# Can we have a ruling on spoilers? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 9, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997 "2009-02-09T02:54:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/21 "2009-02-09T14:58:34Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Unless you are posting in a thread that has “Open spoilers” in the title, the fairest thing to do is to box those so people can avoid them if they want to. Well, of course, but I’m asking about threads that DO say “open spoilers” in the title. I realize the particular thread that spawned this one dd not have such a warning, but that most of those episode discussion threads do, and even that thread had not been spoilering anything about the episode. If a thread has an “open spoiler” warning in the title, shouldn’t that cover commercials as well? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/22 "2009-02-09T15:07:31Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > They can also stay out of an openly spoilered discussion thread of a TV episode when promos for next wek are aired as part of he episode. After all, it’s reasonable to expect that if somebody watched the episode, they saw the commercials aired during that episode. Except, there are plenty who don’t think “Next time on…” previews are “part of the episode” and that appears to be the official ruling as well. Especially since those commercials don’t air until after the entire episode is over. You have your opinion, the mods have another. You can’t win 'em all Dio, but I admire you for trying. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/23 "2009-02-09T15:17:44Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > If a thread has an “open spoiler” warning in the title, shouldn’t that cover commercials as well? No. Commercials are not part of the show. Thanks for the clarification, mods. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/24 "2009-02-09T15:25:51Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Except, there are plenty who don’t think “Next time on…” previews are “part of the episode” and that appears to be the official ruling as well. Especially since those commercials don’t air until after the entire episode is over. > > You have your opinion, the mods have another. You can’t win 'em all Dio, but I admire you for trying. I don’t think we’ve got an official ruling on threads that have spoiler warnings in the title. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/25 "2009-02-09T15:27:04Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > No. Commercials are not part of the show. Of course they are. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/26 "2009-02-09T15:29:33Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I don’t think we’ve got an official ruling on threads that have spoiler warnings in the title. Sure we did. The spoiler warning applies to that episode only. Not the previews for an unaired episode. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/27 "2009-02-09T15:40:06Z")
I missed that in CK’s post. What if I put a warning in the thread title that promo discussions won’t be boxed? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/28 "2009-02-09T15:44:03Z")
If it’s your own thread I think you can make your own rules. That would probably help a lot: **John Mace** set up very clear rules in his _Lost_ threads, for example. If the rules are laid out in the OP there’s not much chance of a misunderstanding and people reading spoilers they were trying to avoid, which is the big problem. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/29 "2009-02-09T15:55:33Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Of course they are. Of course they aren’t. Your move, sir. Anyway, I think that including your personal spoiler policy preference in the thread title or OP is a swell idea. Speaking as someone who generally likes to avoid spoilers (as I said in The Office thread, I don’t really care about episode promos as spoilers, but I hate getting spoilered for movies), I’m more than happy to avoid threads that are going to contain spoilers in them. But I don’t consider a promo for next week to be part of the episode, I am obviously not alone in this opinion, and I wouldn’t and don’t expect a discussion of bits from next week’s episode to be in this week’s episode thread. If the title or OP specifically said “Unspoilered promos,” then I’d know and could avoid the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Erasmus\_Darwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@Erasmus\_Darwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erasmus_Darwin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/30 "2009-02-09T17:42:09Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > If it’s your own thread I think you can make your own rules. That would probably help a lot: **John Mace** set up very clear rules in his _Lost_ threads, for example. I could see this leading to two threads for every show: one with the preview discussion spoilerized and one with it posted openly. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/31 "2009-02-09T17:48:54Z")
> [@Erasmus\_Darwin](#): > > I could see this leading to two threads for every show: one with the preview discussion spoilerized and one with it posted openly. That was proposed in the Office thread that lead to this argument. Two threads on every show seems ridiculous, but as long as people are clear on what’s going to be in the thread and pay attention, I think everybody would be happy. But I’d like to hear more from **Dex** , since he’s in Cafe Society full-time and I’m not. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/32 "2009-02-09T18:04:23Z")
just start a new thread (in advance) for the next episode to talk about previews. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/33 "2009-02-09T18:06:50Z")
That seems reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/34 "2009-02-09T20:01:42Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > After all, it’s reasonable to expect that if somebody watched the episode, they saw the commercials aired during that episode. There’s the rub – we live in the age of time-shifting, and this is no longer a reasonable expectation. Certainly not everyone time-shifts, but there are a significant number of people who do. I won’t say I _never_ see commercials, but it’s an exceptional rarity. Every show we watch on a regular basis is watched via DVR. Hell, I even start watching football games an hour late – I get an extra hour of stuff done in my day, and I catch up with the live broadcast at some point in the 4th quarter by fast forwarding through commercials. A discussion of _The Closer_ a few weeks ago mentioned that there was a promo for the episode they were currently airing – that was shown in the middle of the episode – in which they revealed the killer. No thanks, I’m much happier not knowing. I’m never going to “demand” that people spoiler promos. If someone wants to do it, then it’s much appreciated. Hell, if they want to start the post with a quick warning, that’s fine – I can skip it like I would a commercial. If they refuse to, well, ok – it’s disappointing that a simple courtesy can’t be observed, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. And FTR, I’d prefer there be open spoilers splashed over every post than have two threads. It just doesn’t seem like that big a deal to warrant that kind of solution. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/35 "2009-02-09T20:22:35Z")
Will we need a two-click rule for links that may spoil? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/36 "2009-02-09T20:30:38Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > just start a new thread (in advance) for the next episode to talk about previews. > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > That seems reasonable. This does sound like a great solution. A week ahead might have a few problem, but as it would make others happier it seems well worth it. > [@Liberal](#): > > Will we need a two-click rule for links that may spoil? Good question. Maybe a warning like those many of us include if the link is a video or pdf file. Would a quick note of “ **possible spoiler** ” be appropriate? I’ve seen something similar in several Doctor Who threads I think. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/37 "2009-02-09T20:33:22Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Will we need a two-click rule for links that may spoil? What purpose would that serve? If you’re linking to a potential spoiler, just put a warning with the link. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/38 "2009-02-09T20:35:00Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > just start a new thread (in advance) for the next episode to talk about previews. Perfect solution. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/39 "2009-02-09T20:39:45Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > just start a new thread (in advance) for the next episode to talk about previews. As a Cafe Society mod, this is what I’d prefer to see. I don’t think we need two threads on every show just to avoid discussions about previews. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997/40 "2009-02-09T20:41:25Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > just start a new thread (in advance) for the next episode to talk about previews. My reading comprehension failed on this one the first time around – I didn’t comment on it, thinking it a silly idea. However, I misread. What you’re saying is to start the thread for the, say, 2/21 episode of whatever show right after the 2/14 episode airs. Sure, why not? The thread is going to be started sooner or later anyway – folks who don’t care about preview spoilage can read it right then, and folks like me can read it after the show airs. Me likey. The only potential downside I see right now is there is a good chance the early thread won’t sustain itself for the whole week, and a new thread might be started when the show airs if someone isn’t aware of the existing thread. Of course, we could always just make a request to the mods to combine the threads. Not like those lazy slackers have anything better to do anyway. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-a-ruling-on-spoilers/484997.md?page=3)