A Brief Reminder about Spoilers

[stokeriño]

This isn't a whole big "laying down the law" or "RAWR I have mod powers, AVERT YOUR EYES WHEN YOU'RE COWERING" post. I just thought it'd be handy to have a outline of How To Deal With Spoilers in writing, since that's pretty much the only issue that comes up in this forum anyway.

Alrighty then:

Discussing an on-going TV series or recently-released film

Whether you want to join other LOST fans in going "OMG WTF", or if you want to find comrades with whom you can slag off a new movie like Jumper, the thread in question should have 'Spoilers' included in its title somewhere. Thereby people can have free discussion inside while those who don't want to know can steer clear.

It doesn't have to be ultra massive like *****SPOILERS*****, because that's just silly. And besides, a lot of the threads will have it. Provided that it is in the thread title (lest someone click in from the main page where they can't see the sub-title), all's cool. Something as subdued as "Lost Season 4 (spoilers)" will suffice.

Leaks and other future spoilers

If within any thread, even those with (spoilers) in the title, you want to post leaked details of future developments, rumours and the like (essentially, stuff you're not supposed to know yet), place them inside spoiler brackets. Also, for the sake of protecting the curious, include something outside the brackets to give a vague idea what the spoiler's about. For example:

Plot spoiler:

It has been confirmed that there are going to be aliens in the next series. With tentacles and shit. Bottom of the barrel, huh?

or maybe:

Spoiler regarding rumoured scene for the movie:

They're saying on RuiningYourFunEarlySince1997.net that Christian Bale totally struts around full-frontal and shit in the next Batman movie. Someone get Katsuya in here, stat.

...Okay, maybe scratch that second one.

Because really, a spoilers bracket without a label is like a box with question marks painted all over it and the words "OPEN ME" on the top. Who can resist that?

But I'm in a different time zone/it won't air here till October/damn those smug US bastards/etc.

Put it this way: You know that the new season of your favourite show (LOST, House, whatever) is currently airing in the US, and there's a big juicy-looking thread where all the lucky American people are talking about it. Hell, there was probably a brand new episode either last night or the one before, which is why it's at the top of the front page right now with loads of new posts. Teasing you. Enticing you. Luring you with its loveliness. It has "spoilers" in the title. You know what will happen if you go in there. IF YOU DON'T WANT IT RUINED, DON'T DO IT!!

And more importantly, when you do succumb and feel bad about it afterwards, don't complain about the thread. It's not the thread's fault. The thread gave you due warning. The thread is innocent, man.

Alternatively, if the show is just starting to air in your country and there's already a big discussion thread about it from months back, the best thing to do would be to ignore it and start a new thread, e.g. 'Lost Season 4 - UK thread (spoilers)' so that you and your fellows can have your own little table at the party as well.

Discussing films before they're released

A good example of this is the thread about 'Batman: The Dark Knight', which has been going for a fair while. Most of the stuff that'll be posted will be fair game (e.g. links to trailers, news releases about who's being cast, etc.) and to that extent it is not necessary to put 'spoilers' in the thread title.

However, spoiler tags MUST be used if you feel that you may be disclosing something in advance about the plot. I am aware this can be interpreted in various ways so, when in doubt, play it safe and put it in tags.

When the film does get released, make a new thread. We don't want "Well I saw an advance preview last night and..." then a zillion spoiler tags follow from thread page 13 through to page 18. Just call it 'The Dark Knight' (spoilers) and have 'film discussion within' in the sub-title, or something like that. Maybe the old thread can be closed to avoid confusion if it seems appropriate. We'll do what seems sensible at the time.

That'll suffice for the moment, I think. I'll leave the thread open so that people can ask about particular circumstances or grey areas if they crop up. Hopefully it should all work fine.

Edited June 26, 2010 by stokeriño

[Guest RINGMASTER]

Thank you stokerino, you have made life worth living again. I had the blade to my wrist but then hit refresh and saw this! ({)

[stokeriño]

Shit. I should have left it five minutes more.

[Katsuya]

Totally would die, FYI >_>

[Scott McFly]

Sounds good, but shouldn't "(spoilers)" be at the start of the topic title rather than the end as in "Lost Season 4 (spoilers)"? As you say, it's for people clicking from the front page, but if it's at the end then people might not see it if the title's too long. For example in "How To Look Good Naked Season 2 (spoilers)", the spoilers bit would be chopped off from the front page. And yes, that was the first long title that came to mind. >_>

[stokeriño]

But then, every thread from the front page would appear as "(Spoilers)" and then only a little bit of the rest of it from which to distinguish the show title, so people will have to read the name in full. And if they'll have to read the name in full anyway, they may as well put (spoilers) at the end. You see the type of cyclical reasoning I'm working with here. >_>

Plus, it'd be ugly as hell.

Edited March 5, 2008 by stokeriño

[Farmer Reil]

If you hover over a cut-off thread title on the main page, you get a tooltip showing the full thread title anyway. At least, you do in Firefox. So there

[TGC]

You do in IE as well.

[PkmnTrainerJ]

That second spoiler bit was the way I decided to change to in the Lost thread before reading this.

[Guest twisted_time48]

How do you make spoiler tags?

Wait. Found it.

Edited July 6, 2011 by twisted_time48