler +I really love how many guides we have in this forum. Just try the search box, search for "[G] XvX" where XvX is the matchup you are interested in, and you surely will find something worth reading. Great.
Essence of the rant
+ Show Spoiler +What drives me insane though is the trend to put EVERYTHING you write in spoilers. I really don't understand how this started or why someone would think that is a good idea. I mean all you are doing is forcing your readers to click 10 additional times while reading your guide. It's just incredible annoying and serves no purpose at all.
Possible exceptions
+ Show Spoiler +That is not to say there is no point in using spoilers generally. For example I could imagine a guide where there is a rare deviation from the standard way the guide is played through. This you could put into a spoiler, since reading through the thread top to bottom this might distract from the flow of the guide you are writing, and is only interesting for specific cases and/or people.
Conclusion
+ Show Spoiler +That is just one example where I could imagine spoilers making sense. But please. Don't hide your entire post in 10 different spoiler tags. People click a [G] thread to read a guide, not to click a bunch more. I mean imagine how annoying it would be if everyone started putting every single paragrah they write into spoiler tags. Pretty damn annoying right? Why should strategy forum guides be different?
Final plea
+ Show Spoiler +So please, guide authors: Don't make us unnecessarliy click a bunch of times just to read your thread. Our mouse hand is strained enough from injecting larvae.
Update:
Use this Greasemonkey user script to toggle all spoilers on a page on TL:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=10679670
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+ Show Spoiler +
But seriously I think that after iEchoic did it for his TvT guide everyone just followed suit, glad to see a crackdown on it.
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=D zatic laying down the law
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It does seem annoying the spoiler tags however if you want to find a specific part of the guide you can click on the spoiler tag without having to scroll down and find it. IMHO it just feels more structured, just like how you read a textbook.
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yes it pisses me off too, dont mind spoliers for things that could be counted as not relevant or mayb a "what if part" but generally its annoying, especially if your like me and want to print the guides out to read elsewhere!!!
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Often people don't even use the spoiler tag for tournament spoilers, they just put a message "Spoilers below!" and leave a gap, which seems stupid as it defeats the whole point or having the spoiler function there.
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I completely agree. Those spoiler tags really disrupt the "flow" of the guide imo.
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This annoys me too. I wish there was an "Expand All" for this kind of thing...because having to read every two lines in spoilers is killing me...
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Expand the spoilers from last to first. This way the spoilers won´t move.
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I don't agree at all, I often only want to read certain parts of the guide and I don't like having to scroll through 4 pages of text to find that part. Really, if your posting on TL how many times do you click your mouse a day, how is clicking it 10more times that much work.
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Walls of text are scary and put people off. Having them accessible but not in plain view makes people more likely to read the article, which means more people posting/commenting/improving on it. Like it or not, people work that way.
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I strongly disagree. The spoilers turn what is usually a wall of text (any guide worth reading on the strategy forums) into more manageable chunks. I like to open and close the spoiler tags as I read them so I can navigate the guide more easily and find which components I want. It also lets you do something like have the build order open and then each section open so I can always see the build order and what the writer is talking about.
For someone who does not like the spoiler tags, is it really so disruptive to your user experience to open a guide and open all the spoilers before reading? I'm just curious.
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I lolled.
But honestly, I do believe things like the build order and such do need the spoilers, simply to assure the legibility. Imagine not formatting a [G] post. Our eyes would have quite a bit of difficulty reading it and keeping up. It's not just the "scary" part of reading a wall of text, its the aesthetically pleasing appeal of a nicely structured and formatted text that is essential to fully understanding the post.
Maybe people do abuse the spoilers a lot. It's an interesting rant nonetheless. That being said, I do believe the spoilers have their place simply in formatting the important parts of the text.
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There's another situation where spoiler use is preferred; if your guide is not linear, and is more of a compendium of information.
For example, way back in the beta I made an all-purpose TvZ guide. Note the extensive use of spoilers, because each section is independent.
Nobody would want to read through ALL the terran openings just to read about 1 base hellion/marauder, so they are spoilered for easy reference. In this way the guide acts more like a reference sheet. Need information about build X? Don't have to sift through the entire guide, just browse to build X and expand it.
If your guide is formatted more like an outline, with sections and subsections, then spoilers are good to use.
If you're just using spoilers to turn a wall of text into linear chunks, then don't bother. It's just creates unnecessary clicking.
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General concensus for the first time ive ever seen, it that zatic is outright wrong. Gotta admit, spoiler tags make walls of texts manageable.
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Got to disagree with OP.
Spoilering is a good way to show the structure of your text without resorting to a table of contents.
I am usually discouraged from reading a whole wall of text whereas if I see what I am currently reading, and what is left to read, I tend to find it easier to get through the guide.
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I think the idea started with putting pictures in spoiler-tags and then just rolled along from there.
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Yeah, I have to disagree as well. Obviously it's unnecessary to spoiler up a short post, but for some of the long guides, spoilers can be quite nice.
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EPT
