How can I post a Spoiler?

[Carol the Dabbler]

With Series 3 fast approaching, a lot of people are asking how to post spoilers.  First of all, please bear a few things in mind:
 
1.  Please do NOT include a spoiler in the title of a new thread, because this will go out on the forum's newsfeed.
 
2.  Please do NOT include a spoiler in the first line or two of the first post on a new thread, for the same reason.
 
3.  If it's a HUGE spoiler (e.g., the big surprise at the end of an unaired episode), then please don't post it at all.
 
With that in mind, then, you can hide any portion of your post (including text, pictures, whatever) inside a spoiler box, so no one will see it unless they choose to click the "Show" button -- like this:
 

Now you see it!     

 
I'll write the directions assuming that you've already typed everything that belongs inside the box, but you can also edit inside the box later if you like.
 
There are two ways you can create the spoiler box.  First, here's the "automatic" way:

• Highlight whatever you want to enclose in the box.
• Click the Special BBCode icon (the little box with a line through it) at the top of the edit box.
• Select Spoiler.
• Click OK.

Or alternatively, the do-it-yourself method (which I actually find easier) -- just type the BBCode yourself, like this:
 

[spoiler]  Whatever you want to hide inside the spoiler box  [/spoiler]

 
 
 Added:
To make it even easier to create a spoiler box, Tim has added a Spoiler icon to the editor toolbar (second row -- the red triangle with the "!" inside it).  So we now have a third method:

• Highlight whatever you want to enclose in the box.
• Click the Spoiler icon.
• Click OK.

[besleybean]

Can we not more simply have a 'spoiler thread'?  

Other forums have this facility.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Actually, we have an entire Spoiler sub-forum.  However, items posted there can still show up in searches, etc., so as I understand it, it's considered polite to use a spoiler box, especially for anything major.  I know it's arbitrary.  I don't fully understand it myself.  Just use your best judgement, that's all anyone can ask.

 

Sometimes people will also use a spoiler box for a dramatic reveal.

 

Once Series 3 premieres, we will have a Series 3 sub-forum for open discussion of those episodes.  I can't imagine that anyone will be using spoiler boxes in there -- unless they have advance word of the Series 4 plots!

 

[T.o.b.y]

I'm happy to put anything in a spoiler box, it just seems like assigning undue importance to my blabber...

[Carol the Dabbler]

If you're posting in the "Spoilers, Rumours & Speculation" sub-forum, and if what you're posting is basically your own speculation, then you really don't need to use the box.

 

I realize the boundary can be a little hazy.  Just do the best you can, though, and soon enough we'll be past the current flood of spoilers, into the dry season between Series 3 and 4.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

To make it even easier to create a spoiler box, Tim has added a Spoiler icon to the editor toolbar (second row -- the red triangle with the "!" inside it).  So we now have a third method:

1. Highlight whatever you want to enclose in the box.
2. Click the Spoiler icon (red triangle) in the Editor toolbar.
3. Click OK.

 

[Inge l-w]

Dear Carol, thank you once again for your informative, patient reply. My problem is that neither my iPad nor my MacBook show the "damned elusive" red spoiler bar, so I cannot click on thin air, sorry.

[Caya]

In this case, just start the spoilery goodness with (spoiler] and end it with (/spoiler], only make both brackets of the [ ] variety - I put the first one in wrong on purpose or it wouldn't show up but instead, you guessed it, begin and end a spoiler window. No elusive triangles needed, just plain BBCode.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Right -- the second method mentioned in the initial post on this thread:

[spoiler] Whatever you want to hide [/spoiler]

Note to Martina: I used the "code" BBCode to make that gray box. That way, the actual code can be displayed, with no risk of it turning into a spoiler box.