Fortress of Perpetual Midnight - March 22nd, 2008

Wikipedia is an important source of encyclopedic information for me, as I know no other reasonable resource for information on Japanese topics in general. Sources in English are very unreliable, particularly in the case of popular media, where information is generally based on one to three crude translations, all with parts deliberately changed from the original meaning for various reasons. There are two main problems with it as compared to Wikipedia: that the contributor base appears much smaller, resulting in less information and much less discussion; and that they have very few images, possibly due to more strict enforcement of licensing.

However, I just found something very useful on a page I where I was doing a bit of research: a spoiler hide box. I have always found that part of the fun of series is the thrill of wondering what's going to happen next. That's why I've always been irritated by the fact that, in most cases, almost the entire English article was under the "spoiler warning" tag. The argument has been made that if you haven't already seen/read it, there's no reason to read the article, but that isn't true for me. The fact is, I usually have no idea whether there is any other place for information on a series other than reviews, fan material, and publication data. If people are kind enough to tag the spoiler parts individually, the reader has the option of whether or not he wants to spoil any particular part, and this system just makes it even more convenient.

So, I dropped by the English site to see if they had a tag like this, and I found that they've changed the policy: although there is still a tag, the discussion claims that you are now not even supposed to tell people if there's a spoiler. I find this even more disappointing, not just from a user's point of view, but as a contributor as well. I thought that if my projects reached the status of notability, I'd just rely on the Wikipedia article for the list of background information, as there'd be one anyway, so I could wait for other people to write what they felt was necessary, and I could personally oversee it to correct any mistakes. But if they feel that all spoilers are required to be included without notice, it doesn't fill that need, so there'd have to be one somewhere else with a different policy. That would be a pain in the ass, because I've seen that small wikis have little exposure and less people to edit them, and each one has to write its own set of policies (although cut-and-paste would work for the basis) and get the contributors to learn it in addition to those from other wikis for which they contribute, which may be very similar but differ in a few key points. I suppose we could say, "The rules are the same as Wikipedia, except ____," or something.

Edit (2008.05.03): I forgot that Comic Genesis has its own wiki, and upon closer inspection, it doesn't have that problem, so I don't have to worry about it as long as I use them and they don't change that policy. It also has a built-in rating system.