Just using this old thread of mine to test something so I don't clutter up the Board.

If you want to discuss a book and your reply contains a major spoiler, can you conceal the offending text to give people the choice of whether they wish to read it?

Can I see the concealed text? (Oxymoron Alert!)

If members want to do little tests such as these, would it be appropriate to try these in the Dungeon Dimensions?

EDIT: to see if I could change the "Quote" heading text

Freya, I don't understand what you were trying to do/test?

Maybe this could go in the introductions/avatar testing forum? It could be changed from 'avatar testing' to just 'testing'.

Just cementing the view that I'm really quite mad.

On a serious note, if you highlight the area under "Spoiler" in the quote box, you will see the text that I concealed. It was something that I'd seen on another message board and I was thinking that it might come in handy to hide spoilers etc. I just wasn't sure if it would work on this board.

Seems like a good way to treat spoilers to me.

Freya - that is a good trick - I presume it is selecting font colour white, as I have done here:

This bit should only be visible if selected

Which could be a good standard for spoilers - the method we have used in the past with a lot of blank or single special character lines still may be legible when scrolling past - if this system is made known (or maybe a standard text added to the "SPOILER" warning), I think it could work very well! It's rather like invisible ink!

That's it in a nutshell; invisible ink. It's quite simple really but, if it worked, I thought it may come in handy for spoilers, punchlines and the like. You can just about make out the fact that there is text there but perhaps, if it is used, it would be easier to keep it in a quote box?

That's good, I think you may as well have started a thread about it though; either in the introduction/testing area, or in the temple. It's a perfectly valid subject to have it's own thread, and less confusing to future readers of your thread on PMs.

Yes, sorry 'bout that. I wasn't quite sure where to put it. It was only supposed to be a wee test but has kind of developed. Can the thread be split?

I'll give it a go now, never tried it before; should be okay with everyone seeing as it was you that started both halves.

You can still read it if you look at it from the right angle.

Muchas gracias, Señor. A job well done.

Mmmmmmm, possibly. If you stand on one leg and cock your head at a 45° angle while perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door. (That's funny, that is. Laugh, damn you, laugh.)

No, you're right, you can just about make it out. I think that it is slightly more visible in the pale blue message box but if you use a Quote box, it makes it unreadable enough, I think. Also, this gives the reader a target to highlight. You'd have to try pretty hard to make out an entire passage printed in white ink ......and in which case then you obviously don't mind reading a spoiler and would highlight it anyway. .....unless you WANTED a migraine, that is.

Just an idea, anyway.

Hm... In those discussion threads with a SPOILER warning in their title, though, do we still have to go through this procedure? I'm almost through THUD, and if we start a discussion thread, almost every post would need to be blanked out that way otherwise.

If the "invisible ink" is used at all, then I don't think that it's necessary in a thread dedicated to discuss a particular book, no. I'd agree that the whole discussion is going to be a spoiler and is easy to avoid once you see the spoiler text at the top.

I was thinking, personally, of using it for the general threads i.e. mentioning your most loved film or book and explaining your favourite part which may give away a major plotline etc.

EDIT: to expand slightly.

Exactly - a thread about a particular book is naturally a spoiler for that book, but Discworld books tend to include references to previous Discworld books - which is fine if you have read them in order, but many fans have not - this is where localized "invisible ink" becomes useful.

I hadn't thought of that; a good point, Pixel.

So, if you're posting on the discussion thread for, say, Guards! Guards! and want to make reference to a major plot giveaway of another Watch book, the invisible ink could come in useful then.

EDIT: grammar