Several of my players also peruse this resource.
How can I ensure that questions I ask here regarding plot-specific campaign details don’t spoil things for those players?
Several of my players also peruse this resource.
How can I ensure that questions I ask here regarding plot-specific campaign details don’t spoil things for those players?
What I suggest, and which mirrors practice on the (possibly quite non-representative) slice of discussion fora I have participated in over the years is:
Clearly label sensitive information. In other fora, this often involves linking your username to some real world information-- I'm thinking of old timey mailing lists, or fora where people just sign with their real world e-mail addresses. This is clearly not the norm here, and while it does not violate any policy I know of to (say) put a website or an e-mail in your user profile, I am very carefully not suggesting this as a policy or requirement here. I am simply noting it as an issue to work through with the actual policy suggestion being, "Do your best to provide enough information to help your players honor your request."
Use spoiler cuts to protect sensitive information. Spoiler cuts are similar in syntax to blockquotes, but with an extra ! symbol. I will put an example of both below, so people can see what they look like.
> This is blockquote syntax
>! This is spoiler cut syntax
Answers should respect and honor spoiler requests, and use spoiler cuts as necessary to preserve that. Comments should be phrased carefully, as spoiler cuts do not work there.
Understand that there is no guarantee. You pays your money, you takes your chances-- there is no way of actually preventing your players from reading anything on this site. There is a real tension between the policy suggestion that you, in a sense, advertise your campaign in order to protect it, vs the insatiable curiosity and competitiveness of some players.
An example of something I would write in another forum (yes, I actually name my games) would be something like:
(example of blockquote)
This post is about Star Wars: 500 Years Later, an Everway PBEM I am planning to run in the near future. My players should please avoid this question and its answers. Xerxes, this means you....
(example of spoiler cut)
So anyway, I've re-mapped Everway's four-element model from Fire, Earth, Air, and Water to (mostly respectively) Body, Machine, Mind, and Spirit/Soul, but I'm having this problem....
I welcome comments on the first point especially, since I think it is the biggest issue we'll have, due to norms clash with other environments.
Tell them that you are asking these sorts of questions and ask them to avoid looking at those while enjoying the site.
Also, follow @Novak’s advice in case the players trip over it without looking for it. As for point 1 of that answer, just tell them your username.
Ultimately, if they want to spoil their dinner, you’re not their mother.
It depends mainly on one question: If your players detect a potential spoiler, do you think they will stop reading? If yes, then Novak's answer is the way to go. Maybe even tell your players your username. Definitely talk with the players about your worries.
On the contrary, if you think your players might spoil themselves after seeing "spoiler warning signs", a different strategy is beneficial. I want to emphasize, that this paragraph does not assume maleficent players. Players might read a spoiler because they can't resist the temptation or might just forget about your warnings.
Anyway, the suggested strategy is:
To obscure your question, you can change something (e.g. place of scenes), which is irrelevant to your plot. Even a simple change, such as a short statement like "I'm playing a campaign with 3 players for 2 years" where both numbers are wrong, can work as obscuring. But don't make changes that reduce the question quality; as pointed out by SirTechSpec details that are relevant to the question should be correct, and adding details that are irrelevant to the question but falsified might cause confusion about exactly what your problem is.
Additionally, you can make sure to use a username that is unknown to your players.
Lastly, if the question is about official book material, players anyway have the potential to spoil themselves, if they want to.
In the end, either be as open as possible or as secretive as possible.