This is an issue that has been in the back of my mind for awhile, but having just started into a new game with an epic storyline, the conundrum has presented itself anew as I browse the game's thread in G&T:
As you know, we use spoiler tags for a lot of things around here. Collapsing images that would otherwise break the H-scroll, condensing extra detail in a post, or to add amusing pacing to banter (and who doesn't love a spoilered

). But a problem comes up in any thread where actual spoilers may exist:
It's often very difficult to tell from context whether a spoiler tag contains a real spoiler or if it's safe to read.
Might the admins entertain the possibility of adding a [hide] version of the tag or something like it? Would the community appreciate it? Am I just OCD? Obviously, its use wouldn't catch on overnight, but gradually as more people began using it for images and the like, it would make spoiler-laden threads a lot easier to read for people who haven't yet played through / seen / read the story in question.

PSN:RevDrGalactus/NN:RevDrGalactus/
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The fact of the matter is, there's no way to make thousands of users all follow the usage of multiple spoiler forms, so it really comes down to treading carefully in threads on shows/games/movies you are interested in but don't want to know too much about.
It's not a perfect system, but if you're that concerned about ruining part of said movie/game/show/etc, it's usually best to avoid said threads, or at least much past the OP. I've perused such threads pretty successfully over the years, and find that once something is released, I stop checking spoilers all together, or I stop visiting the thread entirely until I can catch up. Sure, it's nice to get that last bit of feedback, but especially on older topics, each of us has to show some responsibility for our own information/lack thereof.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
I think that would be a better solution.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
E: Apparently not.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Other than the person in charge not wanting to do that (I can't remember if Ramius was the forum guy last time it was suggested), but I can't think of a technical reason why it isn't possible. It's already possible with other tags, and it would theoretically not be much more work than allowing spoilers to accept an argument and putting the text into the button element's innerText property (between the start and end tags).
I don't believe that spoilers are a standard part of VB so that would need to be done anyway.
EDIT: Looking through VB's documentation makes implementing it seem trivial. A new spoiler tag would need to be created that's almost identical to the one we have now with "Use {option}" set to true. Then the parts that say "show spoiler" and "hide spoiler" would need to be changed to "show spoiler: {option}" and "hide spoiler: {option}", though the latter could be omitted since you don't really need a description of the spoiler if you've already opened it.
From a usability perspective, that makes vastly more sense. I don't think I was around for the [realspoiler] trial, but the problem with that is one of blurred meaning -- you still don't know if the plain old
Conversely, while [collapse] still wouldn't mean you can click
PSN:RevDrGalactus/NN:RevDrGalactus/Steam
They just never came back because they were on phpBB
A collapse tag, however, avoids false negatives. And as Forar wisely mentions above, you're already treading carefully in spoiler-filled threads, so if you miss a non-spoiler that was in a spoiler tag (false positive), it's more or less to be expected, while getting a false negative (thinking there wouldn't be a spoiler and finding there was one) is considerably less desirable. This way, the tags do become effectively different for someone avoiding spoilers: they are now "might be a spoiler" and "definitley not a spoiler."
PSN:RevDrGalactus/NN:RevDrGalactus/Steam
Every single spoiler tag from phpBB got broken in the transition to vBB. There's still threads on this forum with broken spoilers from then. Only active threads got their spoilers fixed by posters.
If realspoilers are re-implemented, joke use of realspoiler tag would be grounds for infraction. It really is that cut and dry.
edit: and it's common sense to stay the hell out of a thread discussing a movie or game if you don't want to get spoiled anyway.