Guidelines:Spoilers

The spoiler policy of Megami Tensei Wiki defines how spoilery content should be approached and handled.

While certain lengths can be taken to give fair notice of media spoilers, given the encyclopedic nature of wikis and at times complexities over certain spoilers, it must be understood that it is not possible to avoid all spoilers without also hindering the wiki's coverage. Editors and readers need to realize that some pages on the wiki, namely of subjects that are inherently spoilery in nature or whose content cannot be evenly split, will contain unavoidable spoilers. As such, reader discretion is advised.

General

As a general rule of thumb, spoilers should always be avoided in an article's lede (the opening statement at the top of the page) and its infobox. Any spoilers regarding a character, location, demon, and so forth, should be kept to their appropriate Appearances sections with the appropriate spoiler template.

Where possible, the article infobox should preferably only display the subject's least spoilery image; mainly their initial appearance. Spoilery images can be displayed in their appropriate, spoiler-marked Appearances sections or in a gallery, preferably the latter. If an article contains multiple images, the infobox's |seoimage= parameter should be used to encourage search engines to only display the subject's initial appearance; this helps to prevent search engines from potentially displaying a spoilery image at random when previewing the article.

For many content pages, such as character and demon pages, the Gameplay section is always listed above Appearances where applicable. This allows users to readily find a subject's gameplay information, such as their statistics, skills, and other mechanics, without having to shift through potentially spoilery sections below.

Spoiler Templates

Pages covering spoilery content should be marked with the appropriate spoiler templates. For inherently spoilery subjects where spoilers simply cannot be avoided, Template:Spoilers {{Spoilers}} should be placed at the very top of the page in its header space as a general warning to readers.

Other times, only some information about a subject may be considered spoilery; such as a development midway or late into the plot. In which case, the spoilery information should be enclosed between Template:Startspoiler and Template:Endspoiler. These templates help to indicate when a section enters spoiler-heavy information and allows users to scroll right past it by clicking or tapping on "Skip Section". Using these templates will look like:

{{Startspoiler}}
Section or paragraph(s) covering spoilers here.
{{Endspoiler}}

If a page has multiple sections that cover spoilery information, then each template pair must be assigned a number parameter. I.e. {{Startspoiler|1}}{{Endspoiler|1}}.

Soft Redirects

Under some circumstances, a spoilery subject may be split across two or more pages or sections in an effort of curbing spoilers. This is called creating a soft redirect, where instead of redirecting a subject name or term directly to a page that would immediately spoil, a split page is created instead. This mainly applies to characters or demons with multiple, secret identities and sometimes locations that undergo radical changes. For instance, if a character goes by an alternate identity to keep their true identity a secret, that alternate identity would be given its own split page as a soft redirect. This helps to avoid instances of readers accidentally being spoiled while unknowingly searching for a particular subject.

Soft redirects treat split subjects as if they are their own distinct subject, covering only what is pertinent to it. They should not cover anything outside of that scope that would be considered spoilery. Soft redirects must have Template:Softredirect placed at the top of its page or section and provide a link to the main subject page for further, complete reading. This would be formatted as {{Softredirect|subject page name}}. For example: for an alternate identity of a character, the template would link back to the true or main identity.

Unavoidable Spoilers

While great care should be taken to avoid accidental spoilers, at times a subject may be entirely spoilery by its existence or whose spoilers are too complex to adequately split without obfuscating the wiki's coverage. In these cases, a soft redirect may not be enough or even possible. While these subjects are unavoidable spoilers, certain measures can still be taken to alleviate the severity of them. This mainly involves presenting the spoiler "out-of-context" by avoiding key details or explanations in the lede or infobox. Instead, those details should only ever be presented in the appropriate Appearances section. Adding Template:Spoilers will also help give warning of the page's contents.

Plot Summaries

For brevity and to avoid plot spoilers in articles covering video games, anime, manga, and other media, the Synopsis sections should only detail a short summary of the media's beginning and provide a link to the full plot summary page. The Synopsis should detail no more than a basic summary of the media's opening exposition and initial conflict. Plot summary pages are titled as Plot:Media Title so that they do not appear in searches unless specifically searched for. These pages should be linked to using Template:SeePlot at the end of the Synopsis section.

The plot summary pages themselves should have Template:Plot {{Plot}} placed at the very top to give appropriate spoiler warning.

Listing Pages

Lists of characters, locations, and so forth, should preferably only display the initial appearance of that subject. For subjects that are inherently spoilery, File:Spoiler.png should be used as a placeholder image to avoid spoilering on the list page and to give users fair warning before visiting a subject's page. This file should only be used in listing pages and not in the actual articles themselves. If a subject has a soft redirect, it should be included in the listing.