→Spoiler templates: content of the spoiler guideline is under dispute, not it's existence |
This should not be treated with the occasional exception, and I don't think that anyone has an objection to this being policy. If you do, feel free to revert and discuss. |
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{{policy|[[WP:NDT]]<br/>[[WP:NDA]]}} |
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{{nutshell|Disclaimers should not be used in articles. All articles are covered by the five official disclaimer pages.}} |
{{nutshell|Disclaimers should not be used in articles. All articles are covered by the five official disclaimer pages.}} |
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Revision as of 13:15, 6 August 2007
Rather frequently, someone inserts text into an article or proposes a new disclaimer template - for instance, "This article contains profanity". While the consensus is that these should not be used, the frequent use of these at one time showed a need for a clearer exposition of why they should not be used. When spotted, text is usually removed and templates tend to be speedily deleted because they're similar to templates debated and deleted in the past.
What are disclaimers?
For the purpose of this guideline, disclaimers are templates or text inserted into an article that duplicates the information at one of the five official disclaimer pages:
- General disclaimer
- Use Wikipedia at your own risk
- Wikipedia does not give medical advice
- Wikipedia does not give legal opinions
- Wikipedia contains spoilers and content you may find objectionable
Why they should not be used
- Redundant with the Disclaimer link at the end of every page.
- Hard to define which articles should have a disclaimer (it is difficult to define an "adult content" article, for instance, given that it varies dramatically by culture).
- Wikipedia is not censored.
- The lack of the disclaimer on certain pages as opposed to others might open Wikipedia to lawsuits.
- By the time you see them, it's too late — the article has already been loaded.
Why people say they should be used
- People might be upset to see some sort of information on Wikipedia. (For a discussion of this see Wikipedia is not censored above)
- You don't know where they are, and they may disturb you. Once you've seen an offensive image, you can't just pretend you never saw it.
Spoiler notices
In certain circumstances, it may be considered appropriate to use spoiler notices. See the guideline page Wikipedia:Spoiler for details. (The content of that guideline, including the definition of the circumstances when spoiler notices are appropriate, is currently under dispute).
Previous discussions
A small list of previous discussions is at Wikipedia talk:Risk disclaimer#More disclaimer templates.
Some older discussion can be found at Wikipedia talk:Risk disclaimer, or at the templates for deletion archives.