Spoiler Etiquette Roundtable

[Deset Gled]

Whatever you do, don't click here.

 

[Orius]

Most of the stuff on this page shouldn't be spoilered: It Was His Sled - Television Tropes & Idioms

Yeah, Rosebud was his sled, Soylent Green is made of people, and Vader is Luke's father. Who has a decent grasp of pop culture and doesn't know this stuff?

I think it depends on a combination of how long it's been out, how well known it is, and how much some other idiot has spoiled it for everyone else.

 

[dravot]

I think that worrying about spoilers in a thread discussing a specific episode of a show is rather silly.

If you haven't seen the season finale of Lost, and don't want it spoiled, then why would you look at a thread discussing that specific episode? I think that spoilers are rather implied.

 

[Merkuri]

If I'm posting in a thread where I'm assuming everyone who's reading the thread has already seen the thing about to be spoiled but no one else has given major spoilers yet I usually put a note at the top of the thread saying something like, "I'm assuming everyone reading this far into the thread has seen the episode, so no spoiler blocks below," just in case.

Most other times, though, I use spoiler tags or spoiler blocks. My general rule is that if it's more than a paragraph I use an sblock, but if it's only a few words or a single sentence I use the spoiler tag.

There was one time, though, when I was discussing the first X-Men movie long after it had been out in another thread about other X-Men movies (I think it was discussing a really early-release trailer for most recent Wolverine movie) and I used spoiler blocks just in case, but somebody yelled at me (okay, it wasn't yelling ) saying it wasn't necessary to sblock secrets for a movie that was over five years old. Personally I feel like it doesn't matter how old the movie is, if you're considerate and you think there's a good chance people reading the thread don't know the material you're talking about then use an sblock.

I know I really HATE if I accidentally run across a spoiler for a movie or book I haven't seen/read. I feel like assuming everybody has seen the movie or read the book just after it came out (even if it was a very popular book/movie) is not fair to people who are a little slow to pick up on trends or who don't have the money/time to go out and see every movie as soon as it is released. Some people don't realize they want to see a movie until years later, and it's nice if it hasn't been spoiled for them by that point.

(By the way, for those who just make their text black as a spoiler - don't do that! Use actual spoiler tags. Making the text black does absolutely nothing if somebody is reading the thread using the white skin.)

And speaking of spoilers... very few people I know have had the ending of Fight Club spoiled for them, even if they saw it years and years after it came out. It has been suggested to me that the movie itself has a subliminal message not to give away the ending. "The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club."

 

[LightPhoenix]

Yeah, Rosebud was his sled, Soylent Green is made of people, and Vader is Luke's father. Who has a decent grasp of pop culture and doesn't know this stuff?

I think it depends on a combination of how long it's been out, how well known it is, and how much some other idiot has spoiled it for everyone else.

While I don't agree with the last point, this is my general definition of what is a spoiler or not. Usually if I'm in a situation where I'll be talking about spoilers, I'll have already asked (or already know) someone has seen a given work. Still, I wouldn't have a problem spoiling the end of, say, Shawshank Redemption - it's been out a while, it's a well known movie, and so forth. The end of the new Star Trek, probably not, though in a year I probably wouldn't think twice about it.

I think that worrying about spoilers in a thread discussing a specific episode of a show is rather silly.

If you haven't seen the season finale of Lost, and don't want it spoiled, then why would you look at a thread discussing that specific episode? I think that spoilers are rather implied.

This is a good point as well. The door swings both ways. At some point there's a degree of personal responsibility - you go into the Lost thread and you should expect to be spoiled on the ending of the latest season. Even if there is no spoiler warning, that's only prudent. I specifically avoided the threads on Star Trek until I saw it. Heck, I avoided all the threads on KotS/TL until I got through them.

 

[Mark]

Spoiler Etiquette Roundtable (?)

My guiding principle in any given conversation or message board thread is, "Don't be first."

 

[roguerouge]

Whatever you do, don't click here.

And that's really the temptation of spoilers, isn't it? It's hard NOT to know, when given the opportunity...

 

[Crothian]

One thing that annoys me is when people post the thread to the latest Order of the Stick comic. I go into the thread for the link but have to try not to read anything because people always have some comment in the first post that can ruin it.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

One thing that annoys me is when people post the thread to the latest Order of the Stick comic. I go into the thread for the link but have to try not to read anything because people always have some comment in the first post that can ruin it.

If you keep the link at the top of your favorites and check it every day anyway (like I do) then you don't need the link from the thread. If I see a thread about a new OotS I don't READ the thread, I check my already saved link.

 

[dravot]

One thing that annoys me is when people post the thread to the latest Order of the Stick comic. I go into the thread for the link but have to try not to read anything because people always have some comment in the first post that can ruin it.

Set up an RSS feed for it. Then it'll tell you when there's a new one.