[ToeJam]

Not entirely sure what the restrictions of vBulletin boards are, so throwing this out there to see if the amendment is possible?

Though we have the trigger icon as a stop gap for considering whether to view a thread... its still a little open ended as half the time, we the user won't really know if its likely to trigger us until we've seen the context of a post... plus threads are often multi-layered with lots of information... so whereas, part of it might be trigger material, part of it might not be.

As such, I was wondering if there is a facility for introducing a 'spoiler' function:





This way, members are able to code in a portion of the post that hides what they consider to be the trigger information and from the context of the overall post... those reading can make a judgement call on unhiding the material.

Is just a suggestion and from perhaps my subjective point of view, would give us more control when it comes to interacting with other members.

Thanks for your time

[DocJohn]

Thank you for your suggestion.

It's been suggested before, and I think the question then as it is now is how is this different than a person deciding whether to view the post (with the trigger icon) versus the spoiler material? Also, the spoiler code is a bit more complicated in its use than a simple icon, and I fear most people wouldn't understand when and how to use it to everyone's satisfaction.

DocJohn

[ToeJam]

Thanks for the direct reply DocJohn. Your questions may just be rhetorical… but I’m going to approach them as if they weren’t

It's been suggested before, and I think the question then as it is now is how is this different than a person deciding whether to view the post (with the trigger icon) versus the spoiler material?

Well, as I said in the opening post, it allows for more context. Titles for threads are limited in their power of relaying to the reader on what they are likely to expect in the main body. Some people can be very succinct and yes, in those cases you do get ‘what it says on the tin’ kind of thing. Others are not so succinct.. depends on the person.

Saying that, and I’m hazarding a guess… that is not what you were implying: If somebody is in a fragile position – the trigger icon is there for the purpose of shying them away from ‘all’ posts with said icon.

In that case, yes… the trigger icon is doing its job perfectly as a stand alone guard. On suggesting spoilers, I was thinking more on the lines of members who are somewhere in between. I’ll use myself as context (sorry if this reduces it to subjective… just an easier example)… there have been times that I’ve felt fine going into a thread… but have found that my buttons (triggers) have been pressed on deeper reflection of what is said… had spoilers been in place (and having seen the overall general context), this could have given an extra warning that I was edging dangerously close towards the rabbit hole.

Also, the spoiler code is a bit more complicated in its use than a simple icon, and I fear most people wouldn't understand when and how to use it to everyone's satisfaction.

Could it not just be viewed as an optional aesthetic?