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There seems to be a policy of the site that the important part of answers should be hidden in spoiler blocks. However, I still see answers that are not hidden in spoiler blocks.

Most of the answers are posted by new users who do not know much about the site, so I try my best to edit them in. Most (or if not, all) of those edits get accepted, however, there are still some reviewers who reject the edit. Those reviewers have more than 2k rep, so they must know about the site well enough. There is also a user who has more than 1k rep as of now and do not hide answers in spoiler blocks.

Most (if not all) of them are edited in by other users. Users with 1k rep must know a lot about the site. So, my question is, are spoiler blocks really compulsory? Or are they only to some answers?

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    $\begingroup$ I say that there's a site policy because when I was starting out here, I saw comments saying there was a site policy. This isn't something that's just according to me. (I do realize that I am a very prolific commenter, so that may be affecting your perceptions) $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Dec 16 '20 at 2:01
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    $\begingroup$ I'm going to be perfectly honest- rep has very little to do with understanding the site. Things that contribute more to someone's knowledge of the site is their contributions (answers) in Meta, how long they've been here, and their rep in comparison to how long they have been here. Users with 1k do not necessarily know a lot about how the site works, and to be perfectly frank, probably don't. $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    Dec 16 '20 at 2:08
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    $\begingroup$ Reputation is based on how much you post, but contributions to the site don't necessarily reflect a full understanding of the site. To fully understand the site, you need to be actively engaged in understanding how the site works, asking questions, and verifications from other, more experienced users. Basically, don't equate reputation to experience. More reputation can mean more experience, but doesn't necessarily always reflect that. $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    Dec 16 '20 at 2:11
  • $\begingroup$ @PrinceNorthLæraðr I do get what you mean, but the user whom I was talking about has been here for 1.5 years now, and he is relatively active on the site, having posted 81 answers $\endgroup$
    – Pilot
    Dec 16 '20 at 2:20
  • $\begingroup$ A user with 81 answers with no spoiler tags doesn't strike me as a user who's familiar with the site :P. $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    Dec 16 '20 at 2:23
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Spoilers are not necessary for answers. As far as I know, there has never been a site policy requiring spoiler-marked answers.

However, it is generally polite to spoiler answers if any of the following are true:

  • The puzzle is short, so the answer will likely appear high up on the page.
  • The answer has multiple parts that someone might want to reveal only some of. (For instance, it could be an answer to a logic puzzle that has many steps; or it could be for a puzzle with many "subpuzzles". It could also be an answer to a riddle or an optimization puzzle; someone stumped might want to know the answer, and then figure out the reasoning themselves.)
  • The puzzle is being posed as a challenge (created by the asker), meant to be solvable even after an answer has been given. (Some people -- myself included -- enjoy doing cryptic crosswords that are shared here, sometimes days or even weeks later. Puzzles that are part of a series may interest people similarly.)

Most answers are spoiler-marked anyway; there's nothing disallowing it, and there are often good reasons to do so. (Ideally, all puzzles posed here should be solvable at any point in time; puzzles that are time-dependent are often not appropriate for the site. So any puzzle posed as a challenge should fit condition 3.)

But it's not strictly required. There's no rule against posting an answer without spoiler tags; you may specifically want an un-spoiler-marked answer, especially if spoiler tags are restricting your formatting for some reason.

In certain formats of question, there's sometimes no good reason to spoiler-tag: for instance, questions asking to identify a certain puzzle, or asking for the solution to a puzzle that not everyone can try (e.g. a mechanical puzzle). So, whenever those come up, I often leave spoiler tags off, and there's no harm in doing so.

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