3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128
481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381

Pi with 198 decimal places. I think we need 200 characters (so Pi with 198 decimal places) as buffer for spoilers not to show on the Active Topics page.

malu

3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196

If broken down in smaller pieces, less "words" are needed, since the spaces also count... carriage returns don't count, though.

malu

Pi has never been so useful. Good idea. I only remember the first 8 numbers.
cute
Artemis

PI can be a good filler but you always have to look up so much of it.

Back in the dark ages of the early 70s I decided that it would be fun to see how much of PI I could memorize. I got to this:
3.14169265358979323846264338327950288
I've had those digits stuck in my head ever since. I think quoting Star Trek and memorizing PI were the great nerd identifiers of that era. What a waste of memory space!

Bob

Here's an idea: define a "spoiler string" of about 200 characters that is distinctive enough such that, when seen, people will automatically know it's spoiler space filler.

It doesn't have to be Pi. I just like the number (yes, I'm weird) and thought that if a bunch of numbers is seen at the Active Topics page, it would be more easily recognized than words. It could be a list of 20 sets of 10 numbers, such as 10 0's, 10 1's, 10 2's, etc.

I'm wondering how hard it would be to define a new button that automatically inserts spoiler space text, just like when clicking on a graemlin inserts the image...

malu

Here's what would have to be added to the source, as with a graemlin (after creating a "spoiler.gif" image):

malu

Seems the CODE UBB tag screws up the Active Topics page (at least in Firefox). Interesting.

malu

If a button creating spoiler space could be added to the board, wouldn't it make more sense to create a button which produces a real spoiler prevention ('setting same text color and background color' or 'creating a box whose contents are only displayed after one clicks on the warning' seem to be the two most common spoiler prevention systems in use).

With just spoiler space you'd also need spoiler space after the spoiler and some people are fast enough readers, that they inadvertently even read the spoiler while scrolling past it.

To be honest, there's never been enough spoilers posted on this forum to warrant the time and effort required to produce something to blank out spoiler text in a post. We're a fandom for a cancelled show, so we're not prone to seeing lots of spoilers in what's posted here as a fandom for say, Smallville or V, which is currently on air, will do.

The issue of the first lines of a post showing up in the Active Topics section is a different issue though. Clearly, if the odd thread which contains spoilers for active shows is labelled 'spoilers' in its header, people can avoid the spoilers if they wish, simply by not opening the thread.

That's impossible to do if they use the AT section regularly and the spoilers are there and unavoidable.

I'm not tech-minded enough to say if there's a technical way to avoid that, but I'll email Annette and direct her attention to this thread and see if she thinks there's something that can be done to get around that problem.

LabRat

I never bothered to memorize more than 3.14 for pi, but here's a real "nerd question" for you. Does anyone know how to convert the ASCII code for s-p-o-i-l-e-r-s to hexadecimal or binary? (And no, I don't--it's been over 30 years since I took a class in assembler programming and had to use hex.)

I went on Google and answered my own question. So my own particular spoiler string follows:

01110000 01101111 01101001 01101100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101100 01100101 01110010 01110011

@cookiesmom: use this Text to Binary Translator . Just type something in the Text Box, hit Encode right under it, and what you typed is translated to Binary and several other codes. Maybe you'll just wanna type the whole Spoiler post in code, and leave the link for interested people to decode what you said. No fillers needed.

01110011 01110111 01100101 01100101 01110100 00101100 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101000 00111111

I like that idea!

01010110 01100101 01110010 01111001 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01110010 01100101 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 00111010 00101001

Copy and paste to deocde.

malu

@cookiesmom: 01110111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100001

@malu: 01101001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01110010 01100101 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101100 00100000 01101001 01110011 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00111111

Decode here.

41.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

Do you mean to say that it is almost, but not quite, the ultimate answer?

Joy,
Lynn

@Lynn: I think I'mma go side with Labrat then that it's almost impossible to Spoil people here because our favorite show's been gone for a decade and a half.

Hi Sayo,

That works for me. I have no preferences. The rare time I post something that might be a spoiler, I'll just include some filler text I generate on my own. My reply to Marcus was actually an allusion to Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," in which 42 is claimed to be the ultimate answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything. I suspect that he was alluding to that book/radio programme/TV programme/movie in his post.

Joy,
Lynn

@Lynn: ooh! i saw the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" movie on Blueray a couple months back. ^_^ It's great.

As for space-fillers and spoilers, well, i suppose each of us will just think up ways when we get to such a point.

Okay, all you 'mathy' people, what do all those 0's and 1's mean? And here I thought I was pretty good in math. I once started to join the army and got the highest math score they'd ever had in that particular office. Hummppphhh... I agree, 42 it is.

@Classicalla: It's binary code. ^_^ You can translate whatever into binary and decode it later. We were trying to come up with a way to keep spoilers from people. So far binary code seems to do the trick. Then again, it's really hard to Spoil on a 15-year-old show. It's like trying to do a polygraph test on the ring-tailed lemur! ^_~

That may be true, but one could easily spoil fanfic. If I were to mentioned, for example, that I hated it when Clark died in So-and-so's story X, and if Clark's death were part of the story's climax; well, neither So-and-so nor their prospective readers would be too happy about my giving the ending away.

One of the the reasons I really like LnC is the brilliant writing and humour; this is a perfect example.

Joy,
Lynn

@Lynn: and the banter and sarcasm ever present between Lois and Clark in S1-S2. Why they couldn't have just dragged the dating on and on and on till today I don't understand. lol. I love the tingling sensation down my spine when they had their WAFFy moments after a good argument like in The Phoenix and in Top Copy. I LIVED for such moments. lol.

And yeah, now I understand about spoiling fan fic.

To anyone who cares, read Irene Dutch! WOOT!!! It's how Lois & Clark would probably be today if it'd lasted this long.

That, or the equipment is faulty.

@Marcus: That also happens to me when I fall asleep on the keyboard.

Actually, the need for a spoiler was regarding the ending of Season 9 of "Smallville" which some people had not seen yet. Yes, spoilers relevant to LnC aren't really necessary, except for those of us with faulty memories!

Artemis
AND AS AN AFTERTHOUGHT:
01000001 01001110 01000100 01010010 01001111 01001001 01000100 01010011 00100000 01010011 01010000 01000101 01000001 01001011 00100000 01001111 01000110 00100000 01000101 01001100 01000101 01000011 01010100 01010010 01001001 01000011 00100000 01010011 01001000 01000101 01000101 01010000
OR IN BASE 64
QU5EUk9JRFMgU1BFQUsgT0YgRUxFQ1RSSUMgU0hFRV