Why use Spoiler Tags on Images?

[DJ-Mika]

I’ve seen here and there when people post an image, whether it be a screenshot or a photo or artwork, that sometimes they'll put it under a spoiler tag first before you can view it.
What’s the reason for this? Is it some kind of thread etiquette?

I haven’t been doing this when I post images and would like to know if this is something I should be doing from now on

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

I believe its because some images can be really large and take up space or be hard to load on certain devices so it just makes the site run smoother!

 

[Mick]

Lots of reasons! Sometimes to let people scroll past things they may not be interested in seeing. Sometimes just for the dramatic reveal . I mainly use spoiler tags for organisation and to make my post shorter though. For example, this makes art threads a lot easier to navigate because you won't have to scroll as much.

 

[Belle T]

Worth a note that your browser still has to load the image, even if it's hidden behind a spoiler. But hiding images behind spoilers makes the actual size of the page much more manageable, in terms of ease of scrolling without constantly having your current position bumped because a new image finally loaded in. Particularly useful for image-heavy threads or when your post contains a lot of them, and especially beneficial to mobile users who may be accessing the forums on older phones, crowded public wifi networks, places with weak cellular signal, or any combination of the three.

It's not a rule, but it is generally just a nice thing to do. I normally don't bother if it's only one or two small images, but if the images I'm posting are larger or are numerous, then I'll typically go ahead and place them in a spoiler tag so people can view them more comfortably.

 

[Croconaw]

I use them because my images always appear huge on my posts. It also makes the page super long when scrolling, so it’s just considerate. I also think it makes posts look neater, too.

 

[Drawdler]

I personally do it on my art thread for a couple of reasons. First, I also write a bit about most of my drawings and the length adds up quick. I think it is just a lot nicer to scroll through the thread with things spoilered. Loading times are part of it too- it doesn’t actually change the speed the page loads for me weirdly but it seems if images are just in spoilers, they load a lot faster than having to load all images on the page together. Finally, sometimes I don’t feel like seeing the old art when I post new art. And maybe someday when I’m more skilled and can “revamp” the thread to look a bit more professional / to reflect a greater skill level, having everything spoilered already will direct people to newer (hopefully better) art, and make the process of updating my thread easier.

I don’t do it outside my thread generally- I don’t think the forum is flowing with unneeded images anywhere. Generally, outside of my art thread, I’m very careful about where I post images and would rather just put extra thought into how many images I post in the first place. In that case, I don’t think spoilering images is too important and I just leave them unspoilered, since unless there’s a huge number of images blending together they look nicer to me that way. If I ever revamp my journal thread (pretty unlikely, I’d love to make one for a new island but only have a single Switch), maybe I’ll put those images in spoilers…

 

[Coach]

I do it as a courtesy on some contest threads to save people having to scroll through big images (especially the extra proof ones)

 

[NebulaNights]

Sometimes the pictures I post are large and I try my best to resize them, so that's one of the reasons I do it. The other is I don't want to spoil others about certain games, but want to talk about the subject.

 

[RemMomori]

Sometimes I would make fan art of a game that might be a bit of a spoiler on what happens later in the game so I put it under the tag so that others would have the choice on if they want to see the spoiler or not.

 

[FraudulentDimetrodon]

Just wanted to add another "courtesy" way of using spoilers is hiding something that some people might not want to see for comfort reasons. Like, say, I want to post a picture of a cool bug that I found, but I know that lots of people may have a phobia of insects, so I might hide it in a spoiler tag with a warning so that people who don't want to see it can just move along.

 

[kayleee]

I’m pretty sure any images you post are visible to people browsing the forum without an account, but if you put it under a spoiler tag you have to be logged in to view it. Idk I could be totally wrong, for some reason I’ve always thought that though

Now im gonna go check and see if it’s true brb

edit: I was wrong