SPOILER tags - how to do them

[Bionic Jean]

In any mystery group, it's pretty important to know how to use the Goodreads "spoiler tag" feature, if you want to get the most out of a discussion. If you click the top right of the reply box, (some html is ok) it does tell you, But it's at the bottom of the list, and it's not really very clear, as it's a bit too brief. So I've broken it right down and written a step-by-step guide here:

SPOILER TAGS:

When you're discussing books and you don't want to reveal something to a reader who's not quite got to that bit, or in a review you're writing, how do you conceal certain facts? You use "spoiler tags". This is an example of what you do:

Take the sentence "The butler did it." Silly example, but it'll do! I want to hide the words "The butler."

1. Type exactly this:

< spoiler >

in the comments box, but do not include any spaces.

2. Then type exactly this:

The butler

3. Then type

< / spoiler >

again with no spaces.

4. Then type

did it.

To test whether you've done it correctly, before you post:

Click (preview) in tiny letters at the bottom left of the comments box, just to the right of where you click post. Now you will see that all that shows is the words you want, until you click on the word "spoiler". So whenever you want to hide anything, you just enclose what you want, hidden between the two spoiler codes as shown.

Now we have:

(view spoiler)[The butler (hide spoiler)] did it.

It's a great way to make sure we can talk about plots without having lots of separate threads if you're on chapter 28 say, and I'm only on chapter 4! And it means our reviews can be uninhibited too.

This was the first thing I learnt in Goodreads, and still think it's probably still the most useful quick trick. Sorry if it's obvious to most!