With the one concession that it is very crass to put a spoiler in the tread title, I have to say that I am getting tired of folks complaining that spoiler tags aren’t being used, or that they weren’t warned, bla bla bla.
Look people, it does not take a genius to figure out that if a thread is about the latest episode of TV show X or about hot movie Y that there will more likely than not be spoilers. Why not just assume that Café Society is full of spoilers?
Now I know that it may cut down on valuable bitching and feelings of being put upon by the cruel forces of the universe, but I do have a little hint for you . Do not read the thread until you have seen the movie/tv show, read the book, played the video-game etc. Once you have seen it, then you can come in and share your priceless bits of wisdom, no doubt putting Roger Ebert to shame with your rapier wit.
Oh, and to save you smart asses time: This rant rates a .05 (or some shit), yes I need decaf and yes, someone pissed in my cheerios today.
I’m with you, Drone. If you don’t want to run the risk of a “spoiler”, don’t read the damn thread.
The one that cracks me up, is where someone complains about “spoilers” in a some classic, like HAMLET (Ohmigod, Hamlet dies at the end, you ruined it for me!) or, more recently, CATCH-22. I mean, come on, a book or movie that’s been around for a long time, there are plenty of reviews and analysis and whatever, what the hell d’ya want?
I don’t necessarily disagree with you, Binarydrone, however, I do think there is another exception that you’ve neglected to mention (and is, IIRC, the only time I’ve pitched a fit about a spoiler inside a thread). There are those occasions when threads about specific episodes of a show are started BEFORE the show airs (in ANY market) and are MEANT as “speculation” threads prior to the show’s start time. This thread (the title was ultimately edited by a moderator) was started at 9:19AM to speculate about that night’s episode of Survivor.
At 10:16AM, nearly 10 hours before the show was to air, some dingleberry posts, “all the spoiler sites are poiting to Deena.”
As I said in that thread, I should be able to read it all the way up until 5:00PM PST (8:00PM EST), which is the first airing of the show across the country. IF I’m stupid enough to wander in there after it’s already aired in New York, but I’m in L.A. and I happen to see the outcome, well, then that’s my own damn fault. But if the show hasn’t even aired yet, it should only be purely speculation! I DON’T expect to see people DRAG SPOILERS IN FROM SPOILER SITES, which I purposefully AVOID at all costs!
That spoiler LITERALLY spoiled that episode for me, as Deena was, in fact, the one voted off!
The moderators of that forum have specifically asked, in a stickied thread right at the top of the board where everyone can plainly see it, that people be considerate with spoilers. I can understand if you think it’s silly, but if those are the rules by which we’ve been asked to play, then I don’t understand the indignance when people merely ask that they be respected and followed.
If there is a thread about a particular book or film or play, that thread is there for people * who have read or seen them* to discuss it. THAT IS WHY THE THREAD IS THERE! Unless the thread titile is something like “I woulder what Moby Dick is about?” then you should KNOW that the thread is for people who already know the end.
I’ve noticed a lot of whining lately too, and I don’t get it. If you don’t want to read about it, then don’t open the thread.
I’ve also seen complaints about the thread titles having spoilers in them, most of which are unwarranted.
As far as old movies/books/tv shows are concerned, I know that there are plenty of people (myself included) who haven’t been around long enough to have seen and read everything. But I know better than to open a thread about what happens in Catcher in the Rye because i haven’t read it.
Well, what about those instances where the poster reveals information about episodes not yet shown for the season? We do have a fair number of posters who enjoy being spoiled, and so, in the pursuit of said spoiling, download scripts for future espisodes weeks or months ahead of time.
I mean, yeah: spoiling an episode that is currently playing is gonna happen in a thread devoted to that episode. But in that same thread, why should I, or others, expect to read information about episodes which have never been aired?
If the thread title says SPOILERS!!1!! then expect that thread to have spoilers in it. No need for 8 inches of big black spoiler boxes in every post. Just let the spoilers rip.
If the thread title doesn’t include SPOILERS, then black boxery should be included before anything suspect is revealed. A sound thrashing shall be delivered to all those breaking this rule.
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See, I get what you are saying, but think that you are being too kind. I suggest that a somewhat bolder approach be taken, namely that people assume that when they go in to café society, that they are going to encounter threads with spoilers. Period.
I know that it has been pointed out that there are legitimate times when someone has a speculation thread, and that at times folks drag spoilers in to them (which is not cool), but really folks take a little responsibility for your own happyness here.
For example: I am avoiding all Matrix threads and Buffy threads like the plague (and did the same with X-Men threads before I saw the movie), I am doing so because it is important to me to not have the surprise spoiled for these things. And you know what? It is really easy!
The other thing I see far more often than I like is spoilers for unrelated stories in a thread.
I’ll be reading with great interest a thread about Perdido Street Station, maybe, and someone will say, “Dude! Those giant sharks COMPLETELY reminded me of the sand-sharks that appeared at the end of Return of the King!”
I, not having read RotK, have assiduously avoided any spoilers about it. But now, this yahoo has managed to spoil it for me anyway.
And the other thing I hate: I’ll open a thread about Buffy, after having seen the night’s episode, and be happily discussing with everyone the night’s episode. Then someone will say, “The worst thing about that sword she finds is that according to spoiler sites, it turns into an electric guitar in the series finale.”
One of my greatest joys in encountering a story is the move from ignorance to knowledge. I even find that some stories spoil themselves: the movie Dark City would have been immeasurably improved if some dumbass didn’t describe the movie’s entire plot in the first five minutes. I interrupt people who start to tell me about a movie I haven’t seen, about a book I’ve not read, because I love going into a story knowing nothing about it. And you can only get that delicious sensation once per story.
So yeah, if it’s a thread marked “Buffy 5/12/03 SPOILERS!” then go ahead and post spoilers about Buffy 5/12/03. But don’t post spoilers about Angel 5/13/03, or about The Lost Boys.
I agree with the OP, and especially with SkipMagic. Using spoilerboxes in a thread with “Spoilers” in the title is not only redundant, it get’s really annoying when people come into the thread later with spoilers for stuff in future episodes, which I then read thinking it’s a “spoiler” for the current episode, and end up getting spoiled. It’s happened to me at least twice in various Buffy threads, and it’s starting to make that vein in my forehead stand out.
Unfortunetly, I appear to have the minority opinion on this subject, at least as relates to Buffy and Angel. There are, apparently, a number of people who like to open those threads and just stare at the big black boxes.
Yes, I really don’t understand why people are getting so irate about spoilers. If I don’t want to be spoiled, I avoid all reviews, previews, and threads on the subject because I know that there will be TMI in there.
However, anyone who puts a spoiler directly in the subject line is a pain in my opinion.
By the way, the guy was really dead during the entire thing, and he only realized it at the end of the film!
Again, though, that’s not always good enough, because of two categories of spoilers:
Spoilers in threads about one story that spoil totally unrelated stories. I shouldn’t expect to find out the killer on the Orient Express in a thread about Watership Down.
Spoilers about future events in a television show that appear in a thread about the most recent episode of the show. If I want to talk about how skanky the blonde guy looked on last night’s episode of American Idol, I should be able to do so without worrying that someone will tell me about Simon’s psychotic episode in the season finale.
If we can avoid these two kinds of spoilers, I’ll be happy.