For Wikipedia guidelines regarding non-spoiler warnings, see Wikipedia:No disclaimer templates (WP:NDT).

A spoiler is a piece of information in an article about a narrative work (such as a book, feature film, television show or video game) that reveals plot events or twists.

Spoilers on the Internet are sometimes preceded by a spoiler warning.^[1] However, it is unusual for scholarly reference works (of the sort that Wikipedia aspires to be) to warn for spoilers when discussing fictional works. If they do, they often avoid terms such as "spoiler".^[2] Because of this, spoiler warnings should generally be avoided.

Concerns about spoilers should play no role in decisions about the structure or content of an article, including the article's lead section. When adding a spoiler in the lead section, remember that Wikipedia is written from a real-world perspective; what is exciting in the context of a fictional universe is almost certainly a standard plot device in literary construction.

If a spoiler is added as trivia, and does not contribute to the article in any meaningful way, that information can be removed. However, the rationale is that the information was removed not because it was a spoiler, but because it was trivial or unnecessary.

• Spoiler warnings must not interfere with neutral point of view, completeness, encyclopedic tone, or any other element of article quality.
• Spoiler warnings are usually inappropriate in articles discussing classical works of literature, poetry, film, theatre, and other fields. Fairy tales should never have spoiler warnings. In grey areas, editors placing spoiler templates should use the article's talk page to discuss the matter.
• Spoiler warnings should be avoided in articles on non-fictional subjects. If explicit spoilers^[3] are mentioned in non-fiction articles (e.g. articles on authors, real-life locations in which (a) fictional text(s) is set, or literary concepts like climax), consider whether the spoiler improves the encyclopedic quality of the article. It may be better to remove the example.
• Spoiler warnings are usually redundant when used in "Plot", "Synopsis" or (fictional) "History" headings of any sort in articles whose subject is fictional. To insert a spoiler warning in sections of this kind requires a compelling reason. These sections should never have blanket spoiler warnings covering the whole section.
• Spoiler warnings should not be used when they can be replaced by more accurate heading information. If a "Themes" heading starts with a plot description, the best thing to do is break the plot description into a separate heading. If there are no headings, it is usually better to add them.
• Articles about fictional characters, objects, or places can be expected to include significant elements of the story. They should not typically need spoiler warnings.

• Spoiler warnings may be used in articles whose primary subject is fictional, and where the editor proposing them presents compelling reasons for their insertion. Such reasons should demonstrate that the spoiler tag does not diminish article quality, and that knowledge of the spoiler would substantially diminish many readers' or viewers' enjoyment of the work.
• Spoiler warnings may be temporarily added for very new media (TV shows aired in the last three months, movies released in the past six months, or books released in the past year).
• Very rarely, a spoiler warning may appear in the article lead. If this can be justified, the warning should be placed at the top of the article. The presumption should be that the article lead should not need to warn about plot spoilers that are significant enough to appear in the lead.

• Where it is appropriate, a {{Spoiler}} tag can be used to mark spoiler sections, with {{Endspoiler}} to mark the end. Whether one is adding or removing, be sure to do both. Do not make home-made spoiler warnings using plain text.
• Editors should always check a talk page to see the current status of the consensus and, if a discussion exists, one should argue the issue there rather than simply editing the article.

The following methods should never be used in relation to spoilers:

• Deleting relevant and significant, neutral and verifiable information about a narrative work from an article about that work "because it's a spoiler".
• Structuring an article around spoilers or confining them to a particular area of the article (e.g. under ==Plot==) when unnecessary or in a way that decreases article quality.
• Making "spoiler free" parallel versions (content forks) of an article about a fictional work. Since Wikipedia content is available under the GNU Free Documentation License, creating parallel versions outside of Wikipedia is acceptable.
• On Internet forums, a widespread convention is the insertion of blank (or virtually blank) lines before a spoiler (which removes the offending text from the reader's view, until the reader scrolls to the next page). Obviously, this is unacceptable in a general-purpose encyclopedia.
• On Usenet and sometimes elsewhere online, a popular method of concealing spoilers and offensive material is ROT13 encryption. This is unacceptable in a general-purpose encyclopedia.
• Another common method of hiding spoilers from readers is to set the text and background colors to the same color using HTML, then have the reader highlight the now "invisible" text in order to read it. This method is unacceptable both for the reasons above and for reasons of accessibility.